Who Is Martha and How Does Her Garden Grow?

I recently discovered that there were people out there in blog world who had a love of developing old film found at flea markets or inside old cameras. One of my favorites to read is CraftBangBoom. Inspired by her no fear approach to experimenting I ventured into the dark with wild and wonderful chemical concoctions to see what kind of magic I could pull from some of my camera finds.

This Ansco D-6 Cadet I picked up for $10.00 at a local antique mall, had a roll of 116 Verichrome Pan inside. Noticing the larger film would never fit on my Paterson developing reel I set out to the hardware store to see if I could retro-fit.

The Paterson reel has several parts, two halves, a black centre column and a white spring collar. You can sit the collar aside, you won’t be needing it for this job. I purchased a length of clear plastic hose and cut a piece 1 and 1/8th inch long and slid it down inside the larger half of the reel.

After placing the centre column inside the other half of the reel you can now put the two halves together by placing the center column inside your home-made bushing. In the dark I carefully cut a small piece of the film from the roll so I would have it as a guide for setting the distance between the reel halves. Then I rewrapped the film and set it aside for later. In the light I could now set the reel height for the film by simply adjusting the center column depth inside the bushing. The plastic bushing grips really well in fact if it gets stuck it helps to wet it before you try to disassemble the reel.

I developed the roll using a protocol I found at another blog site I love,  FilmFound 
HC-110 A at 58 Degrees for five minutes and Ta-Da!
From the distant past we are introduced to, oh let’s call her Martha, and her lovely flower garden.

Is this her humble home?

No home is complete without a swing for the little ones.

And finally a shot that looks as though it was taken in a store, maybe where the camera was for sale.

Oh Martha ...I wonder, what were your children’s names and who takes care of your garden now?