Thanks k. I had not thought about this book for my grandson not having seen it for many decades. I'm on my way to B&N to get a copy.

Thanks k. I hadn't thought of this book for my grandson not haven't seen it for many decades. I'm on my way to B&N to get a copy.

Oh... My... Gosh. I *just* wrote about that in response to Commander, and didn't see your post... And it got me wondering where to find a copy of it, perhaps for *my* granddaughters... ;) Thank you!!!

I am one of the generation that has watched the technologies it was born with evolve away. Not just one or two generations as those of our forefather saw, but rather 3,4 or even more generations depending on the technology.

One of the special interests of my youth was photography. Having come of age in the late 60's, I saw the photographic process the first time on a high school field trip to a local newspaper. One of the staff photographers showed the class around the darkroom and I and one of my buddies hung back to ask a few questions. The guy turned out the white lights and showed us the magic of watching a B&W print showing up in the tray of developer, Stop and fix. We were both hooked and by the time the next week was over we had combined our allowances to buy a basic darkroom kit and were working to turn our long unused coal room into a darkroom. That began a life long love affair with the magic.

One of the first major changes that shook up the photographic community was that development of color photography for the home processor. Developing color and slide film had been around since the 40's, a spinoff of the war industry, but home color printing was a horrendously expensive process that was far outside the reach of anyone we knew. This giant step was actually a series of steps (as such things really are) but for me the development was punctuated by a term of service in the Navy that saw me serving half way around the world in a world where folks did not like us. ;)

When I returned "Color" was as much a reality to home processing as B&W had been when I left. Not as cheap as B&W, but just about everyone could make color prints.

In college on the GI Bill I was able to take my first of many photo classes which I was not too surprised ignored color. Only grad student were allowed to work in color since it was so expensive. Since I was an Engineering student, I was never allowed where they worked in a private "color only" darkroom.

The next color explosion was actually happening at the same time, however it was so remove from "normal" processing that most everyone in the Art world dismissed Polaroid's as little more that a gimmick or a fad.

In the very late 80's we began to hear of digital cameras. Not as a thing that we could go buy, but as was used by NASA on the Hubble telescope when it launched. It seems somewhat funny in that as much as the Hubble made us aware of Digital cameras, it was these cameras that delayed the launch as the tech went through generation after generation, improving by a order of magnitude in the space of a month or two. NASA finally decided that it would be launched with what they had and this was in no small part of the failure of the opening days of Hubble. It's horrible first images did not help us to accept digital.

Zooming forward to around the turn of the millennia and some of the first phone show up with digital cameras. For the home processor sloshing around in his darkroom, this was interesting but unless they were a prophotog they really could not afford to make "good" digital prints. The optics were good, the CCD technology had come along by leaps and bounds, but the ability to move from image on the screen to a printer with photo quality just was not there.

I built a darkroom in my workshop when we built this home. My shop is a 30x50' detached building that is heated and air conditioned and is used as a photo studio. My darkroom was state of the art and I began a serious pursuit of the craft. I love making B&W prints. But I knew that I could do better. So with the 1990s behind us I opened the new millennia by going back to school as a photo Art major. As I worked though the classes I began to see more and more full color printing AND I watched as it became accepted in the Art community as Art, not just a method that some dabbled in.

In 2005 I graduated with 2 BFA degrees. One was with a emphasis in Photography, the other was in Ceramics. Oddly it seemed I discovered that the thing I loved about photography was the craft of the darkroom. I'm an awesome photog in B&W, but where I'm really good is in the darkroom. For me, that's where the magic has always been. Now it's all but dead. The cost of photo paper and sheet film has made it so expensive that I just can't go out there and make prints for fun anymore.

9 years ago I locked the door on my darkroom as an artist for the last time. The next time it was opened it was to begin the selling of my equipment to make room for my ceramic studio. Clay has an eternal aura about it. It has not changed in centuries.

The older I get the more I enjoy things that don't change. 9 years on and I still love playing in the mud.

I got a book as a young kid - "The way things work". It was a pretty amazing book of 2 color drawings (red and black) on a number of different mechanical and manufactured devices and processes. a generation - no, a decade before, it would have been unthinkable to get such a book - I guess it was part of the gift of growing up in the 1960's. Over the years... I literally wore that book out (first one ever!). I think, perhaps more than anything else, it changed my life, my way of looking at things, and sparked a curiosity that, these 40-something years after getting that book, has never subsuded.

When you stand on a Suspension span, or better, suspend from one of the cables, and *feel* a bridge literally breathe, move, and throb with its own heartbeat, you can't help but understand the soul of those who held that inanimate, let living, being in his soul before its conception... It is, truly, like nothing else. It feels like... Prosperity. Once you've been there, you never forget!

I can run about 95% of my shop offgrid, and the 5% can be done by hand - not as efficiently, but still, it can be done. Plus, we've been running a dual pay system - one in Fiat Kindling Script, one in Ag (or face 90% coin). It works surprisingly well... and in case the unthinkable happens (grins) it is sustainable!

Curious...did you work for "Magma" or "Newmont"? depending on the ownership transition date...early 70's.