Pinhole
Copyright© 2022 by Fanlon
Chapter 4
After the Huskers’ win in Washington, they jumped up four spots to the #3 in the country. Saturday, K-State came to Lincoln ranked #17 and it was supposed to be a good game. Mom, Dad, and I all showed up early and tailgated with Dad’s friends like we did for every home game, even when we didn’t get to go in to watch it. Tailgating was fun, and the food was amazing. The game was a blast, and the Huskers trounced the Wildcats 56-26. That was more like it! The entire crowd was on its feet from kickoff until the final whistle and the game clock displayed 00:00.
Monday at lunch I couldn’t wait to talk to Adam about Saturday’s game. Not that the game was more important or interesting than finally developing the pictures we had taken. There was nothing keeping us from doing both though. When I got to Mr. Watts classroom early, as was now normal, I found Adam already there in his seat.
“Hey,” Adam said when he saw me enter the room.
“You ready for today?” I waved and asked, sitting down next to him.
“Yeah,” Adam answered. “I am kind of worried about the camera though. What if I didn’t seal it closed or the tape came off the hole?”
“It should be fine; the cameras were in the darkroom the whole weekend.” I think. Did I reseal mine? Shit!
Mr. Watts didn’t come out of the darkroom, nor did anyone else, sadly. I wouldn’t have minded seeing the girl from last week showing her tits to us again, even if it were by accident. The bell rang and the class started filling up, but still no Mr. Watts. I looked to the door into the darkroom and the red colored light switch that was on the wall next to it. The switch was in the off position, meaning he was most likely not inside.
Everyone took their seats. Some people were looking around the room and others just talked amongst themselves waiting for the teacher to appear. It was only a few minutes after the bell had rung that Mr. Watts hurried into the classroom with a piece of pizza hanging from his mouth, a soda in his hand while the other pushed a television on a rolling stand.
Mr. Watts put the pizza on his desk, as well as the can of Coke and said, “Sorry I am late.”
We all replied with some version of, “It’s okay.”
“Let me get this movie going and I will take those of you on schedule for the darkroom so you can develop your pictures from last week.”
“We are just going to watch movies when we aren’t in the darkroom?” Laura asked, a bit of surprise and question in her voice, as if she didn’t believe him.
“Yeah, unless you have something better to do?” Mr. Watts answered, looking right at Laura with an eyebrow raised.
No one moved or made another sound after that. Laura looked embarrassed and was blushing furiously. Mr. Watts only needed a couple of minutes to get the movie going, then he took those of us not watching it into the darkroom.
“Everyone, listen up!” Mr. Watts said loudly enough to talk over everyone as we chatted excitedly. “Your cameras are where you left them. Go find yours and bring them out here and put them on this table.” Mr. Watts knocked on the clear topped long table in the middle of the room. “What are you waiting for, get going.”
I rushed to be first, but Jasen and Tommy just beat me to the workroom. Adam was right behind me, shifting from foot to foot not so patiently waiting his turn followed by the rest of the group.
“Did everyone get their pinhole camera?” Mr. Watts asked, holding a pinhole camera in his hands. Everyone nodded in agreement that they did. “Good. As you can see, I have my own camera. I want everyone to watch and learn, this is going to be fun.”
Mr. Watts opened his pinhole camera and pulled out a thick, white piece of paper and set it on the table. He then moved three different tubs from under the table and set them on the top. All three were full of clear liquid that was only an inch or so deep. He also grabbed a pair of tongs with what looked like some kind of rubber or plastic coating on the tips.
“Who remembers what these are?” Mr. Watts asked, indicating the three tubs on the table.
“The developer, the wash, and the fixer,” Adam answered.
“Close enough,” Mr. Watts smiled. “The first here on my left is the developer. The one in the middle is the stop bath and the one here on my right is the fix.”
Mr. Watts paused there to make sure he had our undivided attention. He didn’t need to; we were all intently focused on what he was doing and saying.
“The first thing we do is place the photopaper in the developer face up,” he explained and gently slid the paper into the clear liquid. “Why does it need to be face up?”
“So you can see the image appear,” Tommy answered and you could hear the smile in his voice even if it were hard to see it due to the muted red light.
“Exactly,” Mr. Watts nodded.
He picked up his tongs and gently shifted the paper around under the surface of the water. As it soaked, the faint lines and shapes of an image started to appear as if done by magic. Of course, it wasn’t magic, it was just a reaction from the silver gel and the chemicals in the developer, but it was still amazing to watch something come from nothing right before your eyes. I still thought the whole process was magical.
Mr. Watts picked up the picture with his tongs and smoothly moved it over to the next tub to wash off the developer. It was only in the tub long enough for him to agitate the picture and then he immediately moved it to the fix solution where it soaked again.
“Okay, everyone, come take a look if you couldn’t see it before,” Mr. Watts announced. We all shifted around to look directly at the picture. It was a portrait of an older woman who was smiling, and her eyes seemed to sparkle with joy.
“Who is the woman?” a short, plump girl asked. I thought her name was Amy, but I wasn’t sure.
“Obviously, you haven’t been in the school library,” Mr. Watts chuckled. “This is Mrs. Williams. She is the librarian for the high school. She is kind enough to let me take her picture every year just for this purpose. If you see her, which you should, say thank you to her and make her day. She is always so nervous every time.”
“Now, when it’s done in the fix, you need to the rinse the photograph off under running water and then hang it up to dry on the wires above the table. There are clips attached to hold the picture up and then when it’s dry, you have your finished product.” Mr. Watts did just that, hanging the picture up in one of the large metal clips on the wire above. “Any questions?”
There were a few questions that Mr. Watts handled easily and when everyone was satisfied, Mr. Watts sent us in pairs to four stations set up on the counters that wrapped the room. Adam and I worked together, tag teaming the process to make it quicker. We also thought that would limit any mistakes we might have made.
We decided to develop Adam’s picture first and his anxiousness to finally see the picture was almost palpable. He opened the lid to his camera and pulled out the photo paper that was stuck to the back. He looked at it for a second before dropping it into the developer.
“Nervous?” I asked.
“Yeah, a little,” Adam replied, not taking his eyes off the paper as he used his pair of tongs to swish it around slightly. “I think it will be okay though.”
“How’s it going over here?” Mr. Watts said, stepping up behind me and Adam, looking over our shoulder to see the image in the developer. “Looking good so far. It looked like it’s a bit underexposed.”
“No, no, no!” Adam complained and yanked the picture out of the tub and plunged it into the stop bath. In his haste, he nearly sloshed the developer all over the counter.
“Careful, Adam!” Mr. Watts snapped but that didn’t deter Adam from continuing his work. “You should have left that in for a bit longer yet.”
Adam was about to try to put it back into the developer, but Mr. Watts put his hand on his shoulder and softly said, ‘too late now. Just remember this for next time.”
“Shit, Josh!” Adam cursed once Mr. Watts moved onto another part of the darkroom. “I screwed it up!”
“It is kind of dark, but not that bad in my opinion,” I replied, as I bent down to get a better look at the image.
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