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Thread: Developer trays

  1. #11

    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    DC
    Posts
    126

    Re: Developer trays

    A decade or so ago John mentored me in the darkroom over the better part of a few months - after a few years away from the darkroom, it was a joy to get real instruction from a great printer. John also printed a handful of prints for me (a few large, a few smaller) that are absolutely beautiful.

    I believe that he was with ICP during those days and is now teaching at a university.

    Re trays, I am partial to big Paterson plastic trays. I have a handful of them now for my processing setup and hope to avoid purchasing anything else for a while. Everything squeaky clean and devoid of character - nothing like the "portraits" that John made!

    Ps - I have one of John's tray portraits on my wall. I LOVE walking by it throughout the day - it's a beautiful photograph and serves as a reminder to DO THE WORK.

  2. #12

    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Posts
    316

    Re: Developer trays

    Quote Originally Posted by Salmo22 View Post
    I recently obtained a copy of John Cyr’s wonderful book "Developer Trays" - https://www.johncyrphotography.com/.

    Besides Mr. Cyr's fine photographs, his forward, and Lyle Rexer's introduction, the size of each tray and (in some cases) how long the photographer has been using it are listed. In a couple of cases, provenance is noted. i.e. Neil Selkirk uses a tray from Richard Avedon's darkroom to print Diane Arbus' work. Talk about channeling some mojo.

    I thought it might be interesting to ask members of LFPF the type (material/brand) and size of their favorite developer tray.
    This is a delightful project.

    I don't have a good developer tray story, but this reminded me of a developing tank. I was in high school and struggling to learn B&W developing with my dad's old Yankee (?) plastic tank (with the thermometer agitator) and reel - it loaded push-pull like a Paterson reel, but the film would bind and inch onto the reel one sprocket hole at a time. My great-uncle, a very sweet and generous man, heard I was having some trouble and sent me a steel Nikor tank, two reels, and a Kodak Darkroom Dataguide, which was old even then (35+ years ago) and had those bound-in samples of a cornucopia of Kodak papers with stock photos in all sorts of unlikely letter-coded surface textures. I still have all of it, in fact I think the Nikor tank is the one sitting on my bathroom counter right now.

  3. #13

    Join Date
    May 2015
    Location
    SooooCal/LA USA
    Posts
    2,802

    Re: Developer trays

    I generally use Paterson and Cesco trays for paper and film work, but still use old S/S and porcelain trays sometimes... They work well in a water bath when the lab is really cold, but don't like the loud "GONG" they make if tapped when empty...

    The metal trays give the lab a Roswell alien exam lab vibe when filled with tools that go with the old science saying; " Bring it to the lab, put it on the slab, and give it a stab"... ;-)

    Steve K

  4. #14

    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Pacifica, CA
    Posts
    1,710

    Re: Developer trays

    That's a great book. P.S. That's a different Bill Burk...

  5. #15

    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Location
    Northern Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada
    Posts
    62

    Re: Developer trays

    The tray that works best for me, I buy from restaurant supply stores. They are the tubs that the bus boy puts the dishes into.
    They use more chemistry than conventional trays but for a rocking wave, just lift the corner or side about an inch. Great for 11x14 and smaller. They stack well and get multi uses. bk

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