Start to Finish

Allrightythen.
I'm a rolling now.
I finally decided to take the plunge and try to make my own prints.
One thing that was holding me back was getting a 4x5 camera.
The 4x5 format allows me to create contact prints, prints made with the negative sitting right on the paper.
The simple method of making prints.
The only space I have to create a 'dark room' is my bathroom so in went the enlarger:

I liked it better there than on the counter for on the counter I had to put a board over the sink to accommodate the trays:

Which I picked up today from the local Goodwill.
The trays I mean.
From Goodwill.
I needed four but the plastic one had a cover.
So anyways, you put the negative on the paper, turn on the enlarger and voila!
You have a contact print.
Then you put it in the developer, then the stop, then the fixer, then rinse:

Boy, I need to clean my tub.
Then you hang and dry:

Okay, it's not exactly as easy as all that, but it sort of is.
I mean it's way easier than I expected and if I knew it was this easy I would have been doing this a lot earlier.
Now I have my fingerprints on everything from start to finish,  important stuff.
It's different from just developing the negatives and scanning then printing.
Developing and printing in the darkroom is like well, printing your own pictures!
If you know what I mean.
This changes everything!
Sort of.
I mean now when I give pictures out I can feel good about it knowing I was in it from start to finish.
Authenticity.
Don't you know.
Anyways, tonight was the beginning of the testing phase and we'll see how it goes.
Next job is to enlarge a 35mm print and a 120.
Stay tuned.

Somehow this post got filed as a draft so I'm posting it up late.
User error.