It's fitting that the first color 4x5 I've ever shot wasn't developed by me. This is E3-process slide duplicating film that was given to me by an incredibly good friend when we went up to Canada to visit a couple weeks ago. I wish he was here on cohost because I think he'd enjoy the lack of brainworms on here versus Twitter, but that's another conversation. He handed another friend and I 4x5 holders loaded with this stuff, with the promise to develop it after we've shot it.
I finally had the opportunity to meet this friend in person last fall after years of going back and forth on Instagram and Twitter, going further and further down insane rabbitholes of shooting and developing weird film. His process of developing pre-E6 slide film is one of his many impressive accomplishments, and though he's shared the recipe with me, I still have been a little wary to try it. But you know, since we were already there visiting, it was worth a shot. I think it came out pretty great. I'm super motivated to give it a shot myself now.
Fundamentally, I think as every hobby I've ever been involved with has slowly gotten worse, there's one aspect that really, truly keeps me going. This kind of shit is how I make friends as an adult. I've heard so many things about "how hard it is to make friends" as you get older, and I've realized I've honestly never had that problem. On the contrary, I've cut some toxic people out of my life and have cultivated a good sized group of people I'm very close to and would trust with my life. And I owe that to my weird array of hobbies. I think giving up this stuff would mean giving up that pipeline to meeting super great people from all over the world. Even though every single social media platform we used to use for these kind of interactions has gotten worse and harder to use, it's not impossible. Even if we've gotten to the point where 99% of people involved with something are insufferable dipshits, it's finding that special 1% that makes it worth it.