At the start of this class, I had no experience at all in developing or printing photographs. While I had taken many snapshots over the years, I did not have knowledge of composition. My objectives taking this beginning class in photography were to learn to process film, print photos, and improve my picture taking abilities.
The first several rolls of film that I developed turned out dark and low in contrast. All my later rolls came out fine, so I do not think it was a problem with my camera. Perhaps taking a long time pouring the developer into the canister and not taking that time into consideration caused the film to be developed too long.
I have seen my printing abilities improve over the course of the semester. It takes me fewer test strips to get proper exposure, filter, and aperture for my prints now than when I first started. In the first several labs, I tried the different enlargers available to us; it was a little confusing to learn the control locations and features of each enlarger. Later, I stayed with one enlarger. Late in the semester, I tried to reprint a negative that I had done earlier. I found that applying the same settings to a different enlarger produced different results. After some adjustments, I was able to produce a print better than the one I had done two months earlier.
Right now, I do not know what I will do with my new skills. I do not plan to make a career out of photography, but I will use my knowledge to improve future pictures that I post on my web sites of ghost towns (http://oldwest.notyourdomain.com/nv/), and my daughter (http://www.notyourdomain.com/sarah/).