The old axiom that we should learn from our mistakes is sound, although sometimes those lessons can be a bit on the painful side. As a 15-year-old, freshman high school student in 1960 I was excited to work as a photographer on the school yearbook. Assigned the task of developing a tank of 4×5 inch negatives, I wanted to make sure I got it right – so I set up individual beakers of developer, stop bath, and fixer, pre-measured, to be sure I had everything ready. Then, like a total fool, I picked up the fixer first, poured it in, and ruined all the film. My faculty adviser was kind, and there was some other film from the event that had not yet been developed, so it wasn’t a total loss. Along with my considerable mortification, I gained some useful insight about how to be functionally organized when working in the dark room.
