Dave Travis Nature Photography

Hand-Made Classic Darkroom Photographs

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Born to Print

Dave's interest in photography began at the age of 6. He would spend his allowance on these little match-box sized negative/printing paper kits that he could buy for 10 cents at the TG&Y dollar store. What he did was put the tiny paper under the tiny negative, hold it near a lamp, and like magic the image would appear!

Decades later, and thousands of hours in his darkroom, that original fascination is still with him today.

High school and Beyond

As a photographer for his high school yearbook, he learned basic shooting skills. His last two years in the U.S. Army, he had access to a B&W darkroom where he learned film and print development.

Since then he's built four darkrooms in three states, and has switched from 35mm to 6x7cm medium format, and 4x5 inch large format film.

B&W's from 1978

Colorful Colorado!

"For the artist, who practices photography, capturing the image is learning how to sketch on some medium, but is only half the challenge; learning how to print is applying a subjective pallet to that sketch, and completes the creative process."

Focusing the enlarger lens in his classic darkroom.

Equipment since 1992:

Pentax 67 medium format film camera/lens system

Toyo View 45C large format film studio camera

Graflex Super Graphic 4x5 film field camera

Beseler 23CIIXL and 45MXT color enlargers.

Color films of choice: Fujichrome Velvia 50 & Provia 100.

B&W film of choice: Kodak Tmax 100 developed in Kodak D76.

His adopted home since 1983, Colorado has hosted his last and best darkroom to date.

Call Dave old-fashioned. He does all of the film and print processing. From the time he loads his camera, to the time the collector takes home the print, he has personally performed every step.

The Ilfochrome printing process, formally known as Cibachrome, is the last remaining traditional color darkroom process where a print can be made directly from the original transparency, without the use of computers.

Kodak and Fuji had similar processes, but have stopped production.

As a Master printer in the traditional darkroom, he will continue as long as the paper and chemistry are still available.

Dave resides with his wife Sharie and their feline buddy Jack in Castle Rock, Colorado.

The images on this site are protected under U.S.A. and international copyright law. It is illegal to reproduce, copy, edit, publish, transmit or download in any way without the expressed written consent of the artist.