Just developed my 1,000th roll and it was a roll of duct tape

I keep a tally sheet on my darkroom door for every roll I develop, mostly out of boredom. Last night I hit 1,000 rolls exactly and I had to laugh because roll number 1,000 was a roll of 35mm duct tape I was using to check a film advance issue on an old Canon. The tape came out blank, obviously, but that was the point. I counted back and I've been doing this for about 9 years, which means I average around 111 rolls a year. That's a lot of my own messed up negatives and other people's family photos. The funny part is I never realized I'd gotten that deep into this hobby. Has anyone else hit a random milestone like this and realized how much time they've spent in the dark?

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black.margaret1mo ago

That tally sheet trick is smart, keeps you honest about what you actually shoot. I did something similar a few years back, marked every roll I developed for a decade, and when I hit 500 I realized I'd been developing for other people more than for myself. The duct tape thing is classic though, I've used the same trick on a broken Pentax, just to see if the sprocket holes were advancing right. Blank frames are still a win in my book, they tell you exactly what's wrong with the camera. Keep that tally going, it's a nice little marker for how deep this rabbit hole goes.

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