We held on to our old equipment as long as we could, making changes only when necessary and as I could afford them. Our transition followed the trajectory of the film processing industry at the time. When analogue photo labs started going out of business, how did your lab manage the transition to the hybrid workflow (chemical development + digital scanning/printing)? Rollei RPX and Lomography Color Negative Film F²/400. The hybrid workflow at Photosmith~Old School Film Lab. The newest systems in place, Photo-therm Super Sidekick, and the Fuji Frontier digital system. Dave left the company a few years later, but it has continued on, the mission unchanged: process film and make pictures. Both of us had worked for large wholesale photo labs in the past, but desired something smaller that we could control and serve the customer directly. We could afford only old equipment that larger labs had utilized and then cast off as something better/faster came along. This was before the popularity of one-hour photo labs hit, and we were not set up as a "mini-lab". Our only mission was to process film and make pictures. We did not sell "stuff" like camera equipment. His vision came to fruition more than 36 years ago as a walk-in photo lab here in Dover, New Hampshire. The “Photosmith” was the dream of my former partner, Dave Olson. “Photosmith”? “Old School Film Lab”? What came first? When did you start the business and what led you to it? Interview with Steve Frank, owner of Photosmith~Old School Film Lab at Dover, New Hampshire Remember when a film lab used to look like this? “Lab rat” Becky at the front of Photosmith, and all that film… Lomography Color Negative Film F²/400. Then I discovered the lab’s account on Instagram, where some creatures called the “lab rats” posted images of the rolls of film we customers sent in, surrounded by piles and piles of candy from all over the world. I contacted them, got a hilarious but oh so warm response from owner Steve Frank, and we have been bantering cross-country ever since. Lo and behold, after HolgaWeek 2016, I got an email from HolgaJen stating that I had received an honorable mention and it came with a prize of 4-for-the-price-of-2 development at Old Film Lab School, and to go ahead and contact them to arrange to “collect” my prize. Lomo writes: Last year, like I do every year, I entered Jennifer Hendrickson’s HolgaWeek contest, a yearly celebration of the funky Holga where you submit some shots taken during that HolgaWeek (usually the 3rd week of July) and then, once everyone has posted, you spend a few hours going through all the entries going: “Aaaah… neat!” And maybe even noting what film somebody used to get a really fabulous image. Steve and the Lab Rats are my go-to people for anything photographic. Fast forward to 2017: I now own 50 analogue cameras and Photosmith has developed thousands of shots for me. They knew all the terms I was learning about at Lomography and were able to develop anything that I brought them. I found Photosmith, located just a short drive from my home. I turned to my desktop and did a search of film processing labs. Stop! Where the hell would I get my film developed? I tried our local Rite Aid Pharmacy, but they could not do black and white and they had no clue when I asked for cross process. I dug out my old Pentax K1000 from the attic and I was off and running. I was hooked again after 25 years of not shooting a single frame. Lomography Color Negative Film writes: I got back into film photography in 2011 when I received an LC-A+ for Christmas. The storefront of Photosmith (also known as Old School Film Lab online) in Dover, NH.
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