Our roots go back to 1976 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Like most great labs, The Darkroom was started by photographers for photographers. Back then it could be intimidating coming to a lab like ours unless you were a pro. Unless you knew what you were talking about, you would get the “you don’t know what you’re talking about, you idiot” attitude.
Plenty of business back then so you could still succeed while being an ass. That’s just the way it was back in the old days.
Flash forward 35 years to 2011 and we are a very different kind of lab in a different locale. Still in California, though way down south in San Clemente. Yep, former home of the Western White House. Where “Tricky Dick” used to hang out just before The Darkroom got going.
So now we’re over 400 miles from where we started and light years away from our attitudes of old. Gone are the days of there’s -plenty –of-business- so -we’ll –treat- you –like- crap- and you’ll thank us for it. And why is that?
It’s because we (and apparently you) have discovered (or rediscovered) the pure unadulterated pleasure and joy of analogue photography. The digital world, while fast and convenient, have left certain of our primal senses yearning for something…
Something more thoughtful; more tactile…something we can enjoy in more than a superficial zeros and ones sort of way.
The other reason is digital totally wrecked our business. Not a fun thing to go through, but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…right? So now we’ll treat you with love and kiss your butt ‘cause WE REALLY DO WANT YOUR BUSINESS and your questions are not only OK but welcomed! Call or e mail or Tweet us… we’d love to hear from you.
Now, we would love to tell you about some of the geeky technical stuff about why we are the best qualified film processing lab for your 120, 35mm, 110, 4×5 and 8×10 film formats in color negative (C-41) True B&W and transparency (E-6) dip and dunk processing.
The Darkroom specializes in Toy Camera Processing and scanning as well as Sprocket Hole, Cross Processing and Push/Pull processing.
We work closely with the folks that make Holga, Lomo and Diana cameras. We test new prototype cameras and formats and figure out the best ways to process, scan and print these images. So… we can handle your various films and formats…from Holga 3-D stereo, Lomo Horizon, Sprocket Rocket, Lomo Spinner and yes, even your old Mamiya 645 or Hassleblad…
We also do testing of awesome new films like the Lomo X-Pro, Lomo Red Scale, Holga True B&W, Rollie Cross Bird, Red Bird, Night Bird and Black Bird. Once again we figure out and establish the “best practices” for developing, scanning and printing these new films.
We’ll be posting lots of good technical and practical tidbits on our forum and in our newsletter so be sure to sign up at thedarkroom.com. And yeah, special deals and offers you won’t want to miss…
All with the total convenience of mailing your film to us (postage paid of course) for fast reliable developing and scanning, plus we’ll upload your images to you from the lab so you’ll see you images before they even leave the lab in the mail to head home to you.
