Steve ordered to much paper!

Great deal on paper here!

Beat the rush and SAVE on holiday cards - BOGO!!

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Photosmith

263 Central Avenue

Dover, New Hampshire 03820

603-742-6659

photosmithimaging.com

We're bringing back our SUPER AWESOME "10 8x10 for $10" special!

If Columbus had ten bucks and a laptop, he'd be placing his order now...

We're bringing back our SUPER AWESOME

"10 8x10 for $10" special!

(We thought about raising it to $11 for 2011, but it just doesn't sound as good...)

Order through our website to get the deal!

Use coupon code "101011" and receive

10 8x10 for only $10

That's almost $70 in savings!

Limit 10 8x10 per person. Online ordering only, shipping not included.

Offer expires on 10/13/11 at midnight.

Tell your friends!

Photosmith

263 Central Avenue

Dover, New Hampshire 03820

603-742-6659

photosmithimaging.com

SMALL BUSINESSES BAND TOGETHER TO KEEP FILM ALIVE

120processing.com and Aperture Announce Joint Venture To Serve Photography Lovers

To encourage renewed interest in analog photography, Aperture (Cleveland, OH) and 120processing.com (Dover, NH) are joining forces to offer film lovers the full array of products and services they need to create their distinctive ‘lo-fi’ images.

Media outlets have recently been predicting the demise of film photography—in spite of the recent uptick in film sales and renewed interest in certain sorts of vintage photography. To foster the renaissance of the analog photography movement, two small businesses—120processing.com and Aperture, A Photography and Variety Store—have joined forces. Located in Cleveland, Aperture sells vintage cameras, film and accessories. 120processing.com is the new online venture of Photosmith Imaging, a photo lab that has been processing and printing film in Dover, NH for the last thirty years.

In contrast to what many see as the ‘sterility’ of digital photography, the analog renaissance has centered on ‘low-fidelity’ photographs. The images are often fuzzy and dream-like, with peculiarly intense colors; many of them are multiply exposed or split. To achieve these and other effects, photographers have turned to comparatively rare camera designs and film labels; they also require processing for these less common films, often using special techniques, like ‘cross-processing,’ where slide film is processed in the chemistry for color-negative film. With these special supplies and services, photographers are able to tap into a whole range of images that are completely unavailable to digital photography.

Since the return to analog photography is relatively new, analog supplies and services can be difficult to find; thus Aperture and 120processing.com have joined forces to better serve the budding film photography movement. In particular, 120processing.com will be supplying a full range of lab services for Aperture’s customers, who can drop off their film at Aperture for processing and printing. “Our customers have had great difficulty finding quality, consistent, and reliable labs to process their film. Also, cross processing has become so popular we wanted to offer our customers a trustworthy lab that will do just that,” explains Scott Meivogel, founder and owner of Aperture. “Now we can offer processing for any film we sell, both normal and crossed processed. We could not be more grateful that 120processing.com has agreed to join us.” Such partnerships are particularly valuable considering that many markets lost their local photo labs as a result of the ‘digital revolution.’

120processing.com also sees an advantage in partnering with businesses like Aperture, which has cultivated in Cleveland a community of photographers through gallery shows, classes and events. “Establishments like Aperture are doing a tremendous job reminding people what is valuable about film—the slower tempo, the distinctiveness of the image, the strangely beautiful effects,” says Steve Frank, the owner of 120processing.com. “Keeping film alive will be a collective effort—we’re thrilled to work with them.”

INTERNET SPURS SMALL-BUSINESS RENAISSANCE

Old-School Photo Lab Finds Broader Customer Base with 120processing.com

As people turn back to 'analog' photography, 120processing.com is using the Internet to create and serve a virtual community of lovers of film.

Received wisdom is that the Internet is bad for small businesses, but Steve Frank—owner of Photosmith in Dover—is taking the other side of that bet. For more than 30 years, Frank has processed film and printed photographs in the same location on Central Avenue. But the digital photography movement has profoundly impacted his business. Though Photosmith has offered an array of digital services to serve the new market, the fact remains that the average customer—a parent of school-aged kids, say, or a realtor—is not spending as much on photography services as he once did.

Though Photosmith has always been a ‘Main Street’ business—many have been its customers for all thirty years—Frank has reached out to the Internet with another brand. Inspired by the resurgence of film photography, he has established www.120processing.com to target a new generation of film users. Through the website, people all over the country can print a pre-paid mailer to send their film to Photosmith and receive their processed film and prints back about a week later. “This way, you can get film processing of the same quality and with the same attention to detail you expect from a good independent lab, no matter where you are,” Frank said.

120processing.com also offers scans and CDs for those who want to store or share their images digitally, and in fact Internet sharing is an important piece of 120processing.com’s business model. Though there might not be enough film enthusiasts to support a photo lab in any given community, the Internet makes possible the creation of a virtual community that stretches across the country. To foster such a community, 120processing.com has established itself on Twitter and Facebook. Frank is also sponsoring a collective of ‘analog’ photographers, Lo-Fi Revolution, which has a presence on Facebook and on Tumblr.

Though the business model has changed, Frank says, the essence of Photosmith has not. “We’re just taking the independent photo lab and making it virtual,” he says. “We still believe in customer service and good work.” No surprise, then, that Frank’s blog is called “The Old-School Photo Lab.”

PHOTOGRAPHY ENTERS 'POST-DIGITAL' AGE: 120processing.com Brings Old-School Photo Lab to Internet

Photographers are returning to film in droves. To serve them as they go 'back to the future,' 120processing.com is bringing the old-school local photo lab to the Internet, offering developing of medium-format/120 film by mail.

Believe it or not, photographers are returning to film in large numbers, and an enterprising photo lab is serving them by combining their experience in traditional film photography with the networking and sharing powers of the Internet.

Recent months have seen a movement to revive film. People frustrated with the impersonality and blandness of digital images have remembered what drew them to photography in the first place: personal control of expression and quality. Unfortunately many local photo labs have been driven out of business, so photographers are turning to the Internet for their processing needs. One of the few surviving independent labs, Photosmith Imaging in Dover, NH, has begun http://www.120processing.com, a website offering film developing by mail to Internet customers.

“It’s the best of the old and of the new. For years we were a Main Street business. I knew what each of our customers wanted—whether they preferred 3x5 or 4x6, matte or glossy,” says Steve Frank, who has owned Photosmith Imaging for thirty years. “Now we are offering that same personalized service on a broader scale. And since the Internet lets us take our business nation-wide, we’re able to offer very competitive prices for film processing. We are small in size, but more experienced than most. We cater to people on a personal basis, the same as if you come in to our brick-and-mortar operation.”

http://www.120processing.com will also use the Internet to recreate a community of people interested in photography—what the Main Street photo lab used to be. The website has a facebook page, where photographers can meet each other and share images, as well as a monthly contest with a prize of free processing.

Over the last several years digital photography revolutionized the genre—people captured thousands of images, deleted most of them immediately after taking them, and edited out imperfections. Photographers lost images when their hard drive crashed or when their online image warehouses folded. Customer Mark Stevens appreciates the careful craft of film photography. “I'll never stop shooting film,” he says. “I love the process. It forces me to slow down and study the composition and light in each frame. I find it very relaxing to get back to the basics of photography, and it’s great to have www.120processing.com to do the developing.”

Retro? Owner Steve Frank doesn’t think so. “This has been our way of doing business -1391552839 and making images for decades. We are trying to find customers who want and appreciate the same things.”