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I was born and grew up in San Jose, California. About 25 years ago I moved to the East Bay, where I currently own a few photo-based businesses. A description and link to their websites can be found here.
In the 80's, photography was my hobby. I had a point a shoot camera and loved taking photos of landscapes and old European castles and ruins. In the late 80's I bought my first SLR camera. I've been in the photo industry since the early 90's and working in a photo lab. In 1999, I bought my first photo lab that has been around since 1980 which was the first One-Hour photo lab in the Bay Area.
I always quickly adapted to technology and in 2001 added a Fuji Frontier digital printer and ran it next to my older Analog machines and enlargers. I was the first photo lab in the bay area to go digital. We also got into archiving and scanning services converting images and film into digital files.
Today we are still a wet lab and still process C41, Black & White, and E6 all in-house. In 2006, I got into digital press printing and expanded my printing services. At the same time, we added in-house video transfers services.
In 2023, we restructured and expanded. We separated our printing and archiving into two locations.
I wish I could go back and put my old analog machines in storage. With anything Retro having so much demand, I would have had something very rare to offer. I did save some old equipment from the 90's and today that machine runs daily producing digital images onto slide film (analog). These days, I make over 1000 slides per week all from digital files. I ship orders to places all over the world.
Currently, the photo industry is adapting and changing again with the use of AI.
In the 80's, photography was my hobby. I had a point a shoot camera and loved taking photos of landscapes and old European castles and ruins. In the late 80's I bought my first SLR camera. I've been in the photo industry since the early 90's and working in a photo lab. In 1999, I bought my first photo lab that has been around since 1980 which was the first One-Hour photo lab in the Bay Area.
I always quickly adapted to technology and in 2001 added a Fuji Frontier digital printer and ran it next to my older Analog machines and enlargers. I was the first photo lab in the bay area to go digital. We also got into archiving and scanning services converting images and film into digital files.
Today we are still a wet lab and still process C41, Black & White, and E6 all in-house. In 2006, I got into digital press printing and expanded my printing services. At the same time, we added in-house video transfers services.
In 2023, we restructured and expanded. We separated our printing and archiving into two locations.
I wish I could go back and put my old analog machines in storage. With anything Retro having so much demand, I would have had something very rare to offer. I did save some old equipment from the 90's and today that machine runs daily producing digital images onto slide film (analog). These days, I make over 1000 slides per week all from digital files. I ship orders to places all over the world.
Currently, the photo industry is adapting and changing again with the use of AI.
Paul Sorich, CEO