Page 24 - Westman Business 2017

24 THE BRANDON SUN • WESTMAN BUSINESS • OCTOBER 2017

Jessica, Jenny, David and Cherrill are always willing to help at Brandon Photographics Foto Source.
Film processing surges at Brandon Photographics

When it comes to taking pictures, there's little question you'll look at ones done with an iron and you can kind of
that digital photography now dominates the preferences of feel them. And these are right in there,” Hrabok said.
amateurs and professionals alike. While this is not likely to “We'll make these items for all kinds of occasions or cel-
change anytime soon due to the sheer convenience of dig- ebrations, or awards. It's endless what you can do with this
ital imaging, Cherrill Hrabok of Brandon Photographics stuff.”
Foto Source says interest in film processing has experienced At their 18th Street location, customers are also able to
a resurgence of sorts. access in-store kiosks to order prints and create personal-
In fact, the demand for film developing has become so ized cards for any occasion.
pronounced, that Brandon Photographics recently re-en- The Brandon Photographics Facebook page is packed
tered commercial in-house film processing with the pur- with comments from satisfied customers, such as this one:
chase of a new developer. “I used the photo kiosk to print my pictures and design
“We're easily doing 20 to 30 rolls a week,” Hrabok said, my Christmas cards and they were ready in the same day,”
adding that on the same day she was interviewed by the the customer wrote. “Staff are very friendly and helpful. I
Sun, they had already processed 19 rolls of film that day. will be using Brandon Photographics for all of my future
This growing interest in film photography comes as an photo prints.”
unexpected surprise, Hrabok said, especially considering For even more convenience, the company has a one-stop
how the bottom fell out of commercial film business in shop on its website, brandonphotographics.fotodepot.ca.
Brandon less than a decade ago. Growth in the film devel- All of their services – from photo print orders and enlarge-
opment part of their business has also been aided with the Brandon Photographics also offers a wide array of other ments, personalized cards and calendars, to more special-
gradual closure of other businesses in Brandon that also services, such as shooting passport photos, studio photog- ized items like aluminum prints, photo collages and posters
used to develop film, such as Black's and Don's Photo. raphy, bunny portraits at Easter time, and photo gifting to – can be found online. Images can be uploaded and orders
As more people started coming in for film developing, name a few. taken with ease.
Brandon Photographics initially partnered up with a com- “At Christmas time we do a ton of photo gifting – things “We're a full-service type place. We do the gifting, we
pany in Winnipeg where they sent customer film for de- like mugs, mouse pads, coasters, aprons, anything you can do the printing, we do the shooting. Some places might do
veloping, but when roll volumes continued to rise, they felt imagine. Socks, cheese boards teddy bears to piggy banks. a bit of printing, or they may have a studio, but they don't
they could best serve their customers by purchasing a new There's just an absolute ton of stuff.” do the gifting. We do it all.”
developer – albeit a smaller version of their earlier machine. Using a process called sublimation-- which uses special Brandon Photographics is open Monday to Friday be-
While they still send out the occasional black and white ink and paper to transfer a photo onto an item – Brandon tween 9:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., and on Saturday from 10 a.m.- 5
film and the odd roll of slide film for processing, Brandon Photographics can print your images on nearly anything. p.m. To learn more about their services, visit their store at
Photographics now does all regular colour film processing It's one of the company's most popular services. 848 18th Street, or find them on Facebook or their website.
in house. “It's a really hardy product. It doesn't wash off, it doesn't
Though film is now a growing part of their business, scrape off it doesn't chip off. You'll get a t-shirt done and » The Brandon Sun