Black and white alive and well in Denver

About 8 years ago, I was looking for some paper and chemistry and went to the nearest camera shop. It was a little local chain in a strip mall.

They had a shelf in the corner with a couple of boxes of paper. You had to ask where it was and they looked at me like I was a dinosaur asking where the tar pit was. I was pretty sure that was the last shipment they were ever going to get of analog stuff, and mail order or a trip to the big pro photo shop downtown would be my only hope for darkroom supplies.

Today my kid asked if we could stop into the same store when she saw it out the car window. She is using one if our old digital point and shoot cameras and is getting really excited about photography. I hadn't been there in years. Why not?

Now there is an entire aisle of darkroom supplies. Tons of paper, chemistry, film tanks, everything.

I almost fell over.

Time to start supporting my local camera shop. I can even get there on my bike it's so close.

I only recently got got back into film, and I've been worried in the back of my head that I'm going to a bunch of trouble to rebuild my darkroom and upgrade my old film gear for a hobby that will finally die out in a couple of years.

Being wrong feels so right.

-J.

What store did you visit? There are several pretty good places around here - S. Denver metro area. Englewood Camera on Broadway has a good, though small, supply of staples (HC110, Ilford developers and fix, kodafix, etc.). Denver Pro Photo, in their new location on Jason, has lots of good stuff including things like Impossible film and Holga stuff. We just recently lost a shop that had some stuff (The Camera Trader), but the other stores seem to be prospering.

It's a good area to live in!

It was Mike's by park meadows. Seriously, b&w stuff in the mall camera store?!? The 1970s called and they want my FM back.

Englewood camera is good, and that's another close shop to me. I was a little saddened by their prices and selection. I just had a roll of color film processed there to check a focus issue. It's also a little out of the way for me since I rarely head over that direction except maybe to hit Moe's BBQ.

I just restocked my darkroom chemistry at Denver Pro Photo, but if all of my old paper is fogged, I'll certainly buy a box or two at mikes. I like to reward good behavior.

The guy up at victory camera told me that film has been coming back over the last few years. I guess I didn't appreciate the magnitude of the bounce.

My last brief re-entry into film was just as Kodak canned all paper development and shut down production of plus-x, which was my favorite film. I thought the writing was on the wall, and life soon got in the way of having time to work in the darkroom anyway.

I came close twice to getting rid of my darkroom equipment, but I'm glad I still have it.

Is it as easy to find paper and chemistry in other areas? Am I just fortunate here?

J.

I just came back from Mike's Park Meadows. They have a lot more paper than they did a few weeks ago. Funny, Englewood Camera is a lot more committed to film but they seemed to have less space dedicated to darkroom supplies last week than they used to. I've given up on Mike's several times, but it is just too close to the my office. It's about time to buy some developer, so maybe a visit to ProPhoto is coming.

Worth asking the question about what has happened to bring about the change, I'd have thought. Presumably a shop doesn't suddenly commit to stocks of analogue stuff unless it detects a demand. What has brought about that demand and how big is it, I wonder?

pentaxuser

Perhaps this is a silly question for a group of dedicated film folks who clearly do darkroom work at home, but would any of you be interested if a new public B&W darkroom were to appear on the Denver scene? And by that I mean one which is well-stocked and maintained, has reasonable regular hours, fair rates, and is not part of a University. Just curious.

syphaxplh - that's a tough question. I have all the equipment for a really good darkroom, but have not built it yet and am doing hybrid workflow. I'm down in Castle Rock and a darkroom on the south end would be great. However, if I had the time to go to a darkroom, I would have the time to build mine.

pentaxuser said:

Worth asking the question about what has happened to bring about the change, I'd have thought. Presumably a shop doesn't suddenly commit to stocks of analogue stuff unless it detects a demand. What has brought about that demand and how big is it, I wonder?

pentaxuser

Click to expand...

A Manager at Denver ProPhoto and the owner of Englewood Camera both have told me in the last year that they have had substantially increased film sales. But at Mike's, they still act like JRoosa's original post.

pbromaghin said:

A Manager at Denver ProPhoto and the owner of Englewood Camera both have told me in the last year that they have had substantially increased film sales. But at Mike's, they still act like JRoosa's original post.

Click to expand...

As you will know I am not a local or even in the U.S. and there are several photo stores now mentioned. I may have confused matters but the store to which I was referring is the store mentioned by the OP where several years ago he had assumed it was in its analogue death-bed and now has a much bigger stock of analogue supplies and not just film stocks.

It is one thing to see simply a revival of film which is still good but another and perhaps more significant to see a revival which caters for all aspects of darkroom work. I just wondered what it was that persuaded the owner to invest in a range of analogue materials?

pentaxuser.

pentaxuser said:

As you will know I am not a local or even in the U.S. and there are several photo stores now mentioned. I may have confused matters but the store to which I was referring is the store mentioned by the OP where several years ago he had assumed it was in its analogue death-bed and now has a much bigger stock of analogue supplies and not just film stocks.

It is one thing to see simply a revival of film which is still good but another and perhaps more significant to see a revival which caters for all aspects of darkroom work. I just wondered what it was that persuaded the owner to invest in a range of analogue materials?

pentaxuser.

Click to expand...

Good question. When I go back to pick up my pictures I'll ask them.

I stopped in at Englewood Camera (not the OP store) yesterday and saw they had more darkroom supplies than just a few weeks ago. Apparently this is due to the new school year starting up.

That makes sense. I never thought of photography gear as being seasonal, but I guess it is.

I got my enlarger back together and set up on a decent stand with some drawers underneath. I'm waiting for an Ikea desk to come back in stock to use it as a workbench in my darkroom. Getting pretty excited to be back to printing for the first time in years.

-J.

I did go to Mike's at Park Meadows , the OP store, to pick up some pictures today. I didn't get to talk to a manager, but to 3 of the sales people. One said it was because of school starting up, one said "somebody finally filled out an order" (this doesn't make sense because it included Kodak chemicals, Ilford paper, as well as paper from another manufacturer) and the 3rd said,"They finally figured out people are still doing it."

pbromaghin said:

I did go to Mike's at Park Meadows , the OP store, to pick up some pictures today. I didn't get to talk to a manager, but to 3 of the sales people. One said it was because of school starting up, one said "somebody finally filled out an order" (this doesn't make sense because it included Kodak chemicals, Ilford paper, as well as paper from another manufacturer) and the 3rd said,"They finally figured out people are still doing it."

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It does make sense.

No store buys directly from the manufacturer. They all buy from either distributors, or other entities further down the chain.

There is a good chance that the store buys all its analog related materials from a single middleman.

MattKing said:

It does make sense.

No store buys directly from the manufacturer. They all buy from either distributors, or other entities further down the chain.

There is a good chance that the store buys all its analog related materials from a single middleman.

Click to expand...

Oh, yeah. Duh. I worked in supply chain long enough, why didn't I think of that?