Photo lab surprise

[Alicia_lynn419]

Last week I dropped of a disposable camera at the local pharmacy to get my film developed. I have been going ther for the last 5 years to get my fem pics processed. I always felt confidant that they just put the film in the machine and processed it without looking at the pics... (and BTW, I never really cared if they did). When I went to pick up my pics, the young lady, the photo dept. mgr., handed them to me and said," I took a little extra time manually adjusting the exposure... I wanted to bring out the detail in your skirt..."

For a split second my heart stopped. I answered, "So you saw all of my pictures?"

"Yeah.. and you looked very nice."

Mind you, I was in guy mode (goatee and all).

I thanked her for taking the extra effort, and explained I thought the process was automatic. She said it usually is, but sometimes when business is slow, she likes to personally process film and prints when most employes just develop the on the "auto" process.

We ended up talking for about 15-20 minutes.... not specifically about CDing, but she was wonderful to be so kind and laid back about my pictures. She said it didn't bother her a bit... That one act of kindness from a stranger made my day - hell! It made my whole week - especially after the last post I had on here about an ugly person I met on line. It didd my heart good to know that there are some wonderful, open minded people out there, and sometimes the kindness of a stranger can make everything seem ok....

Too bad Kimberly has a wedding ring on her finger......

[lisa_e_love]

Wow. She had some guts to bring it up with you. You took it well, but if I were her I would be worried you would storm off embarrassed and never come back to that photo lab again. If she likes to personally see to photos, she's probably seen lots of interesting things...

But I'm glad you met someone accepting!

[Dawn Marie]

Alicia, I do the same with my pictures and I wonder sometimes if they actually look at my photos. I am by nomeans embarassed by what I do or how I look anymore, I got over that years ago. And so far no strange looks or comments from the staff, but sometimes I wish someone would comment like they did to you. You can never have to many accepting friends.

[Shadeauxmarie]

I thought of Robin Williams in One Hour Photo. But, I'm sure she wasn't that creepy.

[Jaquelyn]

Ok, here's one of those stoies. Same deal, old disposible we hoped had pics of my granddaughters first fish she caught. It did. However, it also contained two lovely pics of myself, buck naked, one back, one frontal at our local lake on our boat when my wife decided I needed to go skinny dipping; and then decided to record the moment on film. Since there were only about 10 photos on the whole role exposed, there was no doubt the young lady got an eye full. She just handed them to me with a grin, and said, your photos turned out great!

[Shelly Preston]

I know Photo labs will do this if they have the time

Also I expect the check the occasional set of pics as a test of quality

I am sure some they will check incase of something not quite right as they I am sure have to legally

[TxKimberly]

Awesome! One more person in the world that knows what we are REALLY like instead of what the media tend to portray us as.

[Kate Simmons]

Yeah I never knew this until one day when I walked into the drug store where I had taken a roll of film previously that had pics of myself en femme. While she was not developing mine at the time, I noticed she looked over each and every picture. I'm like WTF? Then I calmed down a bit when I realized that like Doctors, these folks have probably more or less "seen it all". No biggie really.

[raleighbelle]

I don't know how photo processing places would not see the pictures, as they still have to handle them. And they are supposed to check the pictures for quality and do them over again if they are not acceptable. I think it was great that she did the extra effort for your pictures that she did, and that she told you what she did (If you wanted reprints the same quality, they would probably have to make the same changes in them).

For anyone who is worried about a processer looking at their pics, they should really use a digital camera and print out their own pictures on their own printer.

[Cristi]

I managed a store with a photo machine for a while. This was about 20 years ago when the machines still took a lot of 'TLC' if you wanted the exposure and color to come out right.

The guy we had running the machine pretty much had to look at every photo as it tried to automatically set exposure and such, then override it when it wasn't right.

Back then, there were no digital cameras, so the only TRULY private way to get photos was Polaroids or by developing your own B&W film. Otherwise, you could pretty much count on the fact that they were being seen by SOMEBODY as part of the process.

In my time there, we had almost everything you could imagine come through the lab. The only thing we couldn't print were things involving obvious illegal acts (child pornography and, at the time, any pornography in which the film had been transported across state lines). We fortunately never had to call the police for the former, but had some instances of the latter where we could tell what was going on from the negatives and had to tell the customer when they returned that it would have been illegal for us to print the photos.

Short of out and out pornography, we did see just about everything. I thing the main point being that anybody that does this work has pretty much seen it ALL. Unless you come up with something really creative, you aren't going to get much of a reaction from anybody who has worked on one of these machines for long!

The only thing I had against them before I switched to digital was they in some places they are set up so anybody in the store can look at the photos as they come out the end of the machine one by one. Not much privacy there when you are in a small town!

[docrobbysherry]

I don't know how photo processing places would not see the pictures, as they still have to handle them. And they are supposed to check the pictures for quality and do them over again if they are not acceptable. I think it was great that she did the extra effort for your pictures that she did, and that she told you what she did (If you wanted reprints the same quality, they would probably have to make the same changes in them).

For anyone who is worried about a processer looking at their pics, they should really use a digital camera and print out their own pictures on their own printer.

I have 1000's of Sherry's pics in my computer. I sometimes print my favorites! Cheaper, easier, and WAY more private!
RS

[Petra1]

I thought of Robin Williams in One Hour Photo. But, I'm sure she wasn't that creepy.

Funny, so did I.

[Teresa Amina]

My late wife worked in photo processing for 23 years and cders were among the least weird things she saw. In that area was a certain club (with a dungeon) which sent their film in. A lot! I remember something about male organs and clothes pins..... But the crime scene photos the cops had processed there were sometimes slipped in by mistake with the bulk photos from drugstores, etc. Once there was a picture they couldn't figure out, mostly because no one knew (til then!) what a pipebomb can do to a human being

[Janet_W]

[SIZE="3"]Was corresponding with a CD in another state than mine, a few years ago when digital cameras were expensive. She was so worried about someone recognizing her in the photos she sent the film to me and I took it to a photo processing store and had them developed and sent the developed photos back to her PO box.[/SIZE]

[Nicole Erin]

Mind you, I was in guy mode (goatee and all).

Yeah facial hair SCREAMS "man".

Anyways, from what I can see of your avatar, you look kind of pretty.
Would you care to maybe share a pic or two with us?
I didn't see that you had any in the forum.

[Rachel Morley]

Wow! Awesome! What a heart warming story Thanks for sharing

[waspookie6]

Not sure if it helps as sometimes machines are checked for quality but...Costco *never* checks film to CD without prints. I know because well over half my film to CDs come out UPSIDE DOWN

Alicia, this is a good share story as not all gg's are weirded out, great to hear she took the time to talk to you as well

[Alicia_lynn419]

yeah... I was really touched at the whole exchange.. I still smile when I think about it!

[Princess29]

that was really nice Alicia, no wonder it still makes you smile to remember it

[vikki2020]

I'd like to think 99% of the time, the processors are going to be professional about their job, but there's always gonna be that 1% in anything.Before I bought the digital camera,I always assumed someone was going to be seeing the pictures.This was kind of exciting as I was taking them!But in a roll of 24, you know there was going to be some stinkers,and I could just see them passing it around for some laughs!Wat'cha gonna do?At least I always took them to a store that sent out the film for processing,to put a little distance between me and the tech!

[Carly D.]

WOW!!! don't ya wish everyone could be as accepting??

[JamieDP]

Much like others but even more recent as 12 years ago I managed two photolabs. This was when digital was starting to arrive on the more common market...anywaay, like others said before, not much changed. I've seen everything from the craziest fraternity prank to some pretty perverse stuff on film. Like the others we couldn't print anything that was obviously illegal as someone stated above. In fact we'd turn them in. If people agree or not, one of my employees processed a roll of film with very obvious child pornography and called the cops...screw the privacy laws in some states. The employee was remprimanded for that, but the couple did get convicted. ...anyway not to go on a tangent...you eventually get immuned to it and you really focus on making good quality prints for the customers...which they were more inclined to come back.

Boy we had some creepy and freaky regular customers, but I always handed the film back with a smile, and actually took special attention with their rolls and prints, not just in printing but in care, but to make sure they were packaged neatly, sorted, etc... It actually made me take better care of them as a customer than the regular suburban kids by the pool or beach picutres, or the family get together stuff.

I have to say alot of folks who do film processing often have some inteterst in it, even in the mini labs. Sometimes its a way to get extra cash for lenses, photo equipment, etc. And remember phtographers, etc are artists...and all artists have a little "strange" side to them.

Kisses

[Jennaie]

Labs always look at your pics. They pull them off the printer and look at each one before they slip them into the packet. It's nothing more than quality control.

It was nice of her to take an extra effort to make yours a bit better. I think she likes you.

[Alicia_lynn419]

It would be nice to think she liked me... perhaps socially, (we did have a very nice chat), but darn it... she's married...

[flatlander_48]

Whenever a stranger has gone out of their way for me (not necessarily around CD'ing) I usually try to remember to ask their name and shake their hand. I'm not exactly sure why I do that, but it seems appropriate at the time. Perhaps it is just to reinforce the human-to-human bond...