Mark and I returned home from Iceland on July 12. I started to work immediately processing our photos on-line. The rush to get the photos processed, and then developed, was on account of Black’s announcement that they would be closing their business for good on August 8. I knew well in advance of our trip to Iceland that I would have to work like a maniac to get all of our photos developed before the August 3 deadline. I was able to submit on-line photo orders until this past Monday (three days later than their advertised on-line closing date), yet in-person orders can still be submitted until August 3. It has been a sleepless two and a half weeks getting all of this done. I have counted all the photos I processed for myself, and the total is 1192. I am rounding it up to 1200 because as I was reassessing both of our memory cards I added some shots I had second thoughts about. Add in Mark’s photos as well, and the total is close to 1700.

Last night (or technically this morning, since it was close to 2 a.m.) I finished my final order. Mark came by until 1:00 and he worked on the copies of my prints that he would like. I copied them all to a USB and will take in my final Black’s order later this afternoon.

I will genuinely miss going to Black’s to get my photos processed. I still am in the dark about what to do about future photo processing. What will the new on-line experience be like? Black’s now has new ownership and while its stores are closing it will still have an on-line presence. How will I find the anonymous processing experience? Would I want to wait days for my photos to be mailed to me? What about re-do’s, or showing staff specific processing requests? Black’s satisfied every one of my needs in person. I will have to seek another bricks-and-mortar processing outlet.