Dear reader,

Well, I have some exciting news and so pleased to say: I’ve gotten my film developed here in Korea!!

I’ts always a bit nerve-wracking being a film photographer in a new country or new city. Film developing isn’t too common in the USA so I was worried I might have to hold onto all of my undeveloped film until we get back. But I was determined to at least look into options here and see what I find. I researched a few places in Korea that might develop 120mm and 35mm color film. I found a location in Seoul googling online and reading some photography blogs, it looks really great: Film Log, they support all different variations of film development, scanning, editing and they sell film and cameras off their website. I bookmarked their site and just recently looked into their pricing because I’ve accumulated about 15 rolls of film since being here and started thinking about getting them developed. I brought 40 rolls of 120mm film with me. I had 3 rolls of 35mm that we brought and have used two in the last six months. 

I saw their prices and got worried that the listed price for scanning images was ₩6,000 per photo (less than $5) -which to me seems reasonable because in the states it is that expensive to develop and scan film. So I sent an email inquiring and the response was utterly welcoming the price is ₩6,000 per roll for development and scanning!! Context: in the states developing only is about $11 per roll not including a scan. I was excited but decided to wait until March for our next round of budgeting to become available, we’ve already spent a fair bit for February. But true to form, Eric encouraged me to just send it out. Via their email, they told me it’s best if I would send via courier and not the post office. So we went and asked Dhaima Teacher how to send via courier as she has done this in the past. 

She asked, “what are you sending out?”  

“120mm film” 

She said “I have a film place in Daegu I go to. I could ask and see if they develop 120mm, or you can come with me on Saturday, I’m going after a haircut.” 

So we went! Well, this small Kodak store in Daegu was ₩5,000 per roll AND scanning. We arrived at 11:42 am they told us to come back at 2 pm. I handed over my big ziplock of film, gave my name and number, paid, and walked out. 

I had a wave of anxiety run over me, we said goodbye to Dhaima, and as Eric and I walked away I explained my worry as: in the states a place usually has to send out film to a special place that develops color film (it’s a specific kind of printer and the chemicals are toxic) this usually take s a few days; now scanning - that takes time and effort- placing the film on a scanner bed and going through each image, one roll has 12 images. I was just taken back and worried about how one business could go through 15 rolls in just a few hours for develop and scanning. Along with attending to other customers…

Well, I said it’s in the world’s hands right now, we had plans for going and getting ramen with John and Shewa teachers so I said, I will trust the world & Dhaima and just hope my film is developed and worst case I can always scan myself at a later date. 

We went and got ramen at the most bomb place, it’s a traditional Japanese restaurant with a big, long bar wrapped around the kitchen with tiny chairs to sit at, we luckily got a table in the back, we couldn’t even pronounce the name because it was in Japanese. We ate for an hour or so, shot out of there, as there is usually a line, then got coffee at a lovely cafe and talked for 2 hours more. 

We parted ways and went to go pick up my film.

As you can tell there is a block of images down at the bottom, I picked up my film, there were two CDs with supposedly all the images there, I took a look at the negatives and the images were all developed nicely. Then I just had to wait until we were back home to take a look at all of them - I thought “do I have a cd drive on my laptop?” - good thing that DGEV laptops are fairly old - mine does!

They were scanned very well, I did have some ponderings: for some of my images the skies are a little blown out (that is, of course, my exposure)  but could I scan those in and adjust for the white light on my own? - yes. Additionally the images are only 72 dpi, which makes sense for the price I paid. Good enough for the internet! I will want the images scanned at a higher resolution in the future.  

Next time though, I will try FilmLog for the next batch, they offer medium, large, and extra-large for resolution. They also send them via “the cloud” so I won’t have to worry about a CD drive. I will have to pay for a courier, but that is okay to me for: final developed rolls of film, scanned at high resolutions, and only a few more ₩ - No question for that price! 

But for anyone who wants film developed for internet purposes that Kodak store is THE DEAL! And I’m glad to know a local store to reference in the future. 

Without further ado: here are the images from the two 35mm rolls we developed! I’ll be editing and working on the 120mm photos, hopefully, have those up on my site … sometime in the future. :)

(Images around campus DGEV, Andong Hahoe folk village, Seoraksan National park, and some downtown Daegu.)