http://www.traiaphotolab.co.uk/

Traia Photolab, U5-09, Thames-Side Studios, Harrington Way, Warspite Road, London (2026)

17/05/2024

Dear Traia Photolab friends, it is with a heavy heart that I’m announcing that from 27th June we will be closing the doors to our little film lab.

As many of you know Maia has been unwell for quite some time now and last summer she decided to step down from the lab to focus on her health, and I’m glad to say she’s on the mend! In the meantime I (Tristan) have been continuing to operate solely, with the assistance of friends and family. However, it has been very challenging juggling the extra workload and the daily stresses that come with the extra weight of responsibilities on my shoulders to maintain the efficiency of the lab and operating a business. Going from a close two person team to a single individual has been especially difficult and it has had an affect on my own mental health and I’ve had serious ups and downs. Coming very close to making this announcement before on several occasions. Unfortunately other factors have played a part in coming to this decision; partly with the cost of living, as the economics of running a small business are very tough at the moment and with our material expenses growing year on year, though we have maintained profitability throughout the last four years, we have found it very challenging to substantiate an individual wage.

The last four years of running this lab with Maia have been wonderful, and it will always be a great achievement for us both, starting out in our garage to having our own studio space in Woolwich which we were able to turn into our own space. We are extremely grateful to all our wonderful customers that have continued to support our little lab since day one and over the years, we have totally lost count of how many rolls of film we have processed and all the amazing photos that have graced our screens, we certainly could not have done it without you! I’ve put together a little memory slideshow from the last four years!

Cut off dates!

C-41 processing services cut off - 18th June.
Black & White processing services cut off - 17th June.
Scan Only orders cut off - 6th June.

Further details on pinned comment!

15/01/2024

🎉 We’re back and celebrating 4 years in business 🎉!

Four years ago yesterday we opened for business and started processing all of our customers snaps. It’s had its highs and it’s lows but we’ve enjoyed the journey, developing on our processes and expanding our services throughout the 4 years. We could not have done it without you our lovely customers who have continued to support our small film lab from our time in our garage through to our own studio! Here’s to many more rolls on film yet to be processed.

Note our 15% off offer is still available online and in store! So if you have any rolls you need processing just send them our way before the end of January to grab the discount!

For anyone who is still waiting to hear about the status of an order please bare with us as we work through all our admin from over the Xmas holidays. We will be in touch asap!

06/01/2024

We will unfortunately be extending our holiday closure until January 15th due to a family emergency.

While we are closed we will be running a 15% discount on all processing services these orders will be processed from the 15th Jan onwards. Any orders received between now and when we reopen will be kept in a safe location.

The discount will run until the 1st February.

29/11/2023

Christmas Holiday Hours - We will be closed from December 14th until January 7th 🎄. Cut off dates for all of our processing services can be seen below.

‼️ Last day for C41 colour negative orders received to be processed before we close is Monday 11th Dec.
‼️ Last day for B/W film orders received to be processed before we close is Thursday 7th Dec.
‼️ Orders received after the 12th Dec will be stored in a safe location and processed when we reopen in the New Year.
📮 Our dropbox will be stocked with envelopes and checked periodically throughout the holidays.

Thank you to everyone for continuing to support our small little film lab! We look forward to processing all your festive holiday snaps when we reopen. Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas and New Year! Tristan, Maia & Jake! 🎄🎅

Our opening hours will remain - Monday - Thursday 10am-5pm

If anyone has any questions please let us know with a DM or comment below👇

We will be on emails throughout the holidays or in case of emergency!

23/11/2023

On the lead up to Xmas 🎄we’re doing some early spring cleaning, we’re now tackling our mountain of negatives from our lovely customers! Would you believe that we have never throw away negatives even from when we where starting out in the garage over three years ago!

So if you feel that we may have any of your negatives we’ve put together a form that you can fill in (link in our bio). It’ll just take a few minutes to fill in and then we’ll be in touch if we find any of your negatives.

Please note that although we have not thrown away any negatives for many years we can’t hold on to them forever. So any negatives that have been with us for longer than the last year will be destroyed from the start on the new year!

If you live locally you’re still welcome to collect your negatives and we encourage that you do pop your head in as soon as possible. If you have any questions please do let us know either by email or DM us!!

18/10/2023

Holiday dates PSA. 📢

I (Tristan) will be taking some time off to visit family at the end of next week. During my time away Jake (pictured) will be solely taking over the day to day in the Lab, receiving processing orders, processing your film, manning local drop offs, scanning your film rolls and sending out all your lovely scans!

‼️ B&W processing paused from:
Thursday 26th October to Thursday 3rd November. -
We will also be closed next Thursday 26th ‼️

You will be able to continue placing orders and posting in your colour C-41 film for development as normal, however B&W film processing will be paused until I return. B&W film will be processed after the dates shown below and Jake will issue you with further information if your order contains bw for processing, during the week I am away.

You will be able to continue placing orders for Black and white film processing on our website or via an order form. These will be processed after the dates shown.

If you have any questions do let me know or send us a DM.

16/10/2023

📢 Lab Update and pricing changes.

As many of you may have noticed we have been quite quiet on our social media platforms of late. This last year has been very difficult for us as unfortunately last year Maia had a major burnout and her condition has been our main concern as she regains her strength again. It's believed it may have been caused as a result of long-covid, from catching it last year and not looking after ourselves mentally and physically during a really busy business year, last year. Because of this Maia has made the decision to step down from the lab to focus on her recovery and will be focusing on other projects going forward, specifically her illustrations. Maia is improving but during her recovery I (Tristan) have been managing the lab solely with the assistance of mine and Maia’s family. As a result I’ve not had much time to keep up with posting here on instagram hence why we’ve been very quiet since earlier in this year. But, I felt it was necessary to post a little update on the status of the Lab. We are still very much accepting orders, via post and in person so if you have any film you need processing do let me know. I have made some changes in the background, unfortunately we no longer accept E-6 film for processing as it became increasingly difficult to keep this service to reasonable turnaround times while being uneconomical for us to continue providing.

We do have a few more changes coming soon, there will be a slight increase to our processing costs taking effect on the 1st Nov. Our C-41 and Black & White processing dev only services will remain at £6.00 and £7.00 with the increases being to our dev and scan packages as follows:

C-41 + low-res - £10.00
C-41 + mid-res - £11.00
C-41 + high jpg - £12.00
C-41 + tiff scans - £15.00

Bw + low-res - £11.00
Bw + mid-res - £12.00
Bw + high jpg - £13.00
Bw + tiff scans - £16.00

If you have any questions please do let me know, via our DM’s and a huge thank you, to everyone that supports our little lab.

06/03/2023

We've had the pleasure of developing 110 film for for over a year now and it's been so interesting to see what subjects he chooses for this tiny film format.

"Jochnowicz as a project started October 2021 as a way for me to make YouTube documentaries under another name. Since then I've completed my first feature film & have more in the works.

Photography & filmmaking is still very new to me & when I first started I knew almost nothing. Nevertheless, I'd been inspired by photography channels & wanted to integrate shots from a stills camera into my docs. With a deadline approaching, I searched 'small film cameras' & bought a Pentax 110 SLR for £20 on eBay, only realising later that it didn't take 35mm! Cue a mad rush around London for film before a shoot! In the end I'm relieved that I fell into the format.

110 is a surprisingly powerful, impressionistic medium & that viewfinder has become one of my favourite ways to look at the world. When talking to documentary subjects, bringing out such a tiny camera offers us something peculiar to bond over; its size really is a gift. In my documentaries integrating 110 stills allows the viewer to step back from a subject for a moment and view them from a completely different perspective, its a wonderful tool."

Follow Jay to see more of his amazing work!

-

09/01/2023

We’re Open + Our New Opening Hours!

After three restful weeks off we’re now back at the lab and accepting orders once more! 🙌
We already got a nice amount from over the holidays and anyone that is waiting on an order will be notified of a due date shortly!

🚨 - A little lab update we have adjusted our opening hours and will now be open as mentioned in our last post Mon-Thurs from 10am to 5pm, now closed Fridays. Our Dropbox will still be stocked for these extended weekends!

01/12/2022

We will be closed from December 17th until January 9th. 🎄

CUT-OFF DATES!

❗️Last day for colour orders received to be processed before we close is Monday 12th Dec.
❗️Last day for B/W orders received to be processed before we close is Thursday 8th Dec.
❗️Orders received after the 16th Dec will be held in a safe location and dealt with when we reopen in the New Year.
❕Our dropbox will be stocked with envelopes and checked periodically throughout the holidays.

This Christmas we will be taking an extend break for the holidays. As many of you know it has mostly been myself and Maia that have been processing all your order, along with some amazing help from our friends and family this year. And with our best and most productive year so far we are very grateful for all the film rolls you’ve sent our way. Unfortunately, as a result our mental health has suffered this year due to having overworked, not having enough time for ourselves or taking time to get away from the lab. Maia has been off for the past month to rest and I (Tristan) have been managing orders in her stead. So as things wind down for Christmas we are taking the opportunity to have a well deserved break. But most importantly we want to thank everyone who continues to support us and use our little film lab and those that have sent your film to us this year! 🥰

We hope to return in the new year renewed and we look forward to processing all your festive holiday snaps when we reopen. Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas and New Year! 🎄🤶🏼

Lastly from the 9th January we will be open on a shorter working schedule due to the reasons spoken about above.

Our new hours will be - Monday - Thursday 10am-5pm until mid/late April.

If anyone has any questions please let us know with a DM or comment below👇

We will be on emails throughout the holidays or in case of emergency!
~

17/10/2022

Introducing...Close Loop Cameras!

We've been thinking this up for a little while now. Closed loop cameras is a new initiative we're launching to reduce waste by keeping all parts of film shooting and processing in a closed loop within our lab. By collecting disposable film cameras that some of you have sent to us, we've figured out how to reload them so you can get the experience of shooting disposable without the disposing part.

If you buy the pre-loaded camera from us, you can send it back to get it developed by us to get scans or prints!

This edition is our halloween version. Maia has designed a sleeve for the camera for the spooky season and these cameras have been loaded with kentmere 400 35mm film.

If you're interested, head over the our film store. Link is in our bio 😌👻🎃

04/10/2022

📢Announcement📢

We've been putting it off for a while, but with the general cost of living rising and an increase in chemistry costs, we have made the decision to increase some of our prices. This will come into effect on the 15th of October.

On our website, we have a new price list page which you can access through the link in our bio. Our C41 dev has stayed the same, some of our scanning prices have increased and the BnW and E-6 devs have increased too. For ease, we're also removing the separate student/grad and member price lists and sticking with a 7.5% and 12.5% discount respectively across our online store and our invoicing system.

If you know that you're going to be sending us film soon, by all means, please place advance orders before the 15th.

We're sad to have to make these changes as we want to be as affordable for our customers as possible. If you do have any questions, we're only a DM or an email away.

Thank you,
Tristan & Maia

Traia Photolab

17/05/2024

15/01/2024

06/01/2024

29/11/2023

23/11/2023

18/10/2023

16/10/2023

06/03/2023

09/01/2023

01/12/2022

17/10/2022

04/10/2022

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