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Frodshams develop successful business Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Frodsham Photo Finishing employee Gary Williamson uses a $200,000 digital printer, which can make prints from all types of film and electronic images. By GREG STILES Mail Tribune There's a bit of surfer in Joe Frodsham, one of Southern Oregon's most prominent one-hour photo merchants. The 51-year-old Frodsham catches a wave, rides it for all it's worth and then paddles back to the deep to await the next breaker. Joe and Jill Frodsham were searching for a profitable pursuit shortly after he left the military in the spring of 1980. They were engrossed with the possibility of a custom photo lab when a technological wave crested as they were biding time in Klamath Falls. "We stumbled into it," Frodsham recalls. "We had the concept of personal service and being able to give back film the same day. It happened to be the first year that they marketed the one-hour system and we were at the very, very beginning." A Noritsu photo processor salesman told the Frodshams that Klamath Falls probably couldn't support two one-hour photo shops. He suggested they try another town, so they came to Medford. "It scared me to death," Frodsham admits. "I was fresh out of the military and I was paying $110,000 in 1980 dollars - It was a very scary proposition." But he had faith in the Japanese company's product. "We thought we'd use equipment a long time and we actually did - about 18 years," Frodsham says. "It wasn't as fast or automated as the machines today and it didn't do as many sizes, but it still made gorgeous prints." A lot of companies that could extract $110,000 from petty cash shrugged off the one-hour idea as unnecessary. " 'Cute, but it'll never catch on,' " was their reaction, Frodsham says. "Initially, it was independents like myself and some camera stores that went for it." Today, there are about a dozen one-hour options in Jackson County and eight in Klamath Falls, where the salesman doubted two could thrive. Over the next five years, Frodsham's opened stores in Ashland (1981), Klamath Falls (1982), Roseburg (1983) and Grants Pass (1985). The Klamath Falls operation has since been sold and the Roseburg store was closed in 2000. The company has invested more than a half-million dollars in its equipment. One of the initial hurdles was adjusting to different film sizes and handling enlargements. At a convention in 1982, an enlarger caught Frodsham's eye and he immediately slapped down a $1,000 deposit. He wanted the unit for Christmas season. But a chain of Fromex one-hour shops in California was doing its best to snatch up units as soon as they came ashore. Frodsham kept calling the company, but was repeatedly put off. He convinced them with a large box of pears with a plea to remember that he had placed his deposit long before anyone else wanted the suddenly-hot commodity. "I told them I was going to send a box each week until they shipped the unit," he says. "I finally, got their attention and I got it in November." Frodsham bought a Kodak 2721 digital printer in July. The machine prints from film and digital files using high-speed scanners and is capable of printing digital files at 400 dpi (dots per inch - by comparison, a photo reproduces in the Mail Tribune at about 85 dpi). Although digital processing can remove "red eye," eliminate scratches and adjust contrast, it has its own challenges. "We have so many formats out there," Frodsham says. "People bring in CDs and some of the pictures are good. Some Photoshop will read and others it won't." Among Frodsham's clients are the local FBI, Oregon State Police and the Jackson County Sheriff's Department. Given the hundreds of rolls of film that wind through the equipment, some would be bound to create a stir in the wrong hands. Such was the case in 1996 when a 31-year-old employee took a duplicate of a murder scene photo. The employee was fired and Frodsham tightened security. Extra copies that are run to fine-tune processing are returned to the customer for disposal. And employees sign tracking forms that are sealed with evidence tapes. "It's a much higher degree of security than most places," Frodsham says. "With the sensitive things we deal with, the responsible person's name is on it and they're very careful with it." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.