The customers at Digital Imaging Northwest in downtown Olympia are stunned and moved when they see long-forgotten slides and 18-milimeter films from the attic converted to digital discs that come alive on their screens.
“People pick up transfers and go home and later say, ‘I cried when I watched the slides showing my parents and us as kids,’” said owner Tom Dorian, who started working at the business in 1971 when it was called Don’s Cameras.
The business specializes in converting movie film, slides, photos and videotapes to DVDs. Most of the material depicts family slides and home movies filmed in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, Dorian said.
“You don’t sell memories,” he said. “You sell happiness.”
In 1965, Don Swenson founded the business as Don’s Cameras – Sea Mart Camera & Jewelry in the former Sea Mart Yardbird’s Shopping Center in downtown Olympia. Dorian went to work part-time for Swenson in 1971 while also working for Pacific Northwest Bell. The next year, Dorian and Swenson’s son, Jerry, purchased the business because Dion wanted to retire.
“It’s the best place I’ve ever worked in my life,” Dorian said.
The business sold cameras, camera accessories and processed film. It also added electrical shaver repair to its offerings.
The business moved several times, including stints in Chehalis and on State and Franklin streets, until it settled on its current location on Capitol Way North ten years ago. Jerry Swenson died six years ago.
A decade ago, mom-and-pop camera stores began having a hard time competing. “The day of the camera store was over because of the Internet getting the bulk of the goods, and the big box stores,” he said.
When Dorian moved to his current location 10 years ago, he had an epiphany: “I had to do something totally different.”
So Dorian decided to sell camera accessories — but not cameras — while focusing his business on image transfers. Two years ago, he added a gallery to feature the works of local artists.
“I made a good choice,” he said.
The transfers make the memories accessible. A local man wanted his Yukon trek in the 1940s, captured on 16-milimeter film, to be transferred to discs. An early Seattle Seahawk came to Dorian to preserve the 16-millimeter footage of his playing days to disc.
Because of the Digital Imaging Northwest’s online presence, Dorian gets customers from across the country who send him boxes of tapes and film to transfer.
Dorian won’t venture a guess on the next digital breakthrough. “It’s changing so fast now,” he said. But once analogue is transferred to digital, “they will be transferred easier to the next great thing.”
Customers have become friends, Dorian said. “I’ve met some wonderful people over the past 40-plus years,” he said.
Digital Imaging Northwest
314 N. Capitol Way
Olympia, WA 98501
360-943-1703
Hours: Monday – Friday from 9:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Saturday from 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
