My name is Don Redd and I am
the Coordinator of Film Processing and Proofing. The film operators
used to be called the mole people because they spent so much time in
the dark. Twenty some years ago Bill Miller sent me to New York to
attend classes on chemistry and processors (my classmates there
nicknamed me Toto) and I’m happy to still be working in those areas
today.
I have had a very exciting year and some of my
fellow team members felt like it would be a good idea for me to write
about it. I was not real crazy about the idea but the pictures of my
daughter (Kimberly) and grandson (Luke) convinced me.
Don & grandson Luke
Kimberly, Don, and Luke
When
Randy Rhue took these pictures with a digital camera Luke was 17 days
old. He was born on September 11th which is my sister’s birthday. The
four days Kimberly and Luke spent with my wife and I was wonderful even
with no sleep.
You would have thought Randy would have
used film to take my picture (just kidding). Film is now less than 9%
of what we processed in 2001. In that year we processed over three
million rolls, this year we might process one hundred and eighty
thousand rolls. We may process film for years to come but the Optical
era as we know it will no longer exist in the near future. I must admit
this is a very hard pill to swallow.
I became a grandpa
for the first time this year on September 11th, turned fifty years old
on September 17th, and celebrated my 27th year at Miller’s Professional
Imaging on the 29th of September. I also celebrated my 30th wedding
anniversary in May of this year. I will always be somewhat of a
traditionalist and I think Bill Miller would approve of that.
My
other daughter is married and has also moved out of town so my wife and
I at age 50 have an empty nest. Jackie and I were married at age
nineteen and had our first child at age 23. She paid for her wedding
dress with fifty cent pieces she had collected. I consider myself to be
a very fortunate man, not only in my family life but with my job.
The
industry is changing just like my life and we are changing with it so
we don’t get left behind. The one thing that has not changed is the
goal of the people at both labs. We will and always have strive to be
the best so our customers will be happy.
The doors of
opportunity are marked “Push and “Pull” and Miller’s Professional
Imaging wants to be the first through those doors and provide you with
all of your needs.
Don Redd