3-minute read
At 126 West Main St., in downtown Lakeland, three cruiser bicycles stand on the sidewalk. The sign above says Downtown Diner. The one on the door reads Lakeland Film Lab.
Inside, there’s an LED cactus and a claw machine. Strips of film hang from hooks. Packets of photos await pickup. Boxes of Kodak and Cinestill film are on display.
The pay phone on the wall starts to ring. Nick Buttrey steps around the counter to answer it.
Buttrey, 30, owns Lakeland Film Lab. And he actually develops film.
Buttrey does it because he’s attached to the kinds of negatives and prints that you can’t get from your phone — and he believes there’s a need for it in Lakeland.
From finance to film: Buttrey’s from Chicago. He moved to Lakeland with his family in 2017.
His wife, Elizabeth Buttrey, is from Kissimmee. Before moving to Florida, they lived in Detroit. Nick worked in finance. He’d gone to school for photojournalism. And he’d always wanted to get back to film. He’d never stopped taking pictures, making tangible memories of his sons, Haiden and Bash.
But film labs are increasingly hard to find.
“I started processing at home, then I started processing for other people because the nearest lab outside of this is one in Tampa and then one in Orlando,” he said recently.
“There’s nothing in Polk County.”
It was a gift: Elizabeth gave Nick the Lakeland Film Lab incorporation paperwork as a Father’s Day gift in 2024. At first, the business was going to be mail-order.
As the equipment to develop the film and print photographs began to take over their living room, Nick and Elizabeth realized they needed to rethink the business.
That’s when they decided to open a store.
They knew they wanted a location in Dixieland or downtown Lakeland. And then, one rainy evening, they drove past an empty diner at Missouri Avenue and West Main Street. It had a “For Rent” sign. Buttrey called the number.
Soon they were signing a lease and starting renovations.
At first, Nick said, “I hated coming in here. I could see the vision, but it was a lot of work and a lot of money that we had to put in.”
Nick and Elizabeth did as much of the work themselves as they could.
“And then at one point, during that whole renovation process and the build-out, I didn’t want to leave,” he said.
Starting strong: Since they opened in April, Nick has developed over 900 rolls of film. The customers have been mostly walk-ins “because people want to check out the space,” he says.
The lab also rents the Swan Cruiser bikes by the hour. They come with a curated map of things to do in downtown Lakeland. (Nick recommends a Cuban sandwich and a Bang Bang Bake House dessert at Bodega Market.)
Lakeland Film Lab also hosts events. Night at the Lab brings photographers together. Nick says attendees had followed each other online for years, but they met in person, at the lab, for the first time.
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This is awesome! Can’t wait to check it out!