Splendid Photo was opened in Newtown, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, on 15th August 2018 by two friends, Darren and sean. The main goal was to offer affordable analogue developing and scanning.
In late 2020 the shop moved to Ghuznee St in Wellington's CBD, to a much larger site that allowed them to expand their services and product offering.
In early 2021 sean's father, Barry, passed away and sean took over his father's business. 

My Father and I have worked in and around photography for over 30 and 25 years. We both worked for Avtec 20/20 on Khyber Pass in Auckland (he as a B&W Darkroom technician and me as a part time sales assistant) He opened Foto Fiddlers in Eastridge Mall in the late 90s and I worked there for over a year before moving on to a Kodak Express. He sold Foto Fiddlers in 2000s and moved into computers, whilst I worked for Wellington Photographic Supplies.
We had long discussed working together, either in Auckland or in Wellington. Soon after he opened Toi Turama on K’Road in Auckland I opened Splendid Photo in Wellington. Both stores serviced the local analogue photo community. We had discussed numerous times about the two stores coming under one brand but we never got it off the ground.
With Dad’s untimely death in 2021 I took over the running of his store, and in conjunction with Kevin and the team we renamed it to The Film Lab. This was a working name that Dad had played with but never fully used.
Now, in 2023, we are completing the full merger and rebranding The Film Lab to Splendid Photo. It will carry the same branding as the Wellington store and share the same website, click and collect sales will be available from both stores. Because each lab is unique there will be little change in the way either store’s lab operates. By doing this I can say that we have realised our dream of us working under one banner and with Kevin, Duncan and the team we will continue to serve the local analogue community.
In the future we will continue to support the local analogue photographic community with competitions, meet-ups/photo-walks, excellent service and great products. We will send out a monthly newsletter updating the community on all things Splendid.
- sean aickin

Now with Splendid Photo operating out of Karangahape Road, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and Ghzunee St, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington we're committed to servicing the local photographic community.