Well, closing out tonight, we have one more story about preserving what matters.

For one local photographer, that means holding on to a traditional way of capturing memories by shooting and developing film.

In a digital world where the process has become pretty darn rare, he's keeping it alive.

Carolina Impact's Dara Khaalid and videographer John Branscum show us this vintage craft is about more than just photographs for this man.

It's about preserving family history.

(upbeat music) - [Dara] We live in a selfie world.

People love snapping digital pictures that produce immediate results.

- We're gonna load the camera.

- [Dara] Josh Gomez is choosing a different path by going old school, shooting and developing film.

Loading a roll of film into a camera- - There we go.

- [Dara] To snap the perfect picture.

- [Josh] 3, 2, 1.

- [Dara] Film photography basically died by the mid 2000s.

Josh's passion is rooted in this slower, more intentional approach to photography.

One that requires patience, precision, and care.

- I love the process of film because I think it forces you to slow down from, you know, loading the camera, to taking the pictures, to developing it, it's not an instant gratification.

- Film photography began in the late 1800s.

It's a method that requires a photographer to load a roll of light-sensitive film into their camera.

Once the shutter opens and the light hits the film, the pictures captured.

From there photographers can develop the film in a lab notoriously known as the dark room.

In Josh's case, he uses this.

- [Josh] Nothing in my process has to be done in the dark.

- [Dara] Which is more time consuming than anything he ever had to do with the camera that sparked his photography journey.

- My very first digital camera was a Sony camera that took floppy discs.

- [Dara] Josh says his love for photography began at an early age.

- I always had a VHS camera on my shoulder, and whatever cameras my parents had growing up, I was always making movies with friends.

- [Dara] As he was capturing moments in his life, his dad was never too far behind doing the same thing.

- My dad kind of always dabbled in photography, capturing memories of my childhood and growing up, and you know, every event that I had, there was a camera there.

- [Dara] Josh was always aware of the fascination he and his dad had with photography, but he had no idea how far back in his family that fascination went until he connected with a relative on Ancestry during the pandemic lockdown.

- He mentioned that my grandfather's father had a photo shop and my grandfather worked in that photo shop.

- [Dara] His exploration didn't stop there.

- I ended up getting in contact with my great-grandfather's sister, and she sent me an envelope with the original Thirty Nine Photo Shop logo.

She told me the meaning of the name, which was, back then it cost 39 cents to develop a role of film.

- [Dara] In 1930, Josh's great-grandfather opened the business in Puerto Rico.

He developed film, printed pictures, and sold cameras and printing items until it closed in the late 1950s.

But that wasn't the end.

So Josh, when you look at this photo here of your great-grandfather who started Thirty Nine Photo Shop, you hold this, you see the man who began the legacy, and you're continuing that legacy.

How do you feel?

- Really, I just feel honored to be able to continue the legacy and honor it, and bring back the photo shop, you know, almost 100 years later.

- [Dara] While Josh revives Thirty Nine Photo Shop, he's also running another family business, We Are One Photography that he shares with his wife, Brooke.

- Having a partner that shares passion with me, I think is everything, and a gift that we have that I don't think everybody gets to experience.

- [Dara] As partners in life and work, they use photography and videography to tell other couples' wedding stories, a process that often reminds them of their own beginning.

- We started taking photos, going to parks and stuff as dates, as any excuse to be together.

Photography was the excuse.

And then that grew to shooting weddings together as we got engaged.

And now, 12 years later, we have been shooting weddings every year since then.

- [Dara] Old memories come rushing in as they sit together at their dining room table sifting through dozens of black-and-white photos.

They touch images that they've each captured throughout their careers, faces and places they've encountered across the globe, from time they spent working for nonprofits.

- Some of the highlights of being able to work in photography have been some of the jobs that aren't paid, the ones that are international, where you're there to tell a story of hope.

- [Josh] Photography, for me, has always been a way to document and capture people's stories, and everybody's story has value and meaning.

- [Dara] They're words josh lives by, whether he's creating memories with his wife, or capturing moments on film.

Through every frame he continues a family legacy rooted in storytelling, compassion, and connection.

For Carolina Impact, I'm Dara Khaalid.