Heartland Imaging KC

Heartland Imaging KC exists because its founder bought one of the last Ritz Camera locations in 2012 rather than let the trade disappear from south Kansas City. It develops film — 35mm, 120 and the long-orphaned APS format — on a Fujifilm processor with one-day turnaround, and returns your negatives, which the shop notes is getting hard to find. Around that sits the archival business: scanning slides and negatives, restoring damaged photographs, transferring tape and movie film, and printing on canvas, aluminium, metallic and wood. It also teaches DSLR classes and flies drones.

Description

Heartland Imaging KC is an independent full-service photo lab and imaging shop at 510 East 135th Street in the Martin City area of far south Kansas City, Missouri.¹² It was founded in 2012 by Patrick “Mr. C” Cocherl Jr., who acquired a former Ritz Camera location — in the shop’s own framing, to “preserve an art form he felt was worth keeping” as the big-box camera retailers closed.¹

That origin is the shop’s defining fact. Ritz Camera was one of the national photo chains that collapsed in the digital transition, and the metro’s retail photo capability contracted sharply with it. What Heartland represents is a location that was pulled out of a failing chain and re-established as a locally owned business — the inverse of the usual direction of travel, and the reason the tier question here is not a close call.

On the film side the lab develops 35mm, 120 medium format and APS — the Advanced Photo System, a format abandoned commercially in the mid-2000s and now processed by almost nobody, which makes this shop a destination for anyone holding undeveloped family APS cartridges.³ Processing runs on a genuine Fujifilm processor with fresh chemistry at one-day turnaround, and the lab returns negatives, a point it makes explicitly: “It’s getting harder to find places that will develop film and return your negatives.”³ Published pricing runs from $9.99 for development only to $19.99 for a double set of colour prints or a single set of black and white.³

The wider business is printing and archiving. It produces standard and large-format prints, mounts and laminates, and prints on canvas, aluminium, metallic and wood.¹ It scans photographs, slides and negatives to archival standard, converts VHS and tape and movie film to DVD and digital, and performs photo restoration and custom video editing.¹ It also runs DSLR classes and offers drone photography, with a named drone specialist on staff.¹

The staff is listed by name on the shop’s own site — Anna Minnick as store manager and photographer, Cheryl Gutierrez in customer experience, Patrick Cocherl III in outside sales and as drone specialist, Jeff Matter as lab tech and photographer, Alishia Yates as lab tech, and Rottana Kul and Curtis Weathersby as production artists.¹ The presence of Patrick Cocherl III alongside founder Patrick Cocherl Jr. indicates a second family generation working in the business, though no source located states a succession or family-ownership arrangement — see the flag below.

Goods and services

• Film development — 35mm, 120 medium format, APS; Fujifilm processor, fresh chemistry, one-day turnaround, negatives returned³
• Standard and large-format printing¹
• Alternative-substrate printing — canvas, aluminium, metallic, wood¹
• Photo mounting and lamination¹
• Archival scanning — photographs, slides, negatives¹
• VHS and tape to DVD/digital conversion¹
• Movie film to digital conversion¹
• Photo restoration¹
• Custom video editing and slideshows¹
• DSLR classes¹
• Drone photography services¹

History

The business was founded in 2012 when Patrick “Mr. C” Cocherl Jr. bought a former Ritz Camera location, stated on the shop’s own site as an act of preserving “an art form he felt was worth keeping” during the closure of big-box camera retail.¹ Whether the shop occupies the same premises as the acquired Ritz store, or moved to 135th Street afterward, is not stated by any source located.

Search-surfaced press material from the Martin City Telegraph describes the shop as occupying a historic bank building in Martin City and characterises it as a full-service photography shop producing archival prints, cards, books, posters and canvas, and specialising in scanning negatives and slides, digital restorations and custom slideshows.² That article’s URL now returns HTTP 404 and could not be read directly; the historic-bank-building claim is therefore recorded as search-surfaced and is not treated as established. Both the building detail and the Martin City neighbourhood assignment rest on that unretrievable source and should be confirmed before publication.

No account of the business between 2012 and the present was located, and no source states whether ownership has changed since founding.

Sources

Links

• Website: https://sayhikc.com/
• About: https://sayhikc.com/about/
• Film services: https://sayhikc.com/film/
• Hire Heartland Imaging KC: https://sayhikc.com/about/hire_hikc.php

Footnotes

1. Heartland Imaging KC — official site, “About” — asserts: the business was founded in 2012 by Patrick “Mr. C” Cocherl Jr., who acquired a former Ritz Camera location seeking to “preserve an art form he felt was worth keeping” as big box camera retailers closed; address 510 E 135th Street, Kansas City, MO 64145; phone (816) 492-7974; hours Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 10 AM - 4 PM; services include standard and large format printing, photo mounting and lamination, photo restoration, archival scanning of photos, slides and negatives, VHS/film to DVD conversion, film development, alternative printing on canvas, aluminum, metallic and wood, drone photography services, DSLR classes and custom video editing; staff listed as Anna Minnick (store manager/photographer), Cheryl Gutierrez (customer experience), Patrick Cocherl III (outside sales/drone specialist), Jeff Matter (lab tech/photographer), Alishia Yates (lab tech), Rottana Kul (production artist) and Curtis Weathersby (production artist). Primary owner, founding and currently-operating proof. (Fetched 2026-08-14.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷

2. Martin City Telegraph — “Clocks, games and photography. The wonderful new world of Heartland Imaging KC”, dated 24 May 2018 — asserts, per the search engine’s surfaced summary only: Heartland Imaging KC was founded in 2012 by local businessman Patrick “Mr. C” Cocherl Jr., who in 2012 bought one of the last remaining locations housing the longstanding brand that was Ritz Camera; the shop is a full-service photography shop at 510 E. 135th St. in the historic bank building in Martin City, producing archival quality prints, cards, books, posters and canvas, and specialising in scanning negatives and slides, digital restorations and custom slideshows. ⚠ THIS URL NO LONGER RESOLVES — a direct curl with a browser user-agent returns HTTP 404 with the publication’s “Page not found” template. The content above is search-surfaced and could not be read. The 2012 founding, the owner name and the Ritz Camera origin are independently corroborated first-party at footnote 1; the historic bank building and Martin City details are NOT, and rest on this dead link alone. ↩ ↩²

3. Heartland Imaging KC — official site, “Film” — asserts: “It’s getting harder to find places that will develop film and return your negatives.”; film formats accepted are 35mm, Advanced Photo System (APS) and 120mm; processing uses a genuine FujiFilm processor with fresh film chemistry and one-day turnaround; address 510 E 135th Street, Kansas City, MO 64145; phone (816) 492-7974; hours Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 10 AM - 4 PM; pricing — development only $9.99, single set colour $14.99, double set colour $19.99, single set black and white $19.99, development with DVD/flash drive/Dropbox $14.99-$19.99. (Fetched 2026-08-14.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴