Ah, yes, I'll bet you talked to Betty. She is the receptionist, and does a lot of the ordering and such. The guy I know there is named Whit, but he is frequently on business trips and such; I know he's hard to get a hold of but the guy has always set me up lovely.
The company in California they spoke of is probably Prolab. I't's the company that is printing my stuff now, and they did last Gallery Night's scans and prints for me too. Scans range in price from $15 per scan for like a poster sized image, to $45 plus for a huge file that you can blow up to several feet. They do a very good job, but I can understand your caution at turning your materials over to someone that far away, especially negatives. Negatives are a precious, precious thing.
I would say Prolab is a safe bet, though. I heard a few of the printers at Great Big Pictures are on materity leave, so if you want to stay here in town and don't have any sort of deadline on your projects, I would wait a few months and go talk to Whit. Be careful, though, once you start printing and scanning stuff, you won't want to stop- I know I don't even though it's an expensive little habit.
If you want, I'll have a bunch of prints up at Gallery Night this Friday, along with a couple of other artists. You should stop by; it'd be interesting to see what you think of my work. The place is called three and it's at 722 N Milwaukee St, about a block in from Wisconsin Ave. It's going on from 5 to 10, and after that everyone will party I'm sure; I know I will be. The last one was a lot of fun, and needie's going. See you there?
great images.