Paul Le Chien

What has become of the camera shop of our society? Movie rental centers are almost all disappeared thanks mainly to online rentals and DVD rental vending machines. Right behind them is the death of photographic stores. I can remember when I was given my first camera and would go to the photography store to develop film, but now there are no more photography studios and stores left over.



Photographs are now almost all digital photography, coming from digital SLR and digital cameras and put straight onto digital frames. If you would like to print a photograph you have got to go to a pharmacy or have them shipped from an online source. I recently sold my SLR digital camera and ordered a digital SLR camera from an internet digital camera sale. I was stuck with only a film camera just as I was going on a cross-country trip that was meant to last a month.

It was such a surprise to find out how much camera accessories had simply disappeared. I could barely find film to load into the camera not to mention a place that would actually develop it. With all of the advances in SLR digital cameras and other accessories like digital camera batteries and camera bags I would have thought camera stores would still be in existence but the only stores that still sell DSLR cameras are now major electronic stores or websites.

Unlike the disappearance of video stores, I suspect there is still a real need for camera stores and well informed sales staff that can help me compare digital cameras. I desperately hope there will be an emergence of camera stores as customers realize they want additional information about cameras than an underpaid sales clerk at a major electronic chain can offer.

There is still hope! I recently stumbled on a camera store that managed to survive among the giant electronic chain stores thanks to the owner's capability to explore his experience as a wedding photography. By selling the wedding photos through the storefront he was ready to offer deductions on frames, albums and physical prints for wedding packages. By utilizing the product that he had in his store and the reputation he had as a wedding ceremony photographer he was able to increase both enterprises and make a good living. Perhaps there is still hope for the camera shop.