I was raised in Sunnyvale California. I graduated from Stanislaus State Collegein Turlock California earning a Bachelor of Arts degree. I then went to San Jose State University and earned a Standard Secondary Teaching Credential.
Unable to find a teaching position I was delighted to work in camera stores as photography was one of my passions. After working my way up to being the store’s manager I decided to buy a camera store in Carmel California that was in financial trouble. In 1978 I bought one of the very first 1 Hour Photo labs in the country. It was very successful for six years until several other labs opened up in the area.
Because 99.9% of the labs were offering 3”X5” textured prints I decided to take a gamble by offering something better. We bought a new machine and started offering 4”X6” glossy prints as they were much sharper, had brighter colors and were larger in size. Even though 4”X6” glossy prints made up less than .05% of the current market our customers were thrilled and our business took off like a rocket. Over the next five years 4”X6” glossy prints became the standard for the 1 Hour Photo industry.
I was obsessed about giving Extraordinary Customer Service. I attended over 100 seminars which covered the entire gambit of ways to improve my business. Because of my strong commitment to providing terrific customer service we consistently won “Best Camera Store” award for many years. In the first eight years we increased our annual sales more than ten times the sales of the previous owner. As the business became very profitable it gave me the opportunity to make over $170,000 in donations to worthy local and International charities.
I was also able to do a lot of professional photography. As an official track photographer at Laguna Seca Race Track I have had several race photos published in “Sport Rider” magazine and also the “Racing” Photo Annual edition. I also photographed the NBA and during the playoffs was fortunate enough to capture the most famous photo in the Phoenix Suns history, the instant when the Suns 6’1” Kevin Johnson slam dunked the ball over Houston’s 7’1” center, Hakeem Olajuwon.
After over twenty years I had created an extremely popular and successful business, however I felt I had perfected it and wanted to “move on”. When Chuck Wolf of the camera store chain “Wolf Camera” made me an offer I could not refuse I sold the business. Of the roughly 700 stores in his chain my Carmel Camera was the only store in the chain that retained its original name.
My wife and I moved to the red rock canyon country of Utah. We spent the next few years designing and building a large, custom Santa Fe adobe house. As there were very few business opportunities in Moab my wife and I decided to move back to California to buy another distressed camera store. We doubled the store’s sales in just twelve months. Business was very profitable for a couple of years. However as 80% of our profit came from film processing, this profit base was wiped out in the following two years with the advent of digital cameras. While 97% of all print film was printed at retail outlets less than 8% of all digital images were printed at retail stores. We were finally forced to close our doors.
Early in 2007 we moved to Wichita Kansas so we could be close to my wife’s ailing parents. Since then I have been a very proactive investor of our nest egg. Luckily despite the crashing of all of the markets this year, my investments have all been winners without a single loss. After nearly thirty years in the camera/photo business I am now looking forward to a new career in a different field.
