Gosh, sometimes I have a hard time with the realization that I opened my little shop to sell used cameras over 21 years ago. The time has sure zoomed by.
I had just left the University College of the Cariboo (Now called Thompson Rivers University) and was looking for something interesting to do during the week when I wasn’t making photographs for clients.
In those days, wedding and family photographers worked pretty much only on weekends.
After photographing a wedding or family my time was mostly taken up packaging and mailing the rolls of film I had exposed to a custom lab. Then I’d wait about a week for the finished prints, and after putting them in an album I would again wait, this time for the wedding couple to return from their honeymoon.
I had spent almost 20 years at UCC employed as a public relations photographer and as a part-time photography instructor. After leaving I plunged head first into the business of wedding photography.
I enjoyed photographing people, and I liked the money, but the frantic business of weddings almost every weekend during the year was tiring and could certainly be frustrating at times. I regularly attended the Vancouver Camera Sale and made friends with many of the sellers. So when a fellow named Brian Wilson approached me with a proposition to become one of several used camera shops he was setting up I was easily persuaded.
Each of the shops would be part of the “Mr. Camera” group that would exchange and sell used photography equipment. Wilson wanted to start with three shops, one in Penticton, another on Vancouver Island, and “Enman’s Mr. Camera” in Kamloops.
To make a long complicated story short. After a few years Brian Wilson decided he could do better as a custom print maker. Andrew, the owner of the shop on Vancouver Island, quit to sell Real Estate, and Enman’s Mr. Camera became Enman’s Camera. (Although I never bothered changing the sign)
The building that I rented a storefront in changed owners over the years, but I stayed.
My shop is unique. There are always photographers hanging out, and the layout changes depending what I have for sale, and I sell anything photographic.
I have never been much of a salesman. I try to keep the prices low with the thought, “What would I be willing to pay” and price everything with that in mind.
I’ll never get rich with that philosophy, but I do have fun. And at this point in my short life that’s my most important goal.
I live and breathe photography. I sell photography equipment, teach classes in photography and how to use flash and studio lighting, and when not doing all that I wander with my camera and write my articles on photography.
I decided to retire from being a paid photographer. Photographing weddings, families and accepting commercial work and working six days a week at my shop came to a happy end. I changed Enman’s Camera hours to only Thursday, Friday and Saturday afternoons.
Now I get to just enjoy pointing my camera.
That shop is packed with twenty years of photography stuff and it’s always fun to go on a hunt to see if I have what someone is looking for. The years seem to have zoomed by, but I am still having a great time making pictures and selling anything for photography.
These are my thoughts for this week. Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net. Stop by Enman’s Camera at 423 Tranquille Road in Kamloops. I sell an interesting selection of used photographic equipment. Don’t hesitate to call me at 250-371-3069.
