A longtime fixture in local photography circles, Camera Craft has hosted exhibitions and supported community causes<\/p>\n
The city’s last standalone camera store will close later this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the upcoming closure, the store’s owners said they hope\u00a0the photography community in the city will continue to thrive.<\/p>\n
Camera Craft originally opened in 1961 in the Churchill Plaza, before moving to Queen Street East a few years later.<\/p>\n
The Wishon family purchased the business in 1997 from retiring owner Fred Kehrer, better known as Freddie.<\/p>\n
Now, almost 30 years later, James Wishon is retiring and his family has made the difficult decision to close\u00a0the store.<\/p>\n
Wishon said a changing industry, including big box stores and online sales, has made it more difficult to operate a family-run camera store in the modern era.<\/p>\n
A few changes were made when they took over, but the new owners kept Freddy’s stools in the showroom for customers to relax, chat about what’s new or learn how to use their camera from the knowledgable staff.<\/p>\n
“The stools were already there, we just continued that tradition. But we did put the photo lab in and started doing classes, things that weren’t done before,” said Wishon.<\/p>\n
That social aspect of interacting with customers what Wishon said he will miss most once the doors close for good.<\/p>\n
In 1997, film photography was very much alive and well, but the sea change to digital was already underway in the photography industry.<\/p>\n
Wishon recalls the first time he saw a consumer digital camera, when one of the Nikon sales reps made a visit. It was a Nikon CoolPix 300 with a 0.3-megapixel digital sensor.<\/p>\n
“That was the late\u00a01990s, and it went pretty quick after that,” he said of the change from film to digital.<\/p>\n
What online sales and big box stores can never match, said Wishon, is customer service.<\/p>\n
Customers who purchased a camera from Camera Craft were offered as much time as they needed at the counter to learn the basic functions of the cameras from staff who knew how to use them.<\/p>\n
As technology advanced into the digital realm, those lessons became even more important for customers as cameras became more and more complicated.<\/p>\n
Wishon said that attention to service even extended to before the sale.<\/p>\n
“Before digital and cell phones, at Christmas time, we would pre-wrap 12 to 24 point-and-shoot cameras. We’d put a roll of film in them and make sure the batteries were loaded so someone could just walk in and buy a wrapped present ready to shoot on Christmas morning,” he said.<\/p>\n
Aside from camera sales, the store also completed countless restorations of priceless family photographs.<\/p>\n
“Over the years, we’ve seen interesting photos that people brought in that their dad or grandfather took during the Second World War, and we’ve even done stuff from World War I,” Wishon said.<\/p>\n
“We had an elderly lady come in distraught a couple of years ago because she had a house fire. The only thing that was saved was her one wedding photo, and it was singed and sooted.<\/p>\n
“We brought it back to life, and that was probably one of the most emotional ones we’ve ever done,” he said.<\/p>\n
The store has also sponsored and hosted numerous local camera clubs over the years and in 2012 converted a space in the building into a classroom and gallery.<\/p>\n
“We’ve had about 45 exhibitions for people who mostly wouldn’t have had any place to hang their photography. We’ve done functions for mental health, for ARCH\u00a0and helped with parking for cancer patients at the hospital,” said Wishon.<\/p>\n
The store is expected to close Sept. 1, but Wishon invites customers to pop in for a social call and to share their favourite memories of the store until then.<\/p>\n