[Preface: Inspired by my old friend Bob Suren, who owned a Punk Rock record shop in Brandon Florida called Sound Idea, and wrote the book Crate Digger: An Obsession with Punk Records. Before Bob wrote Crate Digger, he had been posting stories on Facebook in a small series he called True Stories of the Record Shop. And in the past I have done something similar on both Facebook and Instagram. I had done a small series that I titled A Photo and A Story, and have also shared other stories which did not include any photos. All these were from my days of working in the photo labs at Camera Hut or Ritz Camera. There are only a few of these stories and photos. I have created this small section of my Old Story Guy blog to archive this series and have them all in one place here.]
_Camera Hut. (2006)
This 8x10 reprint I did for a customer in 2006 when I worked at Camera Hut. A dad and his son had 2 Glass Negatives, the grandfather had worked for NASA on ground control for the moon landing and acquired the 2 negatives. The Glass Negatives had NASA codes written on the sides. I do have an 8x10 reprint of the other photo but it is in storage in Florida.
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Ritz Camera. (2008-2009)
At Ritz we also offered a special deal...if a customer bought a complete DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera kit set-up they got a coupon for a Free photobook - the small [20] page with the window cut-out in the cover - the same as the ones we used for the sample books. OK, so here's the set up - I was working in the photolab at the back of the store, my co-worker Derrick was at the cash register closest to the lab, another co-worker - Michael was working a sale of a complete Nikon camera set-up and he was explaining to the [Black] lady about the offer for the Free photobook...(OK, well now first, I apologize, I'm not trying to come off as racist at all but being specific about the lady being Black is sort of an important detail in this story. Besides, in the end, she was the one being a bit racist. ...read on...)...OK, so once again, my photobook happened to be on the counter, Michael was showing her how the photobooks look and of course she would get the coupon for the Free book. So this lady's flipping through my book and comes across my shot of KRS-ONE...she gets surprised and asks Michael who shot the photo of KRS, Michael tells her that it was our lab guy Kyle - me...and as this discussion takes place my Manager Chris walked by Michael as he's dealing with this lady...so this broad looks down the counter to the other register where Derrick is, and she says - oh the Black dude with the dreads, he shot the photo...both Michael and Chris correct her and tell her no - not Derrick - our lab guy Kyle - the guy at the back of the store in the photolab. Well, she would not believe them at all. She kept on insisting that it had to have been Derrick who shot the photo. Again, Michael and Chris told her it was me. Her reply was - there's no way that tall, lanky, skinny, nerdy White guy shot this photo of KRS.
[She did buy the complete camera set-up from Michael. I was real busy that day with a lot of photo processing/printing. I never got the chance to throw it in her face that the KRS shot was mine. She left the store and after she was far gone Michael and Chris told me what she had said. I was so not happy. and I do want it to be known - I've told this tale to many friends of many races - both Black and White, and yes - most all reply with - what a racist bitch.]
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When I worked at Ritz Camera...we made photobooks in store, and we as employees were allowed to make a small [20] page photobook with our own photos to use in store as the samples. The sample books had small window cut-outs in the front cover to show the first photo on the first page of the book. The photo I posted here was the photo on the first page and showed through the window cut-out in the cover. We had this one regular customer, some college girl, she always brought in rolls of Medium Format 120 film for us to send to our out-lab for negative developing...one day she was in the store dropping off some rolls of film, her boyfriend was with her, I was helping her, writing up the order form for her film, I heard her boyfriend say "hm that's a pretty cool shot.", then I heard her make this "huff" sound and say that it was not really so cool and that it was over done with Photoshop...as I was writing up the order for her film...I seriously, honestly did not pay attention and realize that it was my book and my photo they were talking about, as I finished writing up her order, I looked up and said that actually the shot was not really worked on too much in Photoshop, maybe very minor tweaks and adjustments in exposure and contrast, but not much else...that I had shot the photo in downtown Tampa around 11:30pm one night, using my tripod, long exposure, my F-Stop was around F8 or F9, ISO 200, RAW Format, and I think my exposure time was 20-30 seconds, that my photo was pretty much all through the camera - exposure. And if I recall correctly, I think I even said to her and her boyfriend, that yes the shot is done digitally - with a digital camera, but I also know how to shoot film, and that even with a film negative and working in a darkroom, there are different techniques to manipulating a photo, with a negative in a darkroom - for example - you can do Burning and Dodging. Her boyfriend smirked, and she kind of put her head down and let out a soft "oh". I don't know...maybe I ended up coming off a bit too smug or arrogant...I really did not mean to be mean or rude, but yea sometimes I guess I can get a bit too defensive when it comes to my works of art. But in the same, I don't really like it when some people come off as "know-it-alls" when they don't have all the right information.
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This 8x10 reprint is from a Polaroid. I scanned the Polaroid for reprinting in 2008 when I worked for Ritz Camera. The Polaroid film has been manipulated artistically. This is a portrait of the famed photographer Bob "The Job" Batchelor, from England. Bob was living in Brandon Florida. A friend of mine and also a very good friend of Ralph Steadman - and yes that is thee Ralph Steadman, Gonzo artist for Hunter S. Thompson. This Polaroid was done by Ralph Steadman.
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A Janis Joplin mug shot photo. Almost a forgotten treasure. Back from when I worked at Ritz Camera, it was either 2008 or 2009...scanned from the original negative. My original 8x12 reprint is framed and hanging in the Gallery House in Florida. The reprint here is from a photo I shot of that framed print. The customer who brought in the negative, who I did a reprint for, a relative of his - I think it was his uncle - I can't remember now, worked for the police department and was the guy who took the mug shot photo of Janis.
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Another time at Ritz, I was running an 8x10 print for a customer...it was a reprint of an old oil painting, and while we were waiting for the print to be done I was making small talk with the guy...I asked him if he was the one who did the painting and he replied with, I wasn't alive in the 1700's. I had not noticed the signature and date in the lower right corner of the painting. The old oil painting was from 1796. So, with the small talk continuing on...the guy tells me he needs the reprint to send to an auction house in New York, that he owns the original oil painting and he's selling it at auction, and that the painting was estimated value at 3 million dollars...as the story unfolds...he tells me he lives in Lakeland, and he went to one of those storage unit auctions - (for example: like those T.V. shows Storage Hunters or Storage Wars) - where people can bid on storage units that other people have just left forgotten or have not paid their rental bills. The guy goes on to tell me that he won the bid on the storage unit for $600, and it ended up being packed full of all kinds of antique furniture, old oil paintings, other antiques, etc. He told me that there were something like 100 to 150 oil paintings, and that almost all of them had been valued between 1 to 3 million dollars each, and that he had already gotten quite a few of them sold off at the auction house in New York. He told me there were these 2 antique chairs (a matched set) and each chair was valued at $75,000 and both had also already sold. There was also another piece of antique furniture that got sold that he told me was valued at a couple of hundred thousand dollars. He went on to tell me as well that he had gone through cancer and during that time, his wife had cheated on him with his friend, so he divorced her.
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It was New Year's day...I can't remember if it was for 2008 or 2009...anyway, scheduled to work that day was only my Manager Chris and I, just the 2 of us. We thought we were going to have a slow, mellow, not so busy of a day but we were wrong. The day was slammed busy with customers. We had this one pretty regular customer who came in quite often - Ben - he was a college kid and photographer...a good guy. Ben was in the store this day...we did not have internet in our store and Brighthouse cable company was right next door and if we ever needed to use internet they would let us...my Manager Chris was at Brighthouse using their internet to check something for a customer, I was at the back of the store in the photo lab, Ben yells out to me that some young guy layed over our front counter and stole a Nikon D40 camera kit...just then Chris comes back into the store from Brighthouse, I shout to Chris that we just had a camera get stolen and that I'm going after the guy to get it back. I hauled ass running out of the store and chased the guy through a service door and hallway that lead out to the parking lot...screaming and yelling at him, calling him a piece of shit, pussy, that I was going to end his life and fuck him up, just yelling a shit load of curses and threats to him. We got out to the parking lot and I was gaining on him...my thought was to grab him by the back of his shirt and slam him into a car...he dropped the camera kit box and I scooped it up still running full speed to catch him, but when he dumped the camera he ducked down behind parked cars. There was a biker dude and his wife walking into the mall and they both tried to help me catch him. The kid got away but I got the camera back.
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It was a weekday...very slow, dead, nothing was going on...I was working with Tom, it was just the 2 of us. We had had this sort of older guy kind of lurking around...I asked him if he needed help, chatted with him for a minute, the guy seemed ok, nice...he left the store for a bit and then came back...lurked around a bit and then left again...very shortly after I noticed we had a Nikon D90 kit missing. I knew we had not sold the camera because we had been dead, it was so slow. I walked out the front of the store to look around to see if I could find that guy...sure enough, not so far at all from the store, the guy was sitting on one of the couches by a fountain in the mall...he spots me watching him...he had the camera box stuffed into a backpack and the pack was on the floor in front of him. I started walking towards him and he pulled the backpack up onto the couch and had his arm over it and leaning on it...the D90 box was too big to fit all the way in his bag and I saw the corner of the box sticking out. He stayed seated on the couch and I was standing directly in front of him. He kept asking me if I had a problem and what the problem was. I told him I wanted my camera back that he stole. He tried to tell me that Tom had sold it to him, which I knew was a lie. I told him that I knew Tom had not sold him the camera. He stood up...ok, now I'm 6ft.1in., this guy was something like 6ft.5in. - he was a big guy...he could have for sure kicked my ass...he stepped in real close to me asking if we were going to have a problem but I stood my ground. Also, when he stood up he left his backpack with the D90 kit on the couch, so I just dipped to the side around him and snatched the box out of his bag. Then he started asking me - ah it's like that, and how you gonna do me like that? I replied - how am I gonna do you like that? naw, how you gonna do me like that, you stole my camera! I started getting real loud, shouting...calling the guy a thief...calling out for anyone to call security...just getting real loud. And course no one around in the mall did anything at all to help. People just stood around watching...shit like that pisses me off in society. The guy got away...just walked off. I got the camera back. When I got back into the store I ended up noticing that a Nikon D60 kit was also missing...I found the box stuffed into a garbage can right outside of the store...the box was empty, but no, the D60 had not been stolen, the D60 was the last one and the camera was in the display case...that dumbass had stolen an empty box on his first go around.
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One night when it was just me and Derrick working, this lady came in and asked me if we were able to scan and do reprints from old negatives...I told her yes we can...she told us it was a negative of Elvis Presley, that her father had shot the photo. I told her ok, bring the negative in and I can scan it and do the prints. She seemed to be a little bit too overly excited about it being a photo of Elvis...and she seemed to be almost offended or something that Derrick and I did not share in her excitement or enthusiasm that it was of Elvis...also almost like she thought we didn't believe her. She kept repeating, saying - it's Elvis! with great excitement. I told her to bring the negative in and I could do the work she wanted. She walked out and I never saw her again...I don't think she ever came back.
(My apologies, sorry, but I'm just not an Elvis fan, besides he was racist).
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