By Evelyn Greene
Carrboro Commons Writer

Photography isn’t just a hobby. For the employees of Southeastern Camera, the art and process of taking pictures has become their business.

A friendly smile and helpful information are just a few of the qualities that keep Chris Johnson (pictured) and Southeastern Camera distinct from Internet companies. With every wall and counter crammed with items for sale, a photo enthusiast is sure to find the accessory he or she needs.
Staff photo by Evelyn Greene

“We do a little bit of everything, basically anything related to photography,” said Chris Johnson, manager of the Carrboro store. From the crowded countertops, lined with rows of lenses ready for purchase or repair, to the walls shelved and stuffed with boxes of film and paper, “everything” seems like an understatement.

When the store first opened on East Rosemary Street in Chapel Hill in 1994, regulars needing supplies and accessories to support their film cameras frequented Southeastern Camera, which is the only store of its kind in Carrboro. In today’s market camera sales are mostly digital.

“We have definitely seen a change from the digital world,” said Johnson, of Mebane. He said that while it started out slow, as the quality of digital cameras improved and the prices dropped, the digital trend rapidly grew.

While the average customer enjoys photography as a hobby, there are many professionals that still come to the shop. This, however, is slowly declining as digital takes over.

“With film, there was more of a need for regular supplies: film, paper and chemistry,” Johnson said.

As digital has become the preferred way of shooting, there is less of a need to go to a professional shop. Photographers can buy a body and a lens with one big purchase and get by without other accessories.

Since 1997, when the store shifted to 205 W. Main Street, Johnson has credited the business’s success with the staff’s willingness to do more than just sell cameras.

“We have to sell ourselves to the customer,” he said. “A lot of it comes down to the personal service, the instruction and the information they can gather from us. All of us are huge photo enthusiasts so we know the cameras, and we can answer just about any question thrown at us,” Johnson said with a proud smile.

Although people do appreciate having a store they can actually walk into, camera stores are slowly closing down across the state, Johnson said.

“It is very hard to compete with online pricing,” Johnson said. He said the answer is that Southeastern Camera must separate itself from the Internet suppliers.

“What we find is that everyone sells cameras,” Johnson said.

When film cameras dominated the photography world, supplies and accessories were not readily available. Professionals and hobbyists had to visit specialty shops to meet their needs. The age of online has made these same materials accessible to everyone.

“There are tons of stores [online] that offer the appeal of good pricing, and that’s something we struggle to compete with every day,” Johnson said. When the lower prices are from a reputable dealer, Johnson said that to complete the sale, both the consumer and the store must compromise.

Often, the lower price leads Johnson and his staff to suspect that something is amiss. Usually these cameras have been rebuilt and then sold as new, or they are gray-market cameras.

Gray-market cameras are not intended to be sold in the United States, and consumers soon find out that they are not covered under warranties.

The employees of Southeastern Camera are constantly trying to educate their customers about these misconceptions.

“We spend most of our day talking about cameras,” Johnson said.

And when customers want formal classes on cameras and photography, they don’t have to travel far.

Todd Gaul, a Carrboro resident, has been with the Southeastern Camera family since he created its first Web site in 1997.

When he is not working in the store or privately shooting weddings and other events, he holds classes at The ArtsCenter in Carrboro.

While he offers a darkroom-specific class for film enthusiasts, he also provides a beginning and advanced class for those wanting to work with digital.

“Film is a great way to learn, but I was losing a lot of people by only offering a beginning film class,” Gaul said.

Another employee at Southeastern Camera came to work at the camera shop after a career change in 1996.

“I left the business world for photography,” said Dennis Efird, a salesman at Southeastern. After leaving the life of a mortgage banker, he attended Randolph Community College to study photography. He began working at the Carrboro location in 1997 and has been with the store since.

“It’s still a business,” Efird said about working at Southeastern Camera, “but it’s a different type of business.”

Yet, as the online providers grow in popularity, the nature of the business will continue to change. Southeastern Camera, in its three locations (Carrboro, Raleigh and Wilmington), remains one of the few camera stores still in business.

They are owned by Tony Mansfield of Chapel Hill. He said he moved the store from Chapel Hill to Carrboro for better parking and more retail space.

“It’s the Internet pricing that gets us,” Johnson said. “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”