Pictures Plus changes focus in the photo world
from print film to digital cameras, photographic technology has changed rapidly over the past two decades and Pictures plus of Waynesboro has adapted to each new development. The latest turn is closing the shutter on the retail business, located under a giant roll of film in Wayne Heights, while focusing on sports and school photography. Snapshot of past Randy Kuhn opened Pictures plus 19 years ago in 1992. Customer service and professionalism were among his priorities. “The dress code back in the early ’90s was white shirts, ties and black slacks,” said Kuhn. “Part of the reason why was because we were pretty young, so to gain respect from your older clientele we dressed the part to help gain their respect and prove that we were professionals.” once they had the professional look down pat, Kuhn wanted to expand the business beyond the realm of retail and selling cameras. “I always needed to find a justification to expand the business or purchase a new piece of equipment,” he said. In the early 1990s, he purchased a $50,000 piece of equipment that had the capabilities to enlarge photos and Pictures plus Portrait Studio was born. “we opened up a test store on Walnut Street in Waynesboro during the holiday season,” said Kuhn. It was such a hit Kuhn created a studio behind the retail store on East Main Street. “we went out and created our own enlargement business to justify buying that $50,000 piece of photo enlarging equipment,” he said. “This is a very expensive business to be in; there is a fine line,” Kuhn said. “you have to take risks to make it but nothing is guaranteed.” next up was equipment to produce slides. “We’d go out to large corporations in the area such as Grove Manufacturing, who at the time gave all their training presentations on picture slides and bid out work to create their slides,” said Kuhn. Pictures plus was soon working with big local employers like Grove, Landis, Frick, JLG and Fort Ritchie, as well as individuals. “we became the jack-of-all-trades,” Kuhn said. “we made ourselves a self-sufficient business and we’ve always pretty much done all the work internally. We’ve never considered ourselves 9-to-5’ers. if someone needed a project or something done, we would work all night long or several days if need be to get it completed.” Going digital It was 1995, and Kuhn knew that the country and photography business was on the brink of the digital age. “at the time all the big players, Kodak, Fuji, Cannon, Nikon were all conducting customer research and they came up with a new product known as the Advanced Photo System (APS) where it was basically foolproof to load 33-mm film into a camera.” Kuhn only carried the APS camera in his store for a brief period during the 1995 holiday season, before scrapping the idea and looking towards the future. “I knew we needed to make sure we weren’t selling the wrong product to our customers,” said Kuhn, who noted that at the time what people really wanted were simpler, compact, lightweight, fool-proof cameras that provided instant gratification. Pictures plus really made money off digital photography at first, but now the time has come to look towards the future, Kuhn said. “Working and running a retail business is a 365-day job. It’s tiring and you can get burnt out on it,” said Kuhn. “though I loved the customers and the customer interaction, you just never really have an opportunity to turn the retail off or even slow down a bit.” Pictures Plus’ future with the closing of the store, the company’s work will be based out of the Zullinger office, purchased in January 2009, and will focus on sports and school photography, including student photos, yearbooks, ID badges and order forms. In 2001, “Rita Sterner-Hine, principal at Hooverville, was the first to allow us to work with them on their photography needs within the Waynesboro district,” Kuhn recalled. Pictures plus now works with Chambersburg, Greencastle-Antrim, Waynesboro, Fairfield and a portion of Shippensburg school districts. there also is a division in Martinsburg, W.Va., that works with four schools. Kuhn hopes to expand along the Interstate 81 corridor. Not goodbye When asked what was going to happen to the iconic Pictures plus roll of film sign, Kuhn said that he’s definitely going to keep it, but is unsure where. “It hard to believe we’ve grown from four employees including myself back in 1992 to now having over 40 employees today.” No employees are losing their jobs due to closing the retail portion of the business. “They’ll either be transitioning to the Zullinger office or to LA Cameras for work,” Kuhn said.
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