Say Cheese--and Keep Up With Technology

Frank Ponder joined Bel Air Camera as general manager in 1971 after growing up in his father’s Hollywood camera distribution business. Over the last decade, the company has grown from a neighborhood camera and film shop into a regional photography center. Expanding into various niches and embracing new technology instead of shunning it have propelled the company beyond its mom-and-pop roots, Ponder says. He was interviewed by freelance writer Karen E. Klein.

Shooting pictures and preserving memories have become so much easier than they were 20 years ago, when you had to know about things such as f-stops and shutter speeds to get a really good picture. Back then, people were thrilled if they got one or two good pictures in a roll. Now they’re upset if they get one bad one.

It is a very difficult market today because, with e-commerce, it has become so easy to buy a camera on the Internet. We can compete with the legitimate Web sites, and we’re working on our own version so we can sell our merchandise online.

Digital and still video have been our biggest growth areas in the last several years. We went from $113,000 in digital sales in 1996 to $1.9 million in 1999.

The fun technology, such as photo software that allows you to create a scrapbook that you can send out in CD form to your whole family, is fueling more interest in the whole area of photography. All the people who used to have home darkrooms and bought darkroom equipment from us have started buying computers and digital photo equipment. We’ve expanded our store so that we now have experts in every area, even some of the most esoteric. The technical aspects of photography have become so complex now that we need specialists on our staff.

Along with new equipment, we also sell recycled cameras and equipment, and we take trade-ins that appeal to students who are looking to buy a good camera but need to get it cheaper. Rentals are also a major sales center for us. We do about $500,000 worth of rentals annually, mostly in professional video cameras, lenses, lighting setups and digital cameras.

Two years ago, we moved out of the Westwood Boulevard location where we’d been for 18 years when our landlord raised the rent drastically. We went from 7,500 square feet on three floors into an old bank building with 17,000 square feet on two floors. We are in a corner location about a block and a half from the old store, with adjacent parking.

The move kick-started our growth because we have more visibility. We created a fun atmosphere with open-beam ceilings and a warehouse feeling on the inside and an icon of a camera and a roll of film outside. We have a huge basement where we put in film-processing equipment so we can do that in-house, and it has become a major part of our business as a result.

We also added a classroom and photo gallery downstairs, where we offer classes and we’ve held major exhibits for schools, professional photographers, amateurs and adult classes.

Although our store has changed and expanded into a regional center, we never changed our mom-and-pop philosophy. We smile and we treat our customers with respect. The technology may have changed, but not our customer service, our attitude and our goal of employing only trained, knowledgeable staff.

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If your business can provide a lesson to other entrepreneurs, contact Karen E. Klein at the Los Angeles Times, 1333 S. Mayflower Ave., Suite 100, Monrovia, CA 91016, or at kklein6349@aol.com. Include your name, address and telephone number.

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At a Glance

Company: Bel Air Camera

Owner: Maria and William Herskovic

Nature of business: Photography sales and service

Location: 10925 Kinross Ave., Los Angeles 90024

Founded: 1957

Web site: https://www.belaircamera.com cq

Employees: 48

Annual revenue: $17 million