Prater looks to the future

By JOHN HENDLER
News Editor

While many people still are leery of the current economic recession, at least one man is looking in the other direction and is preparing for the day when things turn around.
Floyd Prater, who has had his photography studio in Marshall for than 20 years, has decided to remodel his business for, what he feels, is the influx of business to come when the economy finally turns the corner.
“People think everything’s slower now, but it’s a great time to re-do your business,” he said. “To make the changes and to prepare for what’s coming.”
Some might say that Prater is bucking conventional wisdom.
“People say that money’s tight and you can’t invest,” said Prater. “You have to and this is the best time. There is business out there; you just have to make adjustments for it.”
Another reason for remodeling, he said, is the changing face of photography.
“The way we do business is changing,” said Prater. “Because of digital, we need more computerized work stations.”
Changing gears is nothing new to him, as he pointed out that he’s been forced to reevaluate his business on several occasions over the years.
“We have to re-do how we do business and we’ve done it before,” he said. “Over the past 20-plus years, we’ve had to stop and say, ‘O.K. which way is the business going and what do we need to do to stay competitive and keep our business growing?’”
Prater said he’s bought new printers, ID card machines and work equipment to be able to give his customers the products they need.
As digital cameras have pushed film to the brink of extinction, Prater said that although he enjoyed working in the darkroom, digital has expanded what he can do.
“I loved the darkroom and it used to be really fun, but digital, to me, is an extension of that,” he said. “It gives us more opportunities and you can do so much more with digital.”
One plus with digital is the instant feedback one gets by being able to view the picture just taken.
“Digital cameras have made it easier to see what you have,” said Prater. “With film, you had to be much more prepared so that there’d be fewer mistakes and you had to make sure the lighting was right, you had to make sure that your settings were right because you didn’t get to look at it and see.”
Still, he said that he loved film and that it is still a great medium, pointing to how film still records light better than digital.
“The artistry of film, especially the large format, like the 8X10 negative or the 4X5 negative, produce pictures that are almost impossible reproduce with digital,” he said.
With digital allowing more flexibility and options, it also gives the photographer more room for error, thanks to applications like Photoshop, but only to a certain point, said Prater.
“If you’re a good photographer and you do photography the way you’re supposed to, you shouldn’t be fixing things in Photoshop, you should be enhancing it,” he said.

Starting out primarily in portraits in weddings in the 1980’s, he went in a different direction about seven years ago, when he got involved with area schools and “event” photography.
“We made the choice to go to event pictures because we thought senior pictures and portrait pictures would get slower, (because of digital)” said Prater. “We didn’t realize it would happen as much and as fast as it did. We had no idea it would drop off.”
Today, event photography, yearbook pictures, sports team pictures, band pictures, etc. makes up about 90 percent of Prater’s business.
Prater said he takes pictures for “about a dozen” schools from Grand Rapids to Bronson.
“We’ve thought about expanding, but we’re comfortable with what we’ve got,” he said.
Prater feels that the entire world of photography has changed in the last decade as people have taken it upon themselves to photograph special occasions and events, such as weddings, themselves.
“You can buy a really nice camera for $600, instead of paying some guy $2,000,” he said.
That high price tag, Prater believes, is the reason business has changed.
“I think photographers priced themselves out of senior pictures, wedding pictures,” he said. “Many photographers, they want a $1,000 for senior pictures. A wedding is the same way. That might work in a place like Sterling Heights, but not here anymore.”
Prater said he used to do as many as 40 weddings a year.
“I did it for 20 years and we did a lot of them in those 20 years and it got to be that I didn’t enjoy working on Saturdays,” he said. “But, I got to meet a lot of wonderful people and some really stressed out ones…If you’re well organized and can handle a little stress, it’s a fun job.”
The best part of his job through the years, he said is seeing children grow up.
“I see kids and I took their school pictures,” he said. “Then, I took their high school graduation pictures; I took their wedding pictures and now they’ve got kids in school.”