Today's Guest: Jez Noble of Tempe Camera Repair in Tempe, AZ
Today's Host: John Bentley
August 2007
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Jez Noble Transcript Page
Jez Noble Expert PageANNOUNCER: Welcome to the VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.
JOHN: Today's program is sponsored by MorePhotos.com the online photo sales solution to professional photographers worldwide.
JOHN: Today we are in the Studio with Jez Noble of Tempe Camera Repair, Inc., of Tempe, AZ. You're listening to VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. Welcome to the program, Jez.
JEZ: Good Morning.
JOHN: Well, you've got quite a business going on there in Tempe. Looks like you sell equipment, you rent equipment, you repair equipment. You do all of the photo finishing for amateurs and professionals alike. Tell us a little bit about your business.
JEZ: Well it's a full service store. We do rent equipment to local photographers as well as national photographers for their photo shoots. We offer a lot of advice to photographers of all levels at the same department. Mostly repair equipment as is gets broken. We have a machine shop in store so we can repair things possibly other stores couldn't. We also are a dealer for just about all the major camera manufacturers. So we sell all the fun new toys. We recently became an Apple dealer as well so we sell the backend computers that photographers tend to use. As well as then printing, processing, developing, mounting, and providing other digital services to photographers.
JOHN: Let's talk about your photo lab first of all. Let's say I'm a professional photographer, can I use the web to send my photos to you?
JEZ: Yes, you can. We do have an FTP service where people do upload images to us in files of all sizes which they can then either store on our servers here, or they can store offline. People can view their images here and have their clients view their images here more importantly and then order prints securly through the network, and have the whole thing managed by us.
JOHN: Wow. Ok. Do you drop ship prints directly to the photographer's customers then?
JEZ: That is an option we offer. It's one of the many customizable offers we offer on that service.
JOHN: Let's talk about the paper you guys are using on your prints. What brand of paper are you using?
JEZ: We have a variety of different papers for different printers for different purposes. Everything from cotton rag we use in the Geclay prints, we print on canvas. We have duratrends back-knit transparency material plus the usual variety of Fuji crystal archive papers that we use in some of the digital printers, the Fuji printers and the Gratike printers. The new one we just offered, I believe is chrome-based paper which offers a very, very bright shiny color surface. It's a pretty nice black and white too.
JOHN: Now, I was looking at your website a little bit, and there's a couple of things on there that you're offering. Metallic prints-would that fall in line with that or is it something totally different?
JEZ: That's a very impressive looking paper.
JOHN: Now what about..do you mount photographs?
JEZ: We can. We have a variety of different mounting options from simple foam core all the way up to museum grade mounting. So yes, we have a variety of options there.
JOHN: What about any kind of texturing that I might want with my photos. That seems to be kind of a cool idea.
JEZ: Yes, there are some services we offer where we can do affects on the print. We can also print, as I previously mentioned, on canvas which is quite a popular option these days. The larger sort of water color papers are quite popular too.
JOHN: What's this hot foil stamping I see on your website?
JEZ: Ahh, I'm not too familiar with the foil stamping. Myself being in the rental department, I have yet to take advantage of that.
JOHN: Then let's move on to some of the rental that you have there. If I came in, let's say I'm looking for a wide angle lens, is that something I can get from you guys for my Canon Rebel?
JEZ: Yep. We have lens of all types by Canon and Nikon and a few of the third party manufacturers, but mostly we do the name brand lenses and the more exotic things that people wouldn't necessarily own, but would like try out as well as some of the medium and large format stuff that a commercial professional photographer would rent from city to city.
JOHN: What about lighting? Do you rent lighting products too?
JEZ: Everything from the ground up which is the stands to grip equipment. Lighting both continuous and strobe lighting.
JOHN: What about some of the finishing services that you offer to photographers on their prints. Tell us a little bit about that.
JEZ: Ok. Well printing, if you're going to FTP stuff to us, we can print on any one of those surfaces that we talked about previously. And then we have a variety of sizes from wallet sizes all the way up to large museum size prints - 50 and 60 inch prints on any one of those surfaces. So really it is the one stop shop for everything from the amatuers to the professionals.
JOHN: Now are you able to repair my photos? Let's say I've got closed eyes, but I've got an excellent expression on my client's face I'd like to use. Do you guys have the capability of altering photos like that?
JEZ: We do have a fairly capable digital department here that can do retouching of all types and sizes. Compositing images we can do. Any manner of retouching, recoloring...really not a problem at all.
JOHN: What about online proofing? Is this something that I can go and check what you've done with a print and ok it before it gets sent off to my customers?
JEZ: That is one of the other customized options, yes, absolutely we can do that. That would be one of the things where we could offer our website to you. A small inexpensive website to use as your personal portfolio. Also there could be a secure area there where you could proof your own prints and have your customers proof the final prints.
JOHN: Great. What about turn around time? What kind of turn around time do you guys have for these projects?
JEZ: Well, we go anywhere from 24 hours out to several days. There's a premium I understand for a very fast turn around on larger projects, but we can usually work within most people's time frame.
JOHN: How long has Tempe Camera Repair been in the business?
JEZ: We've been here for over 20 years now. Finally moved ourselves into two larger buildings, because the business has expanded, but we've been going such it was just a very small operation.
JOHN: What about some of the area that you cover down there in Tempe. The surrounding communities?
JEZ: We're quite active in the local trade community here and we've become quite a fixture in Tempe. I think most people know where we are. We are the largest photo store in the southwest. We also have the most capable rental department in the southwest and recently acquired a couple other labs that we've now absorbed into the Tempe camera area. We have the Daldo Lab has been incorporated into Tempe Camera as has The Lab which was the premier dip and dunk E-6 processing center. So we have all the services right here.
JOHN: We are speaking with Jez Noble of Tempe Camera Repair, Inc., down in Tempe, AZ. Would you kindly give our listeners your website information and contact number?
JEZ: Certainly, you can find us on the web at www.tempecamera.com or alternatively you can find us at www.tempecamera.biz where you can find all our services plus our rental catalog online. We also recently set up an ecommerce site at that same website so you can purchase online. You can contact us locally at (480) 966-6954 and email us at rentals@tempecamera.com.
JOHN: We are in the studio with Jez Noble of Tempe Camera Repair, Inc., of Tempe, AZ. You are listening to VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. We're going to step aside for a minute for these important messages. Do come back.
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ANNOUNCER: This VTalk Radio Spotlight is sponsored by morephotos.com, the online photo sales solution to professional photographers worldwide.
ANNOUNCER: We now return you to the VTalk Radio Photographer's Spotlight with your host, John Bentley. JOHN: Welcome back to VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. Today we are in the studio with Jez Noble of Tempe Camera Repair, Inc., of Tempe, AZ. Welcome back to the program, Jez.
JEZ: Thank you. Good morning.
JOHN: Now we've been talking about your photography business down there. I mean you guys do everything from sales to repairs to rentals.
JEZ: Yes we do. We try to cover everything.
JOHN: You are certainly a full service lab when it comes to photo finishing for professional photographers.
JEZ: Certainly all the services you'd expect in the modern photography industry.
JOHN: Are there any special services that you guy offer that most labs don't?
JEZ: Well other than than apparent attention to detail. Every print is hand checked and can be hand retouched at the print stage which a lot of labs really don't do anymore. Most of the stuff is just checked by machine...it goes straight into a bag and it is handed to you. Ours actually all get handed to a professional who checks every single print by hand so that's one of the other services that really sets us apart. Also we can deliver those prints to you. We do have a small delivery service where we can pick up film from you as a professional photographer and deliver proofs and prints back to you.
JOHN: Great. Now you also do some copy work down there too. Tell us a little bit about that.
JEZ: Well we find a lot of local artists come in here with their paintings asking for copies to be made. We do a fairly full featured copy service. We can do large format film...35mm slides and medium and large format digital as well for larger digital output for reproduction.
JOHN: What about print products? We touched on a couple of things, but do you guys offer things like t-shirts or mugs?
JEZ: We tend to stay clear of the lower consumer grade things that maybe would be covered by some of the mall type photography stores like the mugs and the pins and the hats and things, but we can if you need us to print on just about any surface.
JOHN: What about some of the other services you offer...let's say I have some old video that I'd like to have transferred. Is that a service you also offer?
JEZ: Yes, video transfer is one of the other things offer now. From just about any format from 16mm film, 8mm, Super 8 to DVD. We also do VHS to DVD. So, yes, there are a variety of video services we can offer also.
JOHN: Well you guys about cover everything here.
JEZ: We do try.
JOHN: Is it a large facility that you have down there?
JEZ: It is a reasonably large facility. There's about 100 employees here spread across two buildings. So, yes, between the two buildings we have an awful lot of experience in our staff?
JOHN: So how long have you actually been part of Tempe Camera Repair, Jez?
JEZ: I've been here about 6 years now, working my way up from the floor to becoming the manager of the rental department.
JOHN: Excellent. Do you guys have any informational products that you sell there? Books, magazines, anything like that?
JEZ: We do sell all the books and magazines you would expect from any professional photo store, but really one of the other things that sets us apart is the amount of experience we have under our roof here with the staff. So, any time people can in and really just ask questions and get intellegent answers from people who do actually use the products that we sell, rent and repair.
JOHN: Would you kindly give your website and contact information one more time for our listening audience, Jez.
JEZ: Certainly. You can find us on the web at www.tempecamera.com alternatively you can find us at www.tempecamera.biz. You can contact us at (480) 966-6954.
JOHN: Well when I'm back down in the Tempe, AZ, area, and I was just down in Arizona a month and a half ago, I'll definitely come by and check out your shop. It sounds like a pretty great service you got down there.
JEZ: We'd be happy to see you.
JOHN: I want to thank you for joining us today on VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight, Jez.
JEZ: Thank you very much.
JOHN: We have been in the studio today with Jez Noble of Tempe Camera Repair, Inc., of Tempe, AZ, and you've been listening to VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. Have a great afternoon.
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