John payaslyan
This week On The Verge Interviews is doing something a little different. I have been going to John’s business at Photocity in Studio City to get my film developed for 3 years. He is the best and fastest in town, but more importantly a kind, caring person with a passion for film. My team at Create.Repeat and I decided to join him at work and watch him develop some film and hear about his company. Enjoy :)
Hi, my name is John Payaslyan. I am here at Photocity. We started in 1989, in June and we have been here for 33 years. We develop films, print pictures, we do retouching, we take headshots and we print them as well. Everything about photofinishing! And we do restoration of old photos.
After 33 years of doing this, what keeps you coming back each morning?
Well, I love photography, this used to be my hobby! And I used to take pictures. Then my wife and I started this photo business together in 1989. She worked with me for 10 years and after that she had to take care of the family and kids. And I had to stay here at Photocity. I love my job and I love photography and I love printing and developing film. Everyday I learn something new. I learn things from my customers too. I try to help them out with film cameras as well, as much as I can. But I love my job. Photography is my passion.
What’s the first camera you had?
My first camera was a Canon AE-1 35mm, which I love. I used to teach with that camera back in the day.
How old were you when you got your first camera?
I was 19 years old.
What made you want to get a camera?
Well I started with a point and shoot kodak camera and I said, ‘I gotta get myself a nice camera!’ So my older brother helped me out. He got me this Canon AE-1, which back in the day was the hottest 35mm camera with a 50mm lens. And I started from there with black and white film, back in the day we used to shoot a lot of black and white film. When I developed my film, I messed up a couple of times but I started getting better at it, which is how I started my business.
What was one of the hardest things you have had to overcome as a business owner?
Well, the hardest thing was when we started, me and my wife put everything into the business, we had no money to pay the rent next month! I told my wife, let’s put a big banner on the store over the sign. We put a big sign up saying that we do jumbo prints which are 4x6 pictures. Back in the day studios used to do scouting for movie locations and there were no digital camera’s back in the day it was all film, in 1991. Then when they saw my banner they thought, “oh you do one hour developing jumbo prints?” I had location scouting managers for movies lining up out the front of my store with twenty rolls of film each person to get processed.
So all of a sudden everything changed. I was all of the sudden able to pay next month's rent and buy new equipment. I got big accounts with Universal Studios, Disney and all of that. It kept us busy which is why we were able to open up two new locations in the valley. Then you guys know what happened when the digital camera era started in the early 2000’s - film slowly died. That really took a lot from our business. It helped us in a way but it took away a lot of printing. We couldn't do much printing, or headshots - we used to do a lot of headshots for actors and actresses. And they stopped wanting printed resumes and just wanted digital copies to be emailed to them. So our business went down as far as printing and film processing. We were taking a lot of headshot pictures and sending it out to our customers digitally and that kept us going. Then all of the sudden a couple of years ago - film came back. Everyone started buying Olympus cameras, Contax cameras, and film kept growing. And now, we are very busy with film again.
Why do you think 35mm film made a comeback?
Well people realized that film has the quality that digital cameras cannot give. Film is really rich and vibrant in color. It’s different from digital files, film has grain and people like grain! There is no tampering with film. With film, what you see is what you get. With digital, people are working in photoshop, so it loses its effect. But really, it’s the richness of the colors. I have customers who are painters and they come in and they want to make copies of their large painted canvas and they ask if we take a photo digitally or on film. And I say film and they ask why and I say because the film takes TRUE colors and digital cannot do that. I use a large format camera, it’s a 4x5 camera. The film is like 4 inches by 5 inches each frame. So that gives you the best quality. So once we take the image of the canvas, then we process it and scan it. We do really nice high resolution scans. It has a beautiful quality.
What advice would you give to anyone who wants to be a photographer or have their own business?
Don’t be afraid and keep going and take one day at a time and do what you can do. With photography, you can learn everyday. I have been learning since day one. I learn a lot of things through my customers. I teach them things that they don't know and then some of the professional photographers will tell me how they did something after I process their film. And I say thanks for the info and I learn things! So just go on and think positively and you have to love what you do. And I love photography. I love working with my customers and creating relationships with them and it's not always just taking the job then finishing the job, we talk about photography, printing and other things.
What do you feel like you are on the verge of?
My goal is to work as long as I can and help my family be happy. And my dogs! I love my dogs and just go on, taking one day at a time. I want to keep coming in and seeing my customers everyday and work with them to develop their pictures and keep them happy because they keep me happy.