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How did your career path lead you to starting you business? Having started six businesses through the years it seems that starting my own business has been my career path. I started my first home based business in order to earn play money for my children and remain at home with them. I started our latest concern, custom picture framing, as a compliment to our photography business. Since I am interested in doing many things in my life I tend to re-invent myself again & again. As for Meredith, the loss of her job when Wolf Camera closed over 200 locations across the nation made her available and eager to join Miriam in starting a family photography business. What is the most challenging about your job? The most challenging thing about having a small business is competing with the big corporations which have their marketing done for all outlets at once and also pay for their resources in bulk for much less than we pay. Our advantage is that we provide personal and professional attention to each customer in order to provide the very best outcome every time. Catching up and keeping up with technology has also been a challenge as everything seems to be changing from the way we do marketing and networking to managing the wonderful world of digital photography. As Far as artistic challenges, sometimes a customer will bring in a photograph they want us to restore when there is more missing from the photography than remains. Somehow Meredith always pulls it off even when she has initial doubts. What is most rewarding? There is no doubt that the most rewarding thing about our work is observing our customers' pleasure when they receive their finished orders. It is especially gratifying to see astonished faces when they see the restoration of a treasured photograph, or the slide show we have done of the trip that meant so much to them, or the canvas or art paper enlargement , or the dvd made from home movies and videos that have been sitting in boxes in the back of the closet for decades. Of course, working with my daughter is the the greatest personal reward. How has photography changed in the last few years, and how has that affected your business? The digital world has changed photography in some positive ways as well as disappointing ways. Taking many photos has become possible and affordable for the masses; the best may be saved and the remainder may be deleted without cost. The use of advanced technology phones for photography is causing many folks to leave their cameras at home, and each season the quality of these images improves. Because of the increase of sharing images through social networking, many people are printing fewer images these days, but since space for archiving images is compressed like never before future printing is not only possible, but likely. MIRIAM LANGLEY MEREDITH LANGLEY Miriam Langley Meredith Langley 3121 Vineville Avenue I Macon, Georgia 31204 478-254-2310 I fstop.photo@yahoo.com www.fstopphotopro.com JUNE/JULY 2013 MACON MAGAZINE I 93 A D V E R T I S E M E N T