Cooke’s renewed focus
AFTER shooting a thousand or more weddings, commercial photographer Trevor Cooke has gone back to where his career started 36 years ago at Geelong’s Camera House.
Much has changed in photography since he got his first job as a 15-year-old store assistant in 1981, but it’s the same game at its heart.
“The gear we were using was different,” Mr Cooke said.
“But the whole reason why we take a picture is the same; the idea of making memories is still the same.”
Mr Cooke was asked to manage the Moorabool St store after Camera House purchased it earlier this year, becoming the first corporateowned outlet among a chain of more than 50 independently owned stores.
He said the store’s history as the first Camera House, and its strategic importance in servicing a wide area, were key reasons the buying group bought the store from Jamie Roydhouse.
Now the owner of Cockies Beer brewery in South Geelong, Mr Roydhouse had operated the store since 1976 when he took it over from his father, Don, who had bought the business in 1950, naming it Camera House.
A buying group took the name when it formed in the ’60s. Mr Cooke said the buying power of that group remained, making Camera House competitive on price and able to price match any Australian retail store offering.
“The perception is a little bit that Camera House is expensive, but we are not,” he said. “It’s a misperception with the Geelong store or with specialist stores. But we are very price-competitive.”
It’s telling, too, that Camera House focused on getting an experienced photographer to manage the store.
“People can come and talk to real photographers who know what they are doing, it’s one of the main reasons I am here … to just share that knowledge,” he said.
Mr Cooke also runs introduction to digital photography and Photoshop courses alongside “photo walks” to offer advice.