In a digital age, local man sees in black and white

Head down Union Street and turn East onto Seventh Street. Take an immediate left into the parking lot and follow the driveway straight back. A small sign indicates customer parking. It points to the garage. Another sign points to a back porch entrance. In the window is a sign "Distinctive Portraiture since 1959."\nBob Talbot's one-man operation lies within the walls of this small white house.\nThe studio wasn't always here. For the first 36 years of business the studio was located on Kirkwood Avenue and included a photo lab. When parking became a problem and people walked into the studio because it was more of a photo lab than a photography studio, he moved. \nThe husband of IU Trustee Sue Talbot, Bob is a father, grandfather and the sole proprietor of the 43-year-old photography business. \nTalbot began Talbot Studio -- originally called Woods & Talbot -- with W.D. Woods. The two men, with used equipment and only $1,000, began their business on the second floor of a theater on Kirkwood. After a year-and-a-half Talbot bought Woods' share of the business and changed the name to Talbot Studio.\n"Photography was a love and hobby of (Bob's) at a young age," Sue Talbot said. "After marriage he started the business as a full-time occupation."\nBob and Sue Talbot have more than 200 pieces of his work on the walls of their home.\n"I never need to worry about decorating our walls," she said. "In fact, much of our furnishings are planned to enhance the photographs, paintings and etchings." \nBob developed his passion for photography in high school and decided to fully indulge in it after getting a business degree from IU.\n"I have always been a visual person," Bob said.\nHe majored in business, he said, because he thought that if he went into photography he would want to be an independent business owner. He also took journalism, fine arts and photography courses. \nA business degree was beneficial to Talbot because it helped him understand cash flow, accounting and financing. One particular course dealing with problems of small businesses was extremely helpful because it tied together all the things he had learned in previous courses, he said.\nTalbot does publicity portraiture, weddings, some industrial work and family portraits. He has worked with some IU students, although he doesn't have a contract with IU. \nMore than 60 percent of his business is done in black and white, which is uncommon today. \n"Black and white materials are harder to find," Talbot said. Some companies have discontinued production of black-and-white materials even though places such as newspapers still demand black and white. \nBut, other photographers see the need for a more color-based studio and one that incorporates digital equipment. \nKendall Reeves, owner and photographer of Spectrum Studio, Inc., switched to digital equipment about two-and-a-half years ago. His studio is one of the largest studios in the Bloomington area and deals mainly with publicity and business portraiture. Only one to two percent of his business is black and white film. This is largely because of his conversion to digital cameras. \nReeves converted because "technology was getting better and costs down to where I could afford digital." \nThis is a conversion that Talbot is not interested in making. Talbot has about seven antique cameras. He prefers the older style cameras because of the quality and because he prefers them to be mechanical. \n"Photography will continue to change as we head into the digital age," he said. But Talbot doesn't see himself switching to digital cameras.