Category: default || By jt3y

Another Downtown retail store recently closed, or so it would appear. Photographics Supply Inc. had been selling camera equipment and film in the city since 1963, and it's where I bought my first real camera, with my first real paycheck (from Kennywood) as a teen-ager.

If this has been covered already in any of the newspapers, I apologize, but I hadn't seen it. I noticed a week or two ago that the building, located next to the former Helmstadter's Department Store on Fifth Avenue, is up for sale, the website is down, and the phones are disconnected. I sent email to two people formerly associated with the store, but I haven't gotten a response yet.

By the way, I don't know anyone, except non-McKeesporters, who called it "Photographics Supply." It seems like all of the shutterbugs in the Mon Valley that I know called it by its old name, "Brenner's."

I suppose I haven't been as good a customer as I could have been, since I haven't been taking a lot of pictures lately, nor have I bought any camera equipment (a few Polaroids at the flea market doesn't count), but I stopped in a couple of times a year for film. Most of the time I hung around to drool on the equipment and leave greasy nose-prints on the display cases.

While I don't know for sure the reasons for its closing, I suspect it's a victim of the same trends that have claimed several of my favorite camera shops: Digital photography and one-hour drug store processing. Fotoshop in Squirrel Hill and Loreski's in Monroeville succumbed some time ago, as did the Foto Hut in Oakland, near my office.

And, of course, small businesses sometimes just close when the owners decide to retire --- I can't blame someone for deciding to get some peace and quiet.

I haven't gone digital yet, though I have used a digital camera at work. I'm a little uncomfortable with the long-term storage issues. I've been taking photos since I was 10 or 11 years old, and after 20 years, I'm starting to get quite a collection of Mon Valley landmarks, among other subjects. But they're all prints and negatives, which will be retrievable for hundreds of years, barring fire, flood or other damage.

Try reading a computer disk from 20 years ago --- or even 10. Do we have any guarantee that CD-ROMs will still be good 20 years from now?

But for snapshots and casual one-time use pictures, digital photography is fantastic, and the advantages are obvious. What's more convenient than being able to snap a high-quality picture and immediately preview it? Then, at your leisure, you can print, email or upload them as many times as you want.

Even many (if not all) commercial photographers are working with digital cameras, and turning out excellent work. So it's no wonder that the conventional film business is tanking (no pun intended) and taking the high-end camera stores with it.

And make no mistake about it --- Photographics Supply dealt in high-end equipment, not the Brownie Instamatic kind of crap that I use (though they never treated me like the rank amateur that I am), and several of their employees were accomplished photographers themselves.

Still, Photographics Supply was doing a lot of industrial and commercial business in enlargers, papers, lamps and other expensive equipment, and I had some hope they would be around for a while. I guess that isn't the case.

Sic transit gloria McKeesport, and au revoir, Photographics Supply (nee Brenner's): For those who ran the store for all of those years, may your futures be bright and properly exposed, and may your film and paper stay cool and dry. If the weather holds out, I'll snap a few rolls of Kodacolor this weekend in your honor.

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In other news: Penn State McKeesport Campus and its sister campuses in Beaver and New Kensington had a combined economic impact of more than $160 million in the region in 2003. So says Penn State President Graham Spanier. About 2,200 students are enrolled at the three campuses.

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Since Pitt is in the NCAA men's basketball playoffs tonight, it's only right that I provide a link to Pitt's fight songs. And since West Virginia is also in the playoffs, it's only right that I link to WVU's fight song as well.

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To Do This Weekend: McKeesport Little Theater, 1614 Coursin St. near Carnegie Library, presents "I Hate Hamlet" by Paul Rudnick, 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Call (412) 673-1100 ... Steel Valley Rotary Club holds its sixth-annual Big Band Dinner Dance at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Westwood Country Club (formerly Duquesne Golf Club) in West Mifflin. Cost is $30. Call (412) 464-1772. ... The 22-and-7 McKeesport Area High School boys' basketball team plays Schenley High School in the state quarterfinals tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. at Duquesne University's A.J. Palumbo Center.