Tuesday, September 16, 2008 Photo studio survives technology changes, continues to serve Cebu By Nancy R. Cudis Sun.Star Staff Reporter
FAMILY-owned Joecel Studio has lived through nearly six decades, experiencing good sales, difficult times caused by the resignation of its skilled employees who have been recruited by outsourcing companies and intense competition due to the onset of digital photography.
What is this small and medium enterprise’s secret? Second-generation owner Helen Alivio del Mar, 60, and her husband Rolando del Mar, 59, summed it all up in one word: quality.
“I’m really strict with quality, especially with the retouching of the photos. It’s a misconception that we retouch too much.
We always strive to maintain the natural look of a customer while enhancing his or her natural features,” said Helen in Cebuano.
She is the fourth of the nine children of Celerina and Jose Alivio Sr., who founded the photography business.
The Alivios first enterprise venture was a bakery in Mindanao. When Celerina’s brother-in-law went into outdoor photography, Jose became interested as well.
Jose studied photography and the financial viability of setting up a photography studio. After weighing the cost and benefits, the Alivio couple set up a studio in Molave, Zamboanga del Sur.
Helen said that her parents’ studio was doing better than the bakery because many people wanted and needed to be photographed.
The family business was not yet called Joecel (a combination of Jose and Celerina’s names) Studio back then. Its name was changed each time the couple moved the shop to a more favorable location in Mindanao. The studio was named
Memories, then Meriam and later Visayan Studio.
When the family moved to Cebu, they set up a photo studio in Pelaez Extension that became part of almost all significant events in the lives of nearly every inhabitant of Cebu City and its neighboring towns and cities. Through the years, before digital photography, Joecel Studio has been part of every graduation, beauty pageant, wedding, birthday, baptism and moments when friends—and possibly, lovers—decide to pose to create a memento of that friendship or love.
Helen, a photographer herself, came to manage the studio and did most of the retouching of film negatives until the 1980s.
With the support of her husband and three daughters—fine arts graduate Farrina Love, 29, architecture graduate Yarmen Gay, 23, and Ellali Kim, 15—Helen continues to manage the studio, which now has about 16 employees that include photographers, make-up artists, receptionists and film developers.
Helen lamented the loss of some of the studio’s skilled personnel to outsourcing companies. Still, she continues to train undergraduates as well as her daughters in photography, retouching and customer service.
Although Joecel’s peak season is from November to April, with graduation photos taking up the bulk, the del Mar family is busy the whole year with other memorable occasions, like weddings and family reunions.
“So we are never zero (even) during lean days,” Helen said.
The bulk of its client base is the student population as Joecel has cornered nearly all schools, colleges and universities in Cebu City.
Among college graduates, the most popular package is worth P1,300, which already includes three 8R, one 5R, one 3R, eight wallet-size, eight 2x2, 16 1x1, and four smaller pictures.
“We keep on studying how to retouch, especially now that everything is almost digital. We also have to come up with ways to stand out amid stiff competition and to keep our customers interested in us, like coming up with new and artistic packages and presentations and changing our photo backgrounds each year,” said Rolando in Cebuano. (NRC)
