Content area
Full text
Bob Eveleth has found that photography can be child's play, a family affair and a glamorous business.
Eveleth moved to Houston in 1989 to purchase two Glamour Shots studios and quickly expanded to 10 locations in the local market over the next couple of years. He says an advertising campaign featuring "before and after" pictures gave his business an immediate boost.
Low cost was another key factor. The price of a single session, including a sitting and print sales, could reach $1,500 at some local studios specializing in glamour photography. So Eveleth decided his Glamour Shots locations would bring the expense down to the retail level in a range that everyone could afford.
He rode the glamour photography wave for as long as he could, but soon realized a more diverse studio was necessary to remain successful.
A University of Texas graduate with a degree in accounting, it didn't take him long to figure out when he had oversaturated the market with Glamour Shots studios.
"We had about 880,000 women in our target market, and we had already photographed about half of them at our 10 area stores," Eveleth recalls. "So I knew that it was time to move on to another concept."
He left Glamour Shots in 1996 to launch Studio One to One, an innovative approach to retail photography that combined glamour shots, family portraits and photos of children.
"My vision was to bring to the retail market the quality and style of photography typically available only at highend private studios, but to make it available at an affordable price:' says Eveleth.
Studio One to One opened in 1996 with studios in...