La Grange Camera's Expert Staff Will Help You Record Memories

I walked into La Grange Camera for an interview recently, and I walked out with a brand new camera.

Now, I had been thinking about buying a camera for a while. I looked at various models online and tried to determine what I wanted or needed. But it was so much easier with the in-person service at La Grange Camera.

The service is what owners Ray Baldwin and Heather Fulscher pride themselves on, making it one of the few remaining camera shops in the area.

“We don’t just hand you a box. We want to make sure you’re educated and comfortable,” Fulscher said. “It should be a happy and growing experience.”

When a new camera is purchased, the staff unpacks everything and walks through various features with the customer, helping them understand the basics. And they encourage customers to return with questions.

“We can help grow your hobby,” Fulscher said.

That is, after all, how La Grange Camera came into existence. Baldwin took up photography as a hobby and, having always wanted to open a business, put the two together to open a shop in Lyons in 1976. He opened the second location in La Grange, at 104 W. Burlington Ave., 18 years ago and later closed the Lyons shop.

La Grange Camera is moving locations again, but not going far this time. The store will move Aug. 1 to its new location at 20 E. Burlington, which Fulscher said will provide more visibility and parking for the store.

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Fulscher, Baldwin’s daughter, started working part-time at the store in high school and into college, where she studied management at Columbia College. She also had a minor in photography.

“I knew I wanted to be in management, I just didn’t know what,” she said. “Here I got to do a little bit of everything and I really liked it. My passion is that I like helping people.”

The staff doesn’t just help people find new cameras and teach them to operate the equipment. There’s a great variety of services offered at the store, including photo printing, poster-size printing, camera rentals, transferring older formats such as slides to DVDs and more.

Fulscher said a lot of people find old photos and want to maintain those memories, which she said is the best reason to have a camera and print photos, even in the age of Instagram.

“Later on in life you want to look back on stuff, and pictures are what you have,” Fulscher said. “You want those memories. Photographs can tell a whole life story.”