After photographing the important life moments of three generations of Jamestown residents, David Nelson will retire and close his King Photography business on April 26.
His favorite moments were photographing members of the North Dakota National Guard with their families before deploying overseas, he said. He also enjoyed photographing children and using his tricks to get them to smile.
“I’ve done their baby pictures. I’ve done their senior high school pictures and I’ve done their weddings,” Hanson said. “Now, you know you’re getting old when they start bringing in their kids and so I know it’s time.”
Nelson is just 58 years old but has been a studio photographer since age 16. He thought about working a few more years but his wife, Sheila, a speech pathologist at Washington Elementary School, will retire at the end of the school year. The couple have three grown children.
Nelson plans to spend more time with the Buffalo City Remote Control Squadron that he helped restart in 1985. He will also pursue his passion for scenic and landscape photography with a project to document abandoned farm homes of North Dakota and tell the stories of the people who lived in them.
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Nelson worked for studios in his native Moorhead and Detroit Lakes, Minn., and was age 26 in West Fargo when the partnership that bought King photography brought him to Jamestown in 1986. King Studio owners James Pallansch and Jack Schlenker were retiring, and Nelson became the manager.
“Jack Schlenker was still here and he took me under his wing for a while,” Nelson said. “He’d come in and have his coffee and donut. We’d chat and then he’d take me around to introduce me to people and to the schools that we were photographing.”
The Nelsons became the sole owners in 1996.
Lil Feigert, office manager, started in 1978 at the business and stayed on with Nelson.
“Working with people has been the great joy of the job,” she said. “There are a lot of different things you pick up that people would probably never see.”
People prefer less formal portrait photos today, she said. Family photos and high school photos are more casual than the suit-and-tie portraits years ago, she said.
“The older couples still come in more dressed up,” she said. “Weddings haven’t changed much, but there is a lot more to do than before.”
In the days before digital photography a big part of the business was retail photo-processing. Feigert helped process up to 300 rolls a day at one point with walk-ins and contracts with area drug stores.
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“When we had the fire we were down to probably 10 rolls a day because of digital,” Nelson said.
King Photography was located in the Orlady Building when the building burned in December 2005. Nelson said he was fortunate to have a full set of gear in a van for a late shoot which meant he could keep working until the business was restored.
Nelson’s retirement marks the end of an 85-year era for King Photography studio. Around four photographers were interested in the business, but nothing worked out before the lease deadline in May, so the inventory will be auctioned April 28 at Knights of Columbus Hall in Jamestown.
“The thing that bothers me most is that there’s not going to be a brick and mortar studio in this town anymore,” Nelson said. “I didn't want to be the one to let it go, but I didn't have any choice.”
Nelson stopped doing wedding photography after 350 weddings, he said. It is a lot of work and he valued his Saturday afternoons more than competing for the business.
“There are too many part-timers out there doing it for next to nothing,” he said.
The onset of digital photography and independent photographers has hurt business, he said. More photographers are setting up home studios, but someone who is good with people, joins the service clubs and gets involved with the community could make a go with a business studio, he said.
