Walker and Mooney specialize in making people and products look their best
By Joe Pangburn, Inside Tucson Business
Published on Friday, February 20, 2009
Balfour Walker and Chris Mooney are concerned with making their customers and their customers’ products look their best. If that’s not happening, then they say they aren’t doing their job.
Walker and Mooney are commercial photographers and business partners since 1986 sharing a studio at 650 N. Sixth Ave.
“A lot of people know their business or product very well,” said Walker. “But not a lot of them know advertising or promotional photography all that well. So I usually start a job asking a lot of questions. Commercial photographs have to make money for the client. On occasion, we will talk people out of stuff we don’t think will do that for them.”
Walker and Mooney have each been in business for more than 30 years. Each has traveled around the world on assignments. And each has seen the commercial photography landscape change over time.
“The biggest change, obviously, was the switch to digital,” Mooney said. “The advent of digital really made a lot of the beginning jobs photographers would land, while getting started, go away. Things like award ceremonies, check presentations and some PR shots aren’t going to photographers anymore.”
The two said it was expensive to switch to digital with the first computer costing $5,000 and containing 16 Megabytes of RAM memory. It did however eliminate the need for a darkroom, the full-time darkroom assistant and the full-time computer person.
“Still, we used to make a lot of money from film sales,” Mooney said. “There was a lot of mark up for film. It definitely was a profit center.”
Traditional photographers argue there is a loss of excitement with digital compared to a darkroom where the image slowly appears in the developing fluid.
“We do lose some of that,” Mooney said. “But I got that same thrill when we moved to digital. It was a very exciting time.”
Mooney also said the people landscape has changed.
“There are also very few of the people in the agencies we used to work for that are still around,” Mooney said. “Businesses have changed or closed and people have moved out. Looking back at date books, all the clients I worked for in the early ‘90s, around 90 percent of them are gone.”
This has been a challenge to remaining in demand for commercial photography in Tucson.
“Where we are today is just a testament to staying in touch with the people who moved around,” Mooney said. “Plus you have to be a good photographer to keep the business as the landscape changes. “And networking too, that has really helped. I’m in a rotary and part of a breakfast club, we didn’t have to do that before. It is more important now to be involved in things other than your business.”
“Like Chris here who is a tri-athlete,” Walker said. “He’ll be swimming at the pool and in between breaths, talk to the person in the lane next to him. ‘need any (take a breath) photos of your (take another breath) business?’”
The decrease in income from work doing stock photography has also hit commercial photographers hard.
“We used to receive on a regular basis about $1,500 a month in stock photos,” Mooney said. “Now, it is almost down to zero.”
The lower cost of digital cameras and the advent of royalty-free photo websites have caused this.
“So what’s the only thing to be done that isn’t already flooded?” Walker asked. “The things that can’t be put together with stock or Photoshop are the things that will remain. Can you shoot people well? Can you shoot a unique product or a building. Commercial has changed, and it’s still wonderful, it’s just different.”
“Yeah, we have the greatest job in the world,” Mooney said. “We get to meet and work with all kinds of people. You get to choose your own schedule and work as much as you want to.”
Despite the freedom, it isn’t a cake walk.
“Every day is a challenge,” Mooney said.
“And you can’t blame the boss either,” Walker added. “You have to figure it out yourself.”
While there are many challenges of being self-employed, traveling to Europe to photograph Formula-1 racing and new airplanes locally for Bombardier like Walker has or being sent all over the world by Lands End to photograph rugby like Mooney has, is a pretty good trade-off.
Today, like every other industry, commercial photographers are in the face of a recession and it is increasingly important to give a client good value for their dollar.
“People get a concept in their heads that we are really pricey,” Mooney said. “But, especially today, you have to work with the client’s budgets. We’re all in this together and we have to all work together to get through it.”
Looking ahead Mooney sees commercial photography becoming more competitive.
“Commercial photographers need to find where their niche is and focus on that,” he said. “The cream of the crop will come through.”
Contact reporter Joe Pangburn at or (520) 295-4259.jpangburn@azbiz.com
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