ON THE JOB IN HOPEWELL VALLEY
By John Tredrea
Editor’s Note: This is the latest in a series of portraits of people at work.
One of the busiest enterprises in these parts must be Photo Haven of Pennington, at 7 Route 31, just north of Delaware Avenue.
There seems to be plenty of action on both sides of the counter every time you go in, with customers dropping off film, picking up prints, buying equipment, talking photography with other customers and the Photo Haven staff, or getting pictures taken for a passport or portrait.
Keeping up with the times is why the business has continued to thrive will into its second decade. Much of staying current in the commercial world these days involves computers, and you can do business with Photo Haven online, at www.photohaven.com, designing your own Christmas or holiday cards that use your own photos and your own text.
"The greeting card area of our Web site can upload your digital photo," said Barry Havens, who owns and operates Photo Haven with his brother Chris Havens. "Then you type in the text you want on the card. After we receive it, we print the cards up with your photo and your text and mail the cards to you."
Photo Haven also can upload digital images for enlargement, make digital photographic postcards and business cards, produce PowerPoint presentations and retouch and restore digital photos.
The shop also does conventional photo processing work, including one-hour film processing, same day enlargement work, making prints from slides and more.
The Havens brothers can’t remember not being in the photo business they literally grew up in it. "My dad had a Photo Haven in Lawrence," Barry Havens said. "Chris and I grew up with cameras around all the time. When we were kids, we built our forts in the back of the store."
One of the employees of that store in Lawrence was Bob Roth. He’s still with the Havens family, working full time at Photo Haven of Pennington. "Bob’s been with us about 20 years altogether," said Chris Havens, whose brother-in-law, Wesley Maziarz, rounds out the four-man staff that holds down the fort at the photo shop.
In addition to doing business on the shop or online, Photo Haven does a lot of "on location" work, taking pictures at schools and events of all kinds.
Then there are video services, including the transfer of slides and photos to video, video duplication, and videocassette tape repair. The shop has a big stock of picture frames and many kinds of photo-based gifts mugs, calendars and T-shirts among them.
Do the Havens brothers, who both have wives and children in addition to a thriving business, like to take some pictures themselves when they can find time?
"Sure," said Barry Havens. "The enjoyment of that never wears off. There’s always something new you can try."