News articles:
A picture of persistence
May 05, 2009 11:33 PM
THE GAZETTE
Three former Shewmaker's Camera Shop employees have started Lost Peak Studio on the lower west side of Colorado Springs to offer portrait and wedding photography, bulk scanning and photo restoration services.
John Mitchell, Krista Steed Reyes and her husband, Steven Reyes, opened the studio last week in the back of a building they share with Kitchens For Less, a kitchen remodeling contractor, at 630 W. Vermijo St. All three were salespersons for Shewmaker's, a downtown Colorado Springs icon that consolidated to its North Academy Boulevard location before shutting down Jan. 31 as a victim of online competition and a worsening nationwide recession.
"After they said they were closing, we worked during the day at Shewmaker's and worked at night cleaning up this space and turning a former woodworking shop into our studio. As a result, we have one of the largest seamless walls of any local studio," said Mitchell, who with his partners spent $15,000 to remodel the space they leased. "We will be offering all of the profitable services that Shewmaker's had provided before they closed."
Steed Reyes has spent her career in the photography industry after graduating from the Cleveland Institute of Art with a bachelors of fine art in photography and metals. Her husband is a wildland firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service. Mitchell worked in the food and beverage operation of a New Orleans hotel before joining Shewmaker's.
The studio joins a fledgling arts community in adjacent buildings that all back up to a trail that runs west from America the Beautiful Park that Mitchell said he discovered soon after the partners started remodeling the studio. The other businesses include T-shirt maker Loiter Apparel and Accessories, custom furniture maker Satellite Lounge Design, painters Neil Fenton and Mike Van Galder and a glass blower who signs her work as J9.
"We hope to share each other's customers and feed off each other's customer traffic as well as attracting customers from the trail," Mitchell said.
Bent But Unbroken, Lost Peak Studio Continues Onward
22/06/09, By Jeff Chavez ; Freelance Writer
Despite suffering theft, embezzlement, and larceny, ellegedly at the hands of a trusted friend, roomate, and buisness partner, Lost Peak Studio owner Krista Steed-Reyes continues onward, her dream of creating a workspace, studio, and photography oriented community in the downtown vicinity undiminished. In early 2009, Krista's business partner suddenly left town, allegedly taking with him, or pawing along the way most of Krista's photography gear, and a large number of personal items from her home as well. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that her business partner had also allegedly embezzled both business and personal funds belonging to Steed-Reyes and her husband, leaving their business and personal affairs in a state of serious disarray. Compounding these recent problems, as if to add salt to the wound, is the possibility raised by Krista's studio's leaseholder that the business will have to relocate to a larger, more expensive building on the property, or face the loss of bathroom access, and the reasonable amount of quiet required for the studio to function. In spite of these mounting challenges, Krista and her brain trust of former Shewmaker's Camera Shop employees Judson Crossland (ACL Photography and shooting partner Jeff Chavez (Jeff and Krista are partners in photojournalism-based Higher Ground Productions) are optimistic that their shared dream of eventually creating a co-op type studio and workspace in the core of the city will eventually become a reality.
Krista says that the name change for Lost Peak Studio is a distant possibility, as she would like to distance herself from the events of recent months, and return to the business of creating images. "Being busy is good for the soul", says Krista. The three photographers hope that in upcoming weeks, they can return to their Shewmaker's era form as patient and knowledgeable teachers of all things photography, providing lessons, photography services, and a bit of community to some of their old friends, and bringing a larger visual arts presence to the core of downtown Colorado Springs.