June 12, 2024

‘PORTRAITS IN THE PARK’ FOURTH GENERATION OF POOLE FAMILY PHOTO BUSINESSES

GRAVENHURST — Greg Poole grew up with a camera in one hand and a hockey stick or bat in the other.

He’s a fourth generation photographer who has opened “Portraits in the Park” in Gull Lake Rotary Park.

His great-grandfather, Herbert, had a photo shop on corner of Toronto’s Queen Street West across from the old city hall where he captured early images of Ontario’s capital city a century ago with giant cameras the size of a bread box.

His dad Bill and his dad Bill Sr. were also business photographers who evolved through the DSL to digital revolutions.

Grand-dad worked at Avro before it tragically closed and he was forced to pursue his hobby professionally. But luckily for the Poole family and Muskoka he did.

Greg and his father were frequent flyers to Japan (more than three dozen times) where the dad worked for Minolta and his son at Fuji, where he retired from five years ago as a Canadian vice president.

Greg Poole poses with tools of the family trade along with a photo of his great-grand-father, Herbert Edward Poole, who began four generations of photography in Toronto on Queen Street across from the Old City Hall. GPP’s Portraits in the Park is the second century of the family’s photo businesses.

Moving to Muskoka, Poole opened Greg Poole Photography and is already been busy with the Muskoka Camera Club and joining the Gravenhurst Rotary Club.

A sportsman, he was the official team photographer at the Lake Muskoka pond hockey championships where his son played this winter.

He’s also available for all types of professional photo jobs or assignments of industrial or commercial sorts.

But it’s as a “people person” where excels and loves to point his Fuji camera most.

“I really love to talk to people and photograph them.”

Maybe it goes back to his ancestral roots when H.E. Poole was among the first in Toronto to take those classic school classroom pictures and cute student head and shoulder wallet-sized photos.

**Out in the field at work is where Poole is in his element taking family portraits, like this one of a pregnant Ellie Gauvin and her mom and child. Three generations of one family.**

Adept at any focal length, Poole has combined his family’s skills into the old snack bar at the park.

And with his Fuji camera, long lens and printer he can knock off a stunning portrait faster than it took to pop in a roll of 36 and send it off to a photo lab.

Within about 30 minutes he can take clients to several preferred spots he’s staked out in the park as backgrounds — between Gull Lake and the rocky outfield beyond second base. Snap a half dozen poses — and have the customer viewing his best shots on a video screen back at the photo shack, before running off a framed five-by-seven picture on the spot for 30 bucks. And getting an email copy.

It’s all done in a snap. No need for a cellphone that stores hundreds of mostly unseen images that only exist in the cloud. Poole can frame you sitting on a cloud with a beautiful blue sky and lake as a back drop.

Poole has a cellphone, but prefers pictures done the better original way.

Sunday they had an official opening with his mother Pat, 91, of Bradford, who posed for many of hubby Bill’s photos while encouraging Greg to indulge in his passion for photography. His brother Tom and his wife Barb were also on hand along with friends from Fuji (who provided gift prizes) and well-wishers like his hockey buddies.

“Someone have a camera?” Poole accepts an ‘Open’ from his landlord Mayor Heidi Lorenz Sunday. The Town of Gravenhurst owns the former park snack bar turned photo kiosk. It’s located behind the washrooms.

Before and after he proved how fast and efficient his services are by photographing a couple of families and a pregnant woman with her mother.

Greg Poole Photography and Portraits in the Park is open now Thursdays and Sundays 4-7 p.m., as well as all the special events happening at the park like Music on the Barge and waterski shows.

GPP also offers some printing services as well.

He and his wife Nancy will also offer the odd cold drink for dehydrated park visitors.