ABOUT US
This is the story of how Alderson Photography came to be, as we know it today.
Back in the mid 1960's, Dennis was in high school. He had an opportunity to be on the yearbook staff, and had a strong interest in photography. As a junior in 1967, he became a staff member of the yearbook, and this was the start of his passion.
High school ended in 1969, and in the fall of that year, he attended Ball State University. This soon ended as he found that college was not for him at the time. He needed to get out into the world. By not being enrolled in a secondary education program, this made him eligible for the draft. Vietnam was in full swing, and he received a draft number of six. This basically meant that for the next few years he would be living his life in foxholes attempting to stay alive unless something was done! He went to the local Navy recruiter and joined. On the heals of leaving for boot camp, he met Cheryl Anderson at a dance at the Sherwood Club in Schererville, Indiana, two evenings before going into the Navy. They kept in contact through writing and occasional phone calls. After boot camp, the Navy thought that the best place for him was as a weatherman. Dennis didn't think this was the greatest idea and wrote a letter to the commanding officer that granted his wish to be a Naval photographer.
Once Dennis graduated from photography school, he was relocated to the country of Morocco, which is located in Northern Africa. He lived in the town of Kenitra, which is a small city bordering on the Atlantic Ocean between Rabat and Tangier. Still in contact with Cheryl, the two decided that they could not continue their relationship so far apart. Dennis and Cheryl were married in July of 1973. Cheryl moved to Africa with Dennis where the two live on the Atlantic Ocean for about a year. They were moved to Key West, Florida in mid 1974 where Dennis finished his four-year tour with the U.S. Navy. However, not before he was sent on an aircraft carrier to the Philippines, Vietnam, and Hong Kong, to mention a few.
No sooner were Dennis' discharge papers delivered, the two loaded up in an old Volkswagen bug and drove from Key West to Portage, Indiana. Why they would choose to live in Portage, Indiana, after all the world travels is something that their son still scratches his head about. Family is what they say was desired when their time serving our country was over. Indiana is where both of their families lived, after all. Dennis began working at U.S. Steel where he is still employed today. He also needed to continue with photography. So he began working for the Hammond Compass. Although he was doing photography for the newspaper he still wanted to have this job as a career. However, Dennis and Cheryl were ready to start a family of their own and income was something that needed to be safely secured by them.
In November of 1977, the couple had their first born son, Joel. Once Joel became old enough to be involved in sports, Dennis started taking sport photographs. He then began taking team pictures and also individually posed pictures of each player on each team. One team lead to one league, one league lead to two, and then Dennis found himself with a nice supplemental income that helped out in hard economic times for union workers such as himself. In this economy, many people need a second job if they want the extras for their family and this was the best thing that Dennis could be doing for a second job, his passion.
Over the next several years, Joel was always involved in the business end, doing everything from sorting pictures, to moving equipment, making phone calls, and delivering pictures, once he became old enough to drive. Once Joel graduated from Purdue University in 2002, he had two directions for a career choice. Either he could stand in line at the job fair with everyone else at Purdue university and hope for an entry level position at a company were the owner wouldn't know he existed, or he could expand the family side job to a full time gig. We all know what he chose.
On June 3, 2002 Joel photographed his first full session with a senior inside a studio setting. Joel had spent a fair amount of time behind a camera before that day, and was trained nearly his entire life for this, but this was different. This was the first day and the first client of his first career in the real world. Sometime in the next few months, Joel began to realize that this was what he was meant to do. Perhaps, this was his calling. Business began to pick up and expansion was inevitable.
The business began to take over Dennis and Cheryl's home and that is when the decision was made to move out of the house and into the old white church at McCool road and Central Avenue in Portage. It was a fantastic location for the business in the year and a half it was located there. It provided the exposure that the company needs, as well as a well-known landmark that suited the company and its clients well. Not to mention it put a building that other wise would be an eyesore to good use and the community enjoyed Alderson Photography's presence there.
Sadly, though, Alderson Photography decided to leave the old white church at McCool and Central. While the location was great, the business rapidly outgrew the church and the need for a larger more professional building became ever pressing. Alderson Photography found its new home in the same building as Kelsey's Steak House on Swanson Rd. and Hwy 6. It's an even more widely known location, and we at Alderson Photography couldn't be happier in our new location!