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About
Images-N-Stone
It all started back in the
70’s. Working out of his
house and part-time, Dennis
W. Ninmer started his
photography business. The
business grew and so did the
family. With a wife, Dottie
and three small children,
Angie, Heather and Corey, in
the house, he needed to get
the business out of the
house. Unfortunately, in
the early 80’s interest
rates skyrocketed to 21%.
It was too much of a gamble
to take with the young
family. So he decided to
get out of the business.
After a few years of being
bitter and not wanting to
pick up a camera, Dennis
slowly got his interest back
in photography. Then when
digital came about, it
opened up a whole new avenue
to be creative in.
Dennis was looking for
something unique to put his
nature pictures in. He was
working at a stone quarry at
the time and came up with
the idea of making picture
frames out of the thinner
pieces of stone. It took
eight hours to cut an 8x10
hole for a picture.
Realizing this would not be
very productive, he
contacted a local company to
cut them.
Now with the family all
grown and out of the house,
Dennis and Dottie started
taking their Natural Stone
Picture Frames to art
shows. People loved them
and of course never saw
anything like it. They also
asked where the store was.
So the next step was to get
it out of the house.
Dennis had his eye on a
building in their home town
for years. It was a long
narrow building with large
glass windows in front. He
knew the building would work
perfect for having a gallery
in the front and the studio
in back with offices or
rooms in between. The
building came up for sale in
2005. In January of 2006
they officially closed on
the building. It needed
some fixing up and cleaning
up. Then in April of that
year, after the back part or
studio room was painted and
Dennis and their Son, Corey
just finished putting up the
track system for the back
drops a storm came through.
Dennis and Dottie get a
phone call that night.
Their neighbor’s 60 foot
pine tree fell on their
building. It was, of
course, disappointing and
hard to take, at the time.
It set them back a few
months. Now that it’s over
and all redone it was a
blessing in disguise. The
studio had a low ceiling, so
all the portrait pictures
would have to be taken
sitting down. Since the
roof had to come down, they
decided to put in a
cathedral ceiling. This is
what they had planned on
doing in the future. It
just came a little earlier.
In July 2006 they opened up
the front or gallery part.
The studio in the back was
under construction yet.
But, then in September they
had their Grand Opening &
Open House.
Dennis
is a member of NANPA, North
American Nature Photographic
Association, PSA,
Photographic Society of
America & IFPO,
International Freelance
Photographers Organization.
In January, 2008 Dennis was
inducted into the IFPO,
Freelance Photographers Hall
of Fame and awarded an
Honorary Degree of
Distinction, through his
endeavors and achievements.
Images-N-Stone
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