We see the future; we snap it”.
That is the instructive, punchy pay-off line for Zoom Lens Digital Photo Lab, a burgeoning one-stop photography shop on the Festac side of Alakija bus stop on the Mile 2-Badagry expressway in Lagos.
The young man behind it, Innocent Ofon-Ime, is a micro entrepreneur with exceptional vision to maximise photography to impact this generation.
Making money out of the profession is not his primary aim. His preference is the more edifying business of creativity to preserve history and culture, a way of life.
He has pursued this ambition since he came to the understanding that there is more to photography than naira and kobo.
Having passed through thick and thin to own a photo laboratory, after banks denied him credit facility, he told TheNiche his experience is a lesson for sluggards.
No excuse for failure
Ofon-Ime insisted that there is no excuse for failure in life, no matter one’s background or level of education. He comes straight out of a polygamous family where survival of the fittest is the endgame; and help, like water from a rock, is only imagined.
However, his miraculous progress from zero to hero is one of the great motivational stories which demonstrates that greater things are achieved by faith in God, prayer, and positive thinking than mankind can ever imagine.
Barely educated but fluent in English, Ofon-Ime struggled to rent his first accommodation in Lagos at the age of 18. With bare hands, and little or no formal training in photography, he has become a model and wedding photographer.
“Photography has been my hobby ever since I started in 1998. It is what I have passion for. I didn’t learn it. I started as a young boy growing up in a polygamous family. Before I took to photography, I was doing all kinds of job; selling on the streets, doing shows and all kinds of things to help myself,” he recounted.
How I started
I went to my maternal home and saw a toy kind of camera and took it home to snap myself during the Christmas period.
It was a toy kind of camera. When I used it to snap people and the production was damaged, people would ask me to return the money but I would disagree and tell them I would re-snap.
That was how I started in those days of analogue. The first day I handled the camera, I didn’t know that it was wrong to bring out the film. So, after snapping, I brought out the film and took it to the lab. When I got there they told me I had exposed the film and it was not useful any longer.
That was how I picked up interest and started snapping. But I said to myself that I would not be a road side photographer. I started buying books and reading photography to know more about the subject and my interest continued to grow.
Photography as art and life
I came to realise that photography is an art. It is a way of life. It interprets a country. Without it we cannot keep memory. Without pictures, we cannot interpret our yesterday.
I see photography as a baby in Nigeria. We still need to make it mature and use it to interpret our culture, our life and our history.
A lot of people go into photography with the mindset of making money. But I am not for the money. I want to create impact with photography, shoot pictures that when people see them their imagination will blow off. I want to tell stories with photography. It is an art; it is nature; it is something that we see every day.
So I came up with the slogan, “we see the future; we snap it”. That is where faith comes into play. That was why I rented the shop even when there was nothing to put in it.
I come from a polygamous family where there was no help. I didn’t want to live like others. I didn’t have the opportunity to be a graduate or go to school immediately. But my desire is to be a better person in life.
I started attending weddings, to snap ‘wait and take’ pictures. But then people were looking down on the profession and the reputation of those into it was low.
Bigger picture in mind
However, I saw a bigger picture of the profession in my mind. So, in 2005 I opened a studio in Wilmer, Olodi-Apapa, Lagos where I lived.
From there I moved to Festac Town in 2010 and registered the company as Lead Zoom Lens Resources Limited, a subsidiary of Zoom Lens Digital Lab, with other names that I registered.
I just registered it and trusted God that one day I would open a lab. I did not know how the money would come because to open a lab is capital intensive. So I always had it at the back of my mind that one day I would open a lab.
Motivation
What motivated me to think of opening a lab was that in 2003 I went to one lab in Ikeja. A guy just came from abroad, America, to establish a lab. He didn’t have any knowledge of photography. He didn’t allow any photographer to touch the computers. Then, it was just a new era of digital lab in Nigeria.
He frequently put down everyone else and I felt embarrassed. So I made up my mind that I was going to own a photo lab. I was not working with him. I was only going to his lab to print pictures.
I kept saying it in my heart and praying hard to set up my own photo lab. At a time, I started going to banks for loan.
I once saw an advert of the defunct Intercontinental Bank on the street. The advert read: “Do you have any idea you want us to develop for you? When I saw it I said waoh … this is the opportunity I have been looking for. I rushed home, dressed up in my suit, looked quite good and made straight to their head office on VI (Victoria Island).
On getting there, they sat me down and asked if I had any ideas. I replied yes and explained my business ideas to them. But they told me that it was not that kind of idea they were looking for. Instead it was someone with the idea to develop their bank and business, and I was disappointed.
I kept the dream alive
However, I kept my dream alive. I met someone working with the Bank of Industry (BOI) who tried to help me secure a credit facility but it didn’t work out.
I have unwavering faith that God is able to lift someone from the dungeon and make him suddenly and instantly rich. So, I rented an accommodation for my photo lab even when I was yet to acquire the equipment.
I paid for two years and the rent was running without doing anything in it. I kept on paying for it but nothing was there. I would go to Prayer City (at Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, Ibafo, on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway), come back with anointing oil and pour it on the shop, asking God to bring my destiny helper.
More things done through prayer and positive thinking
I would go with my wife to the empty shop and pray thanking God for providing the space for the equipment, pour anointing oil on the spot where the air conditioner (AC) and the photo laboratory equipment would be mounted and thank God for providing them.
As my wife and I prayed I would touch the equipment and the AC spots by faith and thank God for providing the AC and the equipment.
I was feeling the equipment in my spirit. I would thereafter go to the companies selling those equipment and place my hands on them and pray in tongues. Sometimes people would be watching me wondering whether I was normal at all.
I thank God who has made me understand that when you believe, whatever you desire, pray and acknowledge it. It will surely come to pass.
The future materialising
Friends I kept talking to about my vision stopped picking my calls. Some would talk to me about the fast way to make money. But I would let them know that I want to use my business to glorify God; I didn’t want the fast lane to riches. I want to glorify God with my business so that it will become a kingdom investment.
I have some big friends who have money but refused to release it. I started calling their names in prayer to release their money to me without knowing how and when and how. And by the grace of God, they did release it.
Even the company where I bought the equipment released them without me paying in full. The manager looked at me and said ‘I don’t know why I am doing this.’
I appreciated him but added that the heart of the king is in God’s hands. They released the equipment and gave me more materials than I asked for without insisting on down payment. Then I realised that this is God at work.
Today I own a lab but I am still a photographer. I have not started work on other aspects of photography. Only God can make such miracle possible. God provided someone whom He used to purchase the equipment for me after several years of effort where friends and banks turned me away.
Capital injection
A start up capital of N38 million could have given me what I want. And in three years I would recoup the money and pay back completely. Photography is all about events. Events happen every day. We look at it from the positive side.
Go out for marketing, meeting people for business, within two to three years, we pay back the money and the rest will be making profit.
In a Christmas season in one year, we can make between N10 million and N15 million.
