Key to successful partnership is blending talents

Jan Voiles

Some folks might not think that growing up with six siblings on a Midwestern farm would relate to becoming a successful business woman, but for Betty Green that’s what happened. She and her husband Daniel A. Green own and operate Photography by Green in Rushville.

The daughter of Mary Busald and the late Raymond Busald, Betty has three brothers and three sisters.

“Growing up I was just a farm girl. I worked out on the farm; I milked the cows, fed the hogs,” she recalled. “It prepared me to work. I don’t mind doing things for other people.”

“My parents always taught me to do my best, to do for others as I would want them to do for me and that’s what I’ve always done,” she added.

Becoming a business woman “just evolved.” She got into the photography business when she began dating her future husband.

“When I first started dating if I wanted to see him on a Saturday I had to go to a wedding with him. So I attended weddings with him; those were my dates,” she said.

When the Greens got married in 1976, Betty was head bookkeeper at Rush County National Bank. She had started there as a teller just two days after graduating from Rushville Consolidated High School graduate in 1971. When their first son was born she started working at the studio and has been there ever since. The couple has two sons and two grandchildren.

John Green and his wife Teresa have a daughter, Bridget, who just turned three and a son, Anthony, who is almost one. Second son Christopher is working on a PhD at Michigan State University and is engaged.

Dan has worked in photography longer than his wife.

“Dan himself has been in business here full-time for 35 years, but it was started before that. He and his dad started when he was still in college and probably before that, even when he was in high school,” Betty explained. “It started out as a hobby then developed into the business. He bought it from his dad back in 1973.”

She offered advice to young women wanting to start a business with their spouses.

“If she wants to be with her spouse like Dan and I are together every day, you have to be willing to negotiate; you won’t always get your way,” Betty observed. “You have to look at both sides of anything that you’re doing and be willing to work together. You’re not always right, and even if you are right you can’t stand your ground so hard that it causes friction.”

“We have disagreements, but do I mind working with Dan every day? No, I enjoy it,” she enthused. “He wouldn’t do any picture without me. I pose everybody we do. I do that part, he does the technical part. He’s so good about the technical stuff and getting that right. We work well together,” she said. “That’s just like marriage. This is a marriage here, it’s more like that than a business. Dan is such a good business person. He is so creative and thinks of new ideas all the time.”

You have to have a blend of talent and trust each other to do their best, according to Betty.

The family business involves taking photos in studio as well as at the outdoor studio at home. At the Rushville studio there are three camera rooms upstairs and room to build and store props.

“We are very blessed we have a lot of room here. There’s a huge amount of things we have to offer people,” Betty said.

She also does framing and restoration.

“I do most of the framing as far as I cut all the mats, I mount all the needlework, I put frames together. Susan Green, our sister-in-law, also works here and she finishes the frames,” Betty added.

Her job includes mounting and framing needlework projects.

The restoration work has changed through the years.

“Before the digital era when we retouched pictures I learned how because I love art,” she said. She explained that dyes, chalks and pencils were used in layers to retouch pictures.

“It was quite the process. It was such a rewarding process that you could take something and fix it,” she recalled. “That’s a lost art. It’s all gone with the digital era. They do it on the Photoshop and all that stuff on computer. I still do restore old pictures. I’m totally busy.”

The change to digital isn’t the only trend she has seen in her line of work. Clothing and hairstyles have changed through the years.

“Everyone knows about styles and things. People always ask me, ‘What do you think what would look good?’ Photography is such a personal thing. Just because I like it doesn’t mean that you’re going to like it,” she noted. “The customer is always right and if they like it, you don’t tell them what is best for them because they know what they like.”

She recalled when senior pictures involved one pose – a head and shoulders shot of the senior dressed up.

“That was the day when you came in, you did the head shot and that was it,” she reflected. “Then we moved to the park and did the outdoor pictures.” The next step was to a farm and the museum. One day she and a senior got to the museum and all the shrubs had been removed. After that experience she and Dan decided to develop their backyard as an outdoor studio.

“He built the gazebo, we had a rick of wood, had a fence, I made a rock garden with flowers. That’s pretty much what we had the first year. We just started planting trees and planting bushes, we dug a pond and it’s just developed,” she said. “People don’t mind driving out. He didn’t think they would want to. We love taking care of the garden and all that. It’s so rewarding. When people come out and they say, ‘oh wow’ that really makes you feel good that your work is worth the effort.”

The senior pictures have changed a lot too, from the formal head and shoulders pose to all kinds of clothing and favorite items including vehicles and animals.

“It’s really neat; they get to express themselves in a way that we couldn’t have before. It’s more of a personal thing and it reflects their personality much more than they used to,” Betty observed.

Despite the current economy, many people value photography.

“They realize that years from now you’re still going to have that picture. People bring in a picture that’s 100 years old and it’s gold,” she said. “You can spend a $100 on shoes; five years from now they’re not going to have them. You spend a $100 on pictures; five years from now you still have those photographs. If a family member passes away, that picture is priceless. A lot of people don’t realize that until it’s too late. Society needs to remember some of the values that the old people had where they didn’t have much money but they valued family and those photographs.”

Another change resulted when Betty encountered a serious health problem 11 years ago. This resulted in discontinuing taking photographs at weddings, which they had done for 25 years.

“It was a hard decision to stop doing weddings but now we spend time with our family. I hope that people would value their families and know that tomorrow is promised to no one. It’s such a wake up call,” she added. “Weddings are fun. I miss the people, that was so much fun, but your family needs to come first.”

Something which hasn’t changed is the couple’s commitment to their community. Not only are they active in St. Mary Catholic Church, they have donated profits from two of Dan’s books to the Rush County Community Foundation.

“He has new ideas for more books he’s going to do,” Betty noted. “The only reason he did the books was to help the Foundation; he so wants to help that keep going because we believe really strongly that it is such a vital part of Rush County’s future.”

All profits from Scenic Tour of Rush County Indiana and Shelters Going Home - Covered Bridges of Rush County go to the RCCF. The books are available for purchase there as well as screensavers and notecards.

Dan also did the photography with Betty’s help for Courthouse Images: The Rush County Courthouse at its Centennial.

Although most of his studio work is portraits, Betty commented that landscape photography was her husband’s passion in college.

“One winter morning some 10 or 12 years ago he said he was going to out to walk the dog. I said, ‘Why don’t you take your camera and take some pictures. So he walked the dog and took some pictures out in the woods. They were fabulous and he got the bug again. He does have such an eye for that,” she said proudly.



Jan Voiles can be contacted at jan.voiles@rushvillerepublican.com or at (765) 932-2222 ext. 107. Add a comment to this story at www.rushvillerepublican.com.

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