With the recent addition to my family I’ve been thinking of how best to invest in my family’s future. Recently my photographic investment has been on new lenses, with my philosophy being to purchase glass that I will keep for many years, not the throwaway optics I’ve had in the past.

I’ve made another investment in the last couple of days which is vaguely photography related. I’ve purchased some shares in Jessops, a UK based camera retail chain. Not many mind, it’s more a little fun than anything, but who knows, it may pay off in the future. The retail world has changed a lot since the end of 2006, when the shares were trading at £1.50 each. I purchased some shares at just over 1.5p each.

Why Jessops? I don’t often shop there; most of my purchases are online, or via independent stores like Mifsuds. Part of me has a grudge – the staff don’t have the highest reputation, and they annoyed me when they stopped doing part exchanges. But things are changing. The business has to evolve to keep up with online. And of course I want to be able to go into my local town and pick up and try the latest gear. It’s all very well getting everything online, however I don’t want to need to go to London or Brixham to check out a new Nikon body.

I freely admit that I probably won’t buy a huge amount of kit from Jessops, but it’s been more than once that they’ve rescued me with film, a memory card or a filter in an emergency. And for that reason I’ve invested my hard earned cash. And if the shares could go up a couple of pence then that would be grand.