ALTAMONT — Maple Avenue is home to Altamont’s newest business.
Last week the DeSarbos opened Prestige Photo in the building that was last occupied by Ecco Video. The family closed shop at the original location, in Delmar, and opened up in the village. "We wanted to be able to offer the Hilltowns, Altamont, and the Schoharie area a place to get portraits done and digital processing taken care of," said Paul DeSarbo.
DeSarbo opened the shop for his daughter, Heather. "It’s basically Heather’s," he said. "It’s just kind of fun to keep my hand in it."
Prestige Photo offers portraiture, photo processing, a new and used camera shop, and wedding photography. "Everything in photography, we do," DeSarbo said.
Since the shop will primarily be Heather’s domain, DeSarbo has been getting into some other photography-related things. The former village mayor is planning a photography museum for the Altamont Fair that will feature old cameras and equipment as well as new. "So the kids can see from beginning to present what’s going on in photography," DeSarbo said.

The fair is familiar territory for the family; Heather was crowned Ms. Altamont Fair at the August pageant this year.
"I’m going to offer any family who wants their picture taken in front of the gazebo — free," said DeSarbo. He pointed to a photo he had taken in front of the gazebo in Orsini park during the Victorian Holiday celebration, saying that families might like to have a photo taken with the quaint backdrop.
Prestige Photo deals with both film and digital photography, DeSarbo said. It still carries 35-millimeter cameras as well as the paper and chemicals for developing. Of Heather, he said, "She’s our master on the digital. She’s something else." A summa cum laude graduate of Sage College, she studied photography and criminal justice.
"She really knows what she’s doing," said DeSarbo of his daughter. "She’s got her mother’s eye for art."
"Everything I know, he’s taught me," Heather DeSarbo said.