Gary Sands is well known around the Blue Earth area in his career as a photographer. He has spent the last 37 years running GT Photos and taking pictures at weddings, for school sports, family photos, confirmations and much more. Now, he is ready to slow down and enjoy retirement. In fact, he has already sold the building on Main Street in Blue Earth where his business was located.

Gary Sands did not start out to become a professional photographer.

In fact, he sort of stumbled into the job.

But, now, after 37 years in the business and having shot photos at more than 400 weddings and having taken thousands and thousands of photos of school pictures, he is going to slow down.

Sands sold his building on Blue Earth’s Main Street recently, and is going to close down his GT Photos business, at the end of this school year.

“I still am going to fill out the school contract, and I have a few photo jobs to do, like family photos, confirmations, and I might still take some jobs on, but for the most part I am going to slow down and retire,” Sands says. “Especially since I no longer have a studio to work out of.”

Gary Sands, owner of GT Photos, opened his photography business 37 years ago. Three years after opening the business Bonnie Miller began working at GT Photos as the receptionist.

Born in Willmar, Sands first came to this area in search of his first teaching job. It was 1966.

“There were openings in Ledyard, Iowa, and at Huntley,” he recalls. “The superintendent at Huntley hired me on the spot, so I never made it to Ledyard.”

Sands taught business and was the head basketball coach at Huntley, then at Granada when Huntley became just an elementary school, for about 10 years.

Somewhere along the line, Sands picked up an interest in photography. Here is how that happened.

“My father-in-law had a cabin up north by Canada and he did some hunting there,” Sands recalls. “I didn’t really want to hunt or kill anything, so I thought about getting a camera instead of a gun and trying to take some wildlife photos.”

So, he bought a 35mm SLR camera from Cowboy Ray Anderson who had a store in Blue Earth in one of the ‘Three Sisters’ buildings on Main Street.

“That was about 1976,” Sands says. “But I quickly realized I didn’t have a clue about the camera or about photography. So I took a correspondence course to learn it.”

In about 1980, Sands started working for photographer Earl Behrens one afternoon a week.

“Earl was a retired teacher who had a studio on Blue Earth’s Main Street,” Sands says. “I started out doing darkroom work for him, then I did some front office work as well.”

One day Behrens handed Sands a camera and said go out and shoot a wedding, because he had booked two on the same day. After that, Sands started doing senior portraits and more photo shoots.

“Earl left town and it meant there wasn’t a photographer in Blue Earth,” Sands says. “I thought it might be fun to be a part time photographer.”

But, that quickly led to Sands and his wife, Carol, having to make a big decision.

“I decided to quit teaching and go into photography full time,” he recalls. “I thought it would be great to be my own boss.”

His first studio was in one fourth of what is now Krosch’s building on Main Street. The other three fourths of the building were several arts and crafts and consignment shops.

“I only had 20 feet of studio space, so I couldn’t fit more than seven people in for a photo at a time,” Sands says. “So I knew I needed to make a move for more space.”

In about 1985, he bought the building across the street and moved into his current location.

“That is also when I started doing all the photography for the school,” Sands says. “John Huisman was principal and he called me and asked if I wanted to do it. He gave me my big break. I have been shooting their photos ever since.”

He has enjoyed the experience every year, saying it has been great working with the school adminstration and staff.

“The kids, too, have been fun,” he says. “And I think these days the kids are so positive and polite, they open doors for you and say thank you when you take their photo.”

Sands says when he is taking the school pictures of each student from kindergarten to 11th grade, he only has time to spend an average of 42 seconds with each child.

“We have figured the number of students and the overall time doing the shoot, and it does work out to an average of 42 seconds each,” he says. “That includes time to greet them, straighten their shirt and comb their hair, if needed, pose them, get a good expression and take the picture.”

Over the years, Sands has lost track of the total number of weddings he has shot photos for, but he says the minimum number has to be well over 400.

“And, I tried to recall how many different sites I have been to for all those weddings, and I came up with over 100,” he says. “That is just for the actual ceremony, I am not adding in the places for receptions.”

Sands says humbly that he admits he might not be technically the best photographer in the world, but he says he is very good at another trait necessary to succeed.

“I am a very good people person,” he explains. “This can be a stressful day for everyone involved, and I have always seen where it can be a very emotional time so many different emotions on a wedding day, by everyone involved, from nervousness to sadness or even anger.”

So he tries to keep everyone upbeat and on an even keel. Even when there are such strong feelings that some people refuse to stand next to certain others, or even be in the same photo. That is usually due to past hard feelings, a recent death in the family, or in most cases, divorces.

“I know that if when I leave, everyone is happy especially the bride and her mother and they thank me and hug me, then it was a good day,” he comments.”

Sands favorite part of shooting photos at a wedding is what he calls the “getaway” pictures.

It is the photo of the newly married couple leaving the church after the ceremony. Sands explains there have been many different modes of transportation for the couple to take off in.

“There was a groom who was a construction guy, and he wheeled the bride off in a wheel barrow,” he says. “They (the bride and groom) have left in fire engines, a boat on a trailer holding fishing poles, a manure spreader, tractors, hay racks, you name it. And of course the classic cars, party buses, limousines even a Hummer limo.”

Sands tells the story of taking photos at a wedding in Fairmont where the groom was off coaching at a state championship baseball game. He finally arrived just an hour before the ceremony.

“After the ceremony the whole team showed up with their state champion shirts and medals and lined up in two rows for the bride and groom to walk through, as a salute,” Sands explains. “Then the happy couple and the wedding party and the whole team left the church in the school bus.”

There have been some interesting mishaps at weddings along the way, Sands adds.

Like the time the bride passed out in the middle of the wedding.

“I didn’t take a photo of her, because I didn’t think I should,” Sands recalls with a laugh. “But later everyone, including her, wanted a picture of it.”

There was a time the couple could not get the unity candle lit, no matter how hard they tried. Eventually it took the pastor and the couple together to get it done.

Or the time the groom’s car broke down and he was late to the wedding.

“It was before cell phones, so nobody had any idea where he was,” Sands says. “Eventually he showed up and the ceremony started way late.”

With the pictures, it seems that there is always someone who does not show up at the proper time.

“When I line up the groomsmen, one is always missing and we have to go find him, or it is the bridesmaids, or a member of the family,” Sands says. “But, that is just part of the job.”

So is getting to right spot at the right time. Sands recalls one time when they booked five weddings all on the same day.

“I hired Frank Lawatsch, the hospital administrator at the time, who was a very excellent photographer, to help me sometimes,” Sands says. “My wife, Carol, would line the people up and Frank took the photo.”

Sands says it took a lot of planning, but they did it.

“I would shoot one ceremony, then head to another,” he explains. “Then to a reception, then to a ceremony, back to another reception. And Frank was doing the same thing. It was exhausting.”

Needless to say, they never booked five weddings in one day ever again.

Lately when he needs an extra photographer, Register sports photographer Kevin Mertens has helped him out.

Sands says he could never have been successful without the help of two great employees.

“Julia Hatch has been with me since the beginning,” he says. “She has done the art work, color corrections, things like that. She has also done all the framing for photos.”

Bonnie Miller started working at GT Photos three years after it started and has been there ever since. She is always there by his side to make sure everything is lined up and running smoothly.

“Bonnie is our receptionist and much more, doing all the record keeping, all the ordering, basically doing everything,” Sands says. “If she was gone for some reason, I might as well go home, too.”

Now the issue is having the three work together for the rest of this school year without the GT Photo studio and office.

Sands lives in Huntley, Miller lives 10 miles east of Blue Earth near Frost and Hatch lives in Rake, Iowa.

“We will send photos back and forth by email and then get together somewhere in Blue Earth once in a while,” Sands says. “We will make it work.”

Sands says he has felt God leading him all through his life. From coming to the Faribault County area, going into photography from teaching, and now even the decision to retire.

“Since my wife retired from AgStar, I have been thinking about it, too,” he says. “So one day I told Kara Drake (of One Realty) that I would be interested in selling my building. But I didn’t want it to be listed. Just if she knew of someone interested in a building on Main Street, to let them know mine was available.

Drake told Sands she already knew of a potential buyer. A week or so later, it was a done deal.

“So, yes, I feel God leading me to retirement,” he says. “I guess it is time.”

Gary and Carol Sands plan on traveling during their retirement, including trips to see their daughter, Krista, who lives in Plymouth, and their son Kyle and wife Naomi who live by Alexandria.

And, of course, travel up north to the family cabin near the Canadian border. They were headed there to spend the first two weeks of September on the lake.

“I think I?will finally have time to go out in the woods and take some nature and wildlife photos,” Sands says. “After all, that is what I first started into photography to do.”

And one more thing. Some people still ask why it was always called GT Photos.

“Well, it is the initials of my first and middle names, Gary and Thomas,” Sands says. “I just thought it sounded better than Sands Photos.”