Gordy's Blog

In the summer of 1958 I was 13 years old. I spent the summer working in the commissary at Tachikawa Air Force Base north of Tokyo where my dad was stationed as a pilot. (For those not in the military a commissary is a super market.) At the end of the summer I went down to the Base Exchange and bought a typewriter and a camera. The typewriter was an Olivetti Lettera 22. I thought it was the most beautiful typewriter ever. I still do and I still have it. My grandfather always had a Leica IIIc so I looked for...

This was my Grandfathers Leica IIIc he bought it in 1949 when he went to Japan during the Occupation. It was instrumental in my founding gordy's camera straps but that is another story. He gave it to me in the early 1970s. In recent years I replaced the shutter and beam splitter. I thought that a Leica M3 might be a better camera, certainly a more modern camera. I bought one 6 years ago. It's a beautiful camera but I am going back to my IIIc for three reasons. First, it is easier to focus. The IIIc has a separate...

This is the very first gordy strap. Before there were gordy straps. I started selling gordy straps in 2005 based on my experience with this strap. In 2004 my sister and I went to Washington D.C. and New York City. My Grandfather had started the US Naval Combat Artist program during WWII and we wanted to see his paintings stored at the Naval Art Gallery in Washington D.C. His studio was in Greenwich Village in New York City. That is where my Dad grew up in the 1930s. We wanted to see where our Dad grew up. I took my...

I shot these pictures several years ago but I am now starting to scan them. These were taken with my Olympus Pen EES half-frame camera.      

I've started shooting film again. I've been away from it for awhile. I have a Leica kit with a double stroke M3 and a few Barnack bodies. Well, maybe more than a few. Also a Nikon kit with an unmetered Nikon F and a Nikon F4s. I've done some shooting with them but it is these cameras that have been the most fun. These are half-frame Olympus Pens. In the back is a Pen D, a Pen W, and a Pen EES. In the front is the single lens reflex Olympus Pen F. A real Pen F. Actually a Pen FV. They...