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...