Yes, thanks for mentioning Kenmore. Indeed, I'm the victim of some slight (good-natured) mocking there too!Originally Posted by Robert Opheim
But as I'm sure you'll agree, we LFers, plus other film users, are very fortunate to have both a Glazers and a Kenmore in the Seattle area.
I should say blessed!
Being belittled by know-nothing idiots gives me a great deal of inner satisfaction.....
Thanks,
Kirk
at age 73:
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep"
Smocked, yes. It's my official garb for LF'ing.
Mocked, no*. I have nothing but authentic inquisitions, and what for inexplicable reasons to me, seems for all the world to be envy. If you're getting mocked, maybe its not because of the camera.
* There was one time I was hauling my gear up to the Hidden Lake overlook in Glacier, one evening. Halfway up the stepped boardwalk trail, I passed a fat-ass, doughy, breathless teenage boy collapsed on the side railings. He looked up at me and said, "Having fun?". Quite unexpectedly, my carbon tipped trekking pole slipped from its tenuous wood purchase, ending up square in his chest. I was having so much fun his screams didn't even faze me. True story.
Last edited by ROL; 22-Jul-2014 at 17:21. Reason: spelling
I've told this story before, but ... I had my 8x10 set up for a shot of some crags above Blue Lake, which is accessed by a somewhat steep goat path a couple thousand feet above the Sonora Pass area. In other words, a pretty good round trip dayhike with a big pack, but otherwise, you can actually see the Sonora Pass
road down there just before you arrive at the lake. Some German tourist in his silly lederhosen and feathered cap somehow got up there, and kept stumbling over
rocks and logs because he was staring the whole time at his GPS. "Vere issh the lake? Vere issh the lake?" (plus expletives). I told him it was right in front of him.
And it was, in plain sight. So he looked up, sized up my camera, and commented, "How dare you deshecrate nature wish that huuuge ting!" I just smiled and replied,
"Nice GPS. Is that the same model John Muir used?"
Any of you Seattle guys remember Ed Olson at The Camera Show?
The guy who used to handle the LF gear at Glazer's was a pretty good guy. The guy who handled the Canon gear ("Captain Canon") was reason enough to use Nikon.
Eddie Glazer's has been around since the 30s. I have a 3.25x4.25 Speed Graphic that my best friend's grandfather bought there in 1939. I got some 'late' model plastic holders and cut down 4x5 to shoot it once and awhile. Quarter plate Kodak B&W was available in at least Tri-X and Ektapan up through sometime in the 70s.
Funny stuff..Would like to add my experiences (then answers) while carrying a 1959 Crown Graphic (bulbed reflector) as the press used it.
"Look he's carrying the first camera ever made." That is correct.
"They make smaller cameras than that." I keep losing them.
"Are you waiting for anyone famous?" Yes, you.
"Where do you get your flashbulbs from?" You don't have any in your pocket...???
For the most part it is quite fun for me. Those who are genuinely interested I give some history on the Graflex company. About how they recorded so much of American history from last century.
Then there are those whom pass on knowledge about the history of photography etc..Even met a fella who stated he was donating Big Bertha to the Baseball Hall of Fame. I feel the LF community is much friendlier towards each other.
Anthony: Crown Graphic
I bought a number of lenses from Ed Olson at the Camera Show. If I had only bought the really good ones - that I couldn't afford. Ed was an interesting guy - if he liked you he would tell you all about lenses and cameras - they were his passion. I made purchase from Ed in the 1970's thru when he closed - I would guess in the 1980's. I bought an Omega DII from Clyde's - ( In the early 1970's) if you can remember that store. I bought a Veriwide from Nobi's - in the early 1980's. And Glazier's and Kenmore Camera have allowed me to empty my pockets on various occasions. There are fewer stores in Washington now.
Nobody mocks someone carrying a 17lb steel tripod, or at least only once.
I knew Ed for about that period of time also. He sold out in 1996 because he was going blind from diabetes. (He realized it was time to stop driving when he blew a stoplight he couldn't see and someone did a major skid and turn to avoid him and he said to himself, "Man, I'm glad he could see because I sure can't." He gave up the keys and that was the end of that. He sold out soon after.) I got to be friends with his son, Nick, also and once went with Nick to some of his father's hidey-holes around the neighborhood and Greater Ballard. Ed had a *lot* of stuff. When the big camera sale in Puyallup happened, Nick would take a bunch of crap down there to sell and Ed would stay in Seattle. A couple of times, he showed me some of the stuff he had ready to sell to overseas buyers who were going to be in town for the show. He would only open to invited customers on the Saturday morning of the show. I never got invited because I wasn't going to buy anything and he was going to have some heavy hitters in there who didn't want anyone to see what they were doing. He had some really rare stuff. He showed me a Nikon F he would sell to a collector for $10,000 and, at one time, he had about 15 Hasselblad 1600Fs and 1000Fs in a display case going from $1K to $5K depending on condition and rarity. He had the third 1600F off the production line in there. When he closed, he had already sold all of the good stuff and sold what was left on a "take it all or take nothing" to a guy named "Chuck the Peddler" who had a week long sale of the excess in a warehouse in Ballard. There was some way cool stuff- a Kodak Autofocus 8x10 enlarger with a custom cold light head for one but, as I said, almost all of the cool stuff was gone. On one of the shelves were about 75 Kodak 16mm Home Movie cameras from the 40s. Plus a couple of hundred box Brownies. His method of acquiring this stuff mainly was estate sales and most of them were of the "take all or take nothing" variety. So, along with the good stuff came a lot of crap. I remember Clyed's downtown. When Clyed's got out of the LF business, Ed bought all of it from them and sold it in his store. I recognized it but Ed would get offended if you asked him where he got stuff. I was in there on a Saturday afternoon and a guy asked him if he had any screw thread Canons. This guy was obviously a repeat customer because Nick brought out 15 cameras for him to look at. The Camera Show was the kind of place you just had to check into regularly if you wanted the good stuff. It was on kind of a trapline I would run every Saturday afternoon. I frequently would buy some holders- 4x5 and 8x10- if he had any even if I didn't really need any. Loved his sales policies. 30 day no argue MBG and pay with a credit card- full price. Pay with cash? Minus 7.5 %. No MBG? Minus 7.5% Pay with cash, traveller's checks and no MBG? 15% off. On stuff like books and view cameras that you could tell if it was OK just by looking at it, I'd take the 15%. Lenses and bodies I usually paid cash and took the MBG. I got to know him well enough that he would take a personal check and call it cash.
I did a lot of supply business with Dick's Camera in Burien. I bought my first camera (an Exa) and my second camera (A Leotax F with a 50/1.8 Canon which was one of the really good Leica copies from the fifties) from Dick Dalgard. Still have them both. Dick passed away just last year. Never been to Kenmore Camera. Too far off my regular path and they never gave me any reason to go out of my way. Optechs up Republican St. from Glazer's was a pretty good stopping place, too.
Color. That's what has left Seattle. Color. Down in South Lake Union, there used to be all sorts of cool industrial crap to look at and buy. I went to a friend's daughter's wedding last year in the S Lake Union area and, the outside of the building looked familiar. When I got inside, I realized it was a place I had gotten marine parts like generators, carburetors and transmissions rebuilt twenty years earlier. What a waste. My uncle was a contractor and I sometimes was sent down there to get things from a place called "T and A Supply". T was 'Trim" and A was "Accessories" and they sold things like door hinges, screen doors and stuff to install carpets. I got a "T and A Supply" hat there once and had it for years. Just look at all the big buildings so Amazon can rape and pillage the bookseller and publishing industry and line the pockets of Paul Allen... Ah, that's enough...
Not mocked, but received strange comments.
The number 1 question/comment I get here is about a speed trap. I've been asked so many times I can't count, if I was setting up a speed trap. One time, a lady came by to check it out because she heard on the radio about the "speed trap" in our town.
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