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The Family Camera Shop part I


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<p>For years I've often mentioned the family caemra shop and have been searching for some of my photos form those days. At last, the first installment. Our family business, F.J. Gammill Photography (later shortened to Gammill Photo & Camera), opened for business in the fall of 1974. My dad, the founder, and owner, had been doing portrait and wedding photography since the mid-1950's decided it was time to open a business. While maintaining his postion as composing room foreman at the local newspaper he opened for business in a narrow building once used for Selective Service registration. I worked afternoons during my senior year in high school and continued to work after starting college. Initially, we only did portraits and copied old photographs, but quickly got hooked up with Berkey Marketing so we were able to carry Konica, Sunpak, Tamron, and Omega products. The first image shows our storefront around 1976 or 1977. I don't remember which camera I used, but pretty sure it was a Konica since the negatives have that distinctive notch at the edge of the frame that most Konicas (SLR and RF) seem to have.</p><div>00aBFb-452437584.jpg.2fa0862ec7174f8d5c12f9b5b2dd032c.jpg</div>
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<p>I still have two or three of the orginal Super 8 sound projectors, BTW. Of course, we sold film. I hope I can find a color image later of our film since the distance from the film shelf makes identifcation a bit difficult. I know we always had Tri-X and Plus-X as well as Kodachrome 64, Ektachrome 64, Kodacolor II (remember this one?), and Vericolor II. Also, near the top you can see a couple of 100' bulk rolls (Tri-X, I think).</p><div>00aBFi-452443584.jpg.52247d5e0cbdfed493cb83c4408c80b3.jpg</div>
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<p>Thank you Mike for taking me back to the days I worked part time in a full service camera store in the late 60's to the late 70's.<br>

The picture of your dad and customer, with the display cases full of cameras, brought back great memories as we had the same type of display cases.<br>

When the new cameras came out, we got to "play" with them and wish we had the money to buy the big bad black Nikon35 mm camera, or the the new A1 canon camera.<br>

I am looking forward to your 2nd installment.</p>

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<p>Mike,</p>

<p>These images are great and take me back in time to when I got out of the service. I loved looking through the glass cases of all the new stock. It was interesting that after seeing articles of the latest camera shows that 3 months down the line see could see the cameras in the flesh.</p>

<p>I remember always wanting to take my camera with me. It seemed to show you meant business. They would let you try out the new lenses.</p>

<p>Looking forward to seeing part II.</p>

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<p>This takes me back to the early 1960's, when as teenager I would take the tube into central London to window shop the many camera stores both small and large. They had a huge amount of used stuff like canon and nikon rangefinders and old Linhofs. I owned a Periflex Gold Star at the time which I sold to a friend to by the new Olympus Pen F. I took the Pen F with 100mm lens in '64 to Soho to the Marquee Club on Wardor Street, and took shots of Rod Stewart and Howling Wolf performing on stage (I still have the tri-x negatives somewhere). </p>
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<p>Yes, Louis, definitely cramped. The back room, though, was longer (no wider) and that's where we had our studio. Our setup included Photogenic power supply and strobes (two mains, plus background) and an RB 67. No darkroom facilities, though. We were still using the darkroom at home. Dan B, we generally did not do repairs in house as none of us were really qualified so most of our non-warranty repairs went to IPS Camera Repair in Tuscaloosa, AL. We could ship them or take the two hour drive if we chose. Michael, the Alden loaders are the best IMHO. When we closed in 1993 we had none of these loaders left. I have four that I bought after the shop closed. I still have the orginal Watson 66 loader (marketed by Burke & James) that my dad bought in the early 60's and it still works fine. Bill, we were located in West Point, MS. For those unfamiliar with West Point, it is about 18 miles east of Mississippi State University. I commuted to class and worked at the camera shop when hours allowed. John, Howlin' Wolf was from White Station, which is just north of West Point. <br>

On one of the rolls of negatives that I scanned these pics from I found a photo of my first car (which I used to commute to MSU.)</p><div>00aBKv-452543584.jpg.6aed132d6b10d740d0744cc9bc4dda8a.jpg</div>

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<p>Mike,<br>

I bought a '69' Mach I when I returned from Vietnam. What a car! It had a 428cu.in. Cobra Jet under the hood and could get from point A to point B rather fast. Good on speed - not good on gas! It went well with my sexy Miranda Sensorex 35mm slr since both had great curves. Still have the Sensorex, but the Mach I is long gone. Wish it were the other way around. JohnW</p>

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<p>Mike, great views of what appears to be a very appealing place to compare and acquire equipment, and probably to learn quite a few things from the owner in the process. Our local town camera store closed about 5 years ago, being a family business that had been ongoing longer than I can remember (orioginally begun by the grandfather-photographer of the then owner), but they (or the buyers) still have a small onetime branch store in the neighbouring city. Not quite the same, though, as the comprehensiveness of analogue and digital supplies is not as well balanced.</p>

<p>One of the nice things about our local store was the occasional welcome to visit the owner's back room supply section (rows of metal frame shelves), with its more exotic films, papers and chemicals and some professional gear that space didn't allow up front. In addition to amateur clients, it served both professional and government photographers. Another different store in the city is not family run, but tries to supply both digital and traditional film, chemical and paper photographic supplies, as well as the most modern digital equipment, alongside glass cabinets of sorted by manufacture used 35mm, 120m and LF film cameras and optics, so it too is worth suppporting.</p>

<p>Something very appealing in seeing all those camera and supplier signs in the storefront windows.</p>

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<p>John, my Mustang had a much tamer power plant: the 302 cid V8 with 2 bbl carb. It was still fairly quick and had enough torque that it still chirp a tire when starting off in second. Thanks, Arthur. We closed for good in 1993 and still had a occasional sale of leftover gear because we would get calls for a couple of years after we closed. I still get the Photo Industry Reporter magazine so I can keep up to date on new developments. <br /> We had a pretty broad range of customers (and browsers) over the years. We did all the developing and printing of the school's black & white. We also did work for the local police and sheriff offices. I still remember printing "mug shots" and photos of murder victims for law enforcement. Of course, they went digital quite a few years ago.<br /> The showcase, from what I can tell, had Yashica, Konica, Canon, and Minolta gear as well as Tamron lenses. Later we added Fujica and Olympus.<br>

Alex- slide processing on site, now in this day that is impressive. We never did the volume to justify that so ours was sent out.<br>

BTW, in the lower left showcase there are a few used rangefinders. I think the Tower 10A that I've been working recently is in that picture. </p>

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<p>Awesome post Mike! Thanks so much for sharing. I'm going to post this for my Photo students to see. I particularly enjoyed the "Movie Dept." photo. Those look like Eumig Super 8 Sound projectors....VERY nice units made in Austria, probably still cranking away today. If you have anymore please share.</p>
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