An old camera guy

[icbm_jockey]

Kind and soft spoken fellow, unfortunately forgot his name. The shop was shut down after almost 50 years of business because they can't compete with big box and online retailers.
Never took this to care for perfection, looking pretty, angles, lighting, idc, I enjoy "slice of life" photos best.

 

[Jeff15]

I like this ...

 

[cgw]

Nice bit of frozen time. Miss small indy photo shops around Toronto that gave humanitarian discounts to enthusiastic but broke grad students. Same goes for the repair wizards who kept the old junk I shot up and running till I could afford newer if not always better gear. Thanks for posting.

 

[smoke665]

Yup I miss that time. I don't necessarily think that the online/big box stores necessarily put the little local guys out of business. Buying camera equipment now is pretty much a spend the money and hope you're making the right choice, unlike when your local store could give you valuable advice, and when you get down to it there aren't that "many" big box stores/online outlets.

I see the decline of the local stores more due to the decline in camera sales and economics. It's pretty hard to spend $2k on a cell phone that you carry constantly (that also takes decent pictures) vs adding another $5-10k on a camera that you can't talk on. LOL I also blame the manufacturer's marketing they seem to have encouraged the demise of the local dealer. Add to that all the cities across the country jumped on the sales tax cow. I live in the county, if I order something online and have it delivered to my home, I automatically save 5% on sales tax, on an $8k purchase that's $400. That's a pretty big incentive to bypass the local merchant.

 

[cgw]

Yup I miss that time. I don't necessarily think that the online/big box stores necessarily put the little local guys out of business. Buying camera equipment now is pretty much a spend the money and hope you're making the right choice, unlike when your local store could give you valuable advice, and when you get down to it there aren't that "many" big box stores/online outlets.

I see the decline of the local stores more due to the decline in camera sales and economics. It's pretty hard to spend $2k on a cell phone that you carry constantly (that also takes decent pictures) vs adding another $5-10k on a camera that you can't talk on. LOL I also blame the manufacturer's marketing they seem to have encouraged the demise of the local dealer. Add to that all the cities across the country jumped on the sales tax cow. I live in the county, if I order something online and have it delivered to my home, I automatically save 5% on sales tax, on an $8k purchase that's $400. That's a pretty big incentive to bypass the local merchant.

See some parallel with high-end audio--another aspirational addiction, alas. Street-level shops who sold nice gear to music junkies didn't surrender despite BestBuy et al that peddled low-fi junk
suitable mostly for lease-breaking parties. Those stores hung on, thanks to distributors who knew their market. I grabbed one of the last Rega Brio amps around last year--no complaints!

 

[smoke665]

See some parallel with high-end audio--another aspirational addiction, alas.

Or television! Remember when tvs were furniture, sold in high end furniture stores or specialty TV stores, with full service repair in store or at a multitude of independent repair shops? Now TVs are use till they break, throw away, buy another.

 

[cgw]

Or television! Remember when tvs were furniture, sold in high end furniture stores or specialty TV stores, with full service repair in store or at a multitude of independent repair shops? Now TVs are use till they break, throw away, buy another.

Agree. Got a 70s Marantz 2270 receiver last year from a family friend. I enjoyed it enormously till it finally croaked. Found a local restoration shop that will revive it for not a pantload of $$$. That vintage sound...

 

[jeffashman]

Very nice and poignant capture. We still have an indy shop going strong around here, Competitive Cameras in Dallas.

 

[icbm_jockey]

Very nice and poignant capture. We still have an indy shop going strong around here, Competitive Cameras in Dallas.

I will definitely have to check that out!

 

[jeffashman]

I will definitely have to check that out!

They have an online presence here. I think they are able to survive, because they embraced the web shopping model, so they don't just rely on local photographers. It probably doesn't hurt that they don't have much local competition.