Dick James • 1953 Bentley, 1966

Todd Weinstein • Bloomfield Hills, MI, 2019

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In 1966 I bought our (used) Deardorff for $250. All the money in our world. I had just quit my job and Susan and I had started Dick James Photography.. No way could I buy a lens!! I remember making a “PIN-Hole" Lens out of card board -  and looking down on the back yard from our Garage apartment.. 

For 9 months, we didn’t get a job, not one. We survived on Susans modeling money, which we would then spend on client dinners..

Finally one day, thanks to a Sailboat friend who happened to be and Art Director-  we got one of the 1967 American Motors Catalogs.. Fee $17,000 dollars. Saved!

Irving Koppel, a Camera shop owner in Pontiac, Michigan - financed those lens that you and I spent so many years with. 

$250,00.. It was a start,

PS: I didn’t buy a Nikon for 2-3 more years,, I didn’t have a job where I could use one..

My mother told us.. "Stay out of debt, no one can shut you down”. A quote from a NYC Photographer Howell Conant, Princess Grace’s Photographer. We did stay out of debt, smart advise.