Category Archives: Photography

Photos My Son Takes – Storming the Castles

I’ve posted a few times (like here, here, and here) about the photographs my son takes. They’re always amazing, to me at least. He takes photos of seemingly dull things and makes them exciting. We think of his photographs as a window into his perception of the world. No doubt he looks at things differently than we do, as he is on the autism spectrum.Continue reading “Photos My Son Takes – Storming the Castles”

Horses

It’s late on a Sunday night. For some reason, I’ve been convinced all day that it’s Saturday. Maybe because tomorrow’s a holiday. Maybe because I didn’t sleep well last night so yesterday has just run into today as one big blur.

For whatever reason, I have been thinking it’s Saturday and that I already blogged today so I don’t have to now.

Only that it’s Sunday, and if I want to blog every day I need to blog yet today.

So, here are some pictures of horses that I took at the New York State Fair this weekend. Please enjoy them.Continue reading “Horses”

Photos My Son Takes – At the Renaissance Faire

We went as a family to the Sterling Renaissance Festival today. A bit of a ‘last blast’ before I head out to points West for field work in the morning.

We all got in costume, though somehow, we didn’t manage to get a portrait of all three of us together. Oh well.

Upon our arrival. Me and the boy.
Upon our arrival. Me and the boy.

Continue reading “Photos My Son Takes – At the Renaissance Faire”

Photos My Son Takes

Every parent, of course, thinks that their child is the best and most brilliant at something. I’m no exception. Get ready, because I’m about to gush.

My son is an amazing kid. We have our struggles, as does everyone, but he has some particular issues given that he’s on the Autism spectrum and has ADHD. It often feels like it’s impossible to reach him and that he is incapable of expressing his feelings. Then this happens:Continue reading “Photos My Son Takes”

What is this “Paleopix”?

Cameras

There is, I suppose, the slightest chance that you’ve wondered why my blog is called ‘Paleopix.’ Perhaps you’ve ventured so far as to visit Paleopix.com and have been a little surprised by what you saw.

When my husband and I first married (in fact it might have been before we married), we started collecting antique cameras. We collected over 600 older film cameras, the oldest being from the late 1800’s and the newest being one that we bought about the time we got married. The collection we have is neither his nor mine, it is ours.

It all started with one camera we found at a yard sale, the Univex Corsair II. I think we bought it for $7. It fascinated us both, and it teases us on many levels. It’s mechanical (and there’s nothing battery-powered about this camera), which caught the interest of my husband. It’s very Art Deco, with is an aesthetic that my husband and I share, with all the glossy black and silver. It’s a camera and we both enjoyed taking pictures. We do have our favorites, however. I’m a big fan of the older bakelite cameras. The husband likes the 1960’s-1980’s SLR cameras.

Univex Corsair II – our first camera

We put together a Microsoft Access database (which is how I learned to use Access), and cataloged and tagged each camera (well at least the first 500 or so), and would spend hours cleaning them and trying to make them work. For each camera that still worked and for which there was film available, we’d shoot a roll and get them developed. We have thousands of photos. We were glad when we were later able to just get the photos on CD.

But then we had our son, and the camera collection and web page development had slowed. OK, it’s pretty-much stopped. But the boy is older now, and I’m starting to think about getting back into the collection and working more on the website. In the meantime, here’s a few photos of some of our cameras!

Minolta SRT-MC-II
Minolta SRT-MC-II – My first camera. Actually, it was my dad’s camera, but I borrowed it for so long he finally replaced it…
Our oldest camera
A Minolta SLR camera for 110 cartridge film. It was a little like taking photos with a sandwich.
This is one of our littlest cameras, called a ‘HIT’ camera. That’s a penny for scale. Yes, it worked (though we’ve never tried it).
The Nikon F – one of the original Nikon SLRs. Still works. It’s lenses work on our new Nikon digital SLRs.
The Univex Mercury – a half-frame camera (took 48 photos on a 24-exposure roll). This was just post WWII. It had a rotary shutter, hence the funny dome on top.
Another Univex Mercury. Same vintage, but had flash and rapid-winder. I’ve shot a roll through this one.
Bolsey camera – one of the first to take the ‘standard’ (yet now extinct) 35mm film cartridge. We put a roll through this too.
Winpro cameras were made near here in Webster NY. Pretty cheap plastic.
A Voightlander twin-lens-reflex camera. These take 120 film which is still available (or was when we bought the camera). We never tested this one.
Falcon – one of my favorite cheap plastic/bakelite cameras.
The Royal Reflex – another cheap plastic/bakelite camera. This one is a twin lens style.
A Kodak 3A folding pocket camera – we have lots of bellows cameras. This one’s nice because the bellows are red and intact. It took postcard-sized plates.

There’s a few more, but you can visit the website to see them. Obviously, we have far less than 600 cameras photographed and posted. Some of them, maybe several hundred, are not really worth photographing, but we have some treasures as well. Maybe we’ll get around to posting them all… soon.

A few cameras
A few more cameras.

Dinosaurs in the backyard

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned that we have chickens. But…we have chickens. I love them (and hate them). They do provide some entertainment and lots of eggs, but they can stick a bit, and be noisy (and down-right dangerous if you make them mad).

In the paleontological community, there is very little debate that modern birds are direct descendents of the dinosaurs. And if you sit and watch the chickens for a while, you can believe it.

So, we have dinosaurs in our backyard. We like them. Turns out they’re pretty hard to photgraph, but I think I got decent shots of most of them anyway. Here are some photos.

Rosey is the matriarch. She’s the oldest, having already survived one winter here.

Rosey – A Barred Plymouth Rock
Another shot of Rosey

We have a couple of roosters, Bruce and Rocky:

Bruce – A “Black Sex Link” a cross between a Rhode Island Red sire and a Barred Plymouth Rock dam.
Bruce crowing
Rocky – Rhode Island Red
Bruce and Rocky get along…mostly

And a few of our hens:

Two Partridge Chanticlers. I haven’t named these two. I can’t tell them apart.
Red – a Red Chanticler
Brahma Mama – a Light Brahma.
Della, ready for her close-up – a Delaware
Wynona and Bruce – Wynona is a Silver-Laced Wyandotte

We also have a Buff Chanticler (Buffy) and a White Leghorn (Leggy). Yes, sometimes the naming isn’t all that creative. I couldn’t get anything but blurry photos of those girls, so I didn’t include any. Maybe I will at a later date.

In the meantime, now you’ve met most of our dinosaurs. They’re silly little birds, but we enjoy them. And they can be rather pet-like. This is what happens whenever I walk past the group:

Chicken entourage. You hear the clicking of nails on pavement and look back. There they are, following you!

We love our girls and hope you enjoy them too!