Old Faygo Bottle Opener

Antique Camera

1956 Mercury Montclair

Old Victrola Needle & Turntable

Nautical Gauges

1960s Camera & Film

My uncle gave me this old camera that he had back in the 1960s.  In the case I found an unopened roll of film and another exposed roll of film.  Another half-shot roll of film was still in the camera.  I need to find a place that still develops slide film to process them.  The camera does not seem to be in working order at this point, but it will complement my ever-growing collection of old cameras that I seem to keep obtaining.  I have not set out to collect these cameras, but I keep getting them from people.  Most of the cameras are really cool and so I have kept them.  I guess I am an old camera collector now whether I planned to be or not!

Scale & Saw

This old milk scale and saw hanging in my mother's barn always catch my eye when I am there, but I have never taken the time to photograph them.

B-17 & B-25 Bombers

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the hanger where the Yankee Air Museum houses its B-17 and B-25 bombers.  I was doing some clandestine campaign work involving photography and got the chance to experience these special planes up close.  The hanger where these planes reside stands next to the building where B-24 bombers were built during World War II and where Rosie the Riveter worked.  The bomber factory building was slated to be demolished, but local fundraising helped save it from the wrecking ball.

Unexpected Treasures

When I was working on a project at my mother's house the other day, she brought out the bag pictured above that appears to be a bowling ball bag.  She asked if I would like the treasures inside and I commented that I was not sure I really needed a bowling ball.  Out of the bag she pulled two antique cameras in very good condition.

The most spectacular of the two is the Polaroid Pathfinder 110 camera.  It has an intact bellows with no rips and all the mechanisms seem to work really well.  You cannot obtain film for this camera anymore, but I am reading up on a way to fit a special film holder into the back so it can use modern Polaroid film.  The instructions were also included in the bag.

The second camera is not is as good of shape, but its problems appear cosmetic.  A little cleaning should take care of that.  It is a 35mm camera and I might track down some film in order to play with it a bit.  Both this camera and the Polaroid were made in the mid-1950s according to the research I did on them.

Antique Suitcase

Valerie had someone at church give her a bunch of old costume jewelry the other day.  It came in this really cool Samsonite suitcase from a bygone era.  It screamed out for me to take a photograph of it.

Museum of the USAF - Dayton, Ohio

Valerie and I visited the Museum of the USAF at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio last weekend.  I have not been to the museum since Dad was still alive.  In fact, the last trip we took together was with the Boy Scout troop to the museum just a month before he got sick.  A third building has been added and a fourth is planned.  After nearly two days of wandering the museum both of us were on overload, as there is so much there.

The Plane That Dropped The Atomic Bomb on Nagasaki

Spokes

Curved Dash Oldsmobile Wheel Spokes

REOTown Advertisement Uncovered

I photographed this fading advertisement on the wall of an old building in Lansing's REOTown.  The building is located on South Washington Avenue directly across from what once was Kwast Bakery.  Until recently, the advertisement was hidden by the adjacent building that has been demolished.  I hold out very little hope that this will remain visible long, as it appears some work is being done on the now vacant lot.  My other fear is that some punk will decide to embellish it with graffiti.

Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum

On our way back from Detroit last week, Valerie and I stopped at Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum.  It was a very odd little place jammed into the backside of a strip mall on Orchard Lake Road in the Novi area.  Museum is hardly the word to use to describe the place; it was more of a menagerie of antique coin operated machines nestled between more modern arcade games.  Everything ran off of quarters, so the proprietor makes plenty of money off of this place.  Some of the older rides and machines were very interesting.  I have posted a few of the unique or plain odd pieces here.  Check out the videos under a few of the photos to see the machines in action, especially the "Spanish Inquisition" and the creepy skeleton display.

Way Before Digital Photography

Nuts And Bolts

I found this collection of old nuts and bolts the other night while rummaging around looking for something in the basement.  I like random photos of odds and ends like this from time to time.

Printing Plate of the Olds Tower

One of the board members for the Historical Society of Greater Lansing found a couple old newspaper printing plates the other day.  Included was this one of the Olds Tower (Michigan National Bank, Boji Tower).

Labor Day

I felt these gears I photographed on one of the presses in the machine shop at Greenfield Village would serve as a perfect photo for Labor Day.

A Study In Motion

I decided to play around a bit the other day at Greenfield Village with my adjustable neutral density filter and tripod to take some longer exposure photos.  The neutral density filter lets me limit the light coming into the lens while not affecting the colors captured in the photo.  With the help of a tripod to keep the camera steady I can dial up the darkness of the filter and lengthen time the shutter is open.  This allows for the blurring of anything moving across the field of view when the shutter is open.  The top photo is of the carousel at Greenfield Village.  The two bottom photographs I captured of the steam engine leaving the station and the platform by the main entrance.  In hindsight, I should have used just a tad bit faster shutter speed on the bottom photos to catch a bit more of the outline of the train.