Grandma’s Family Postcards

This is one of a series of Real Photo Postcards (RPPC) passed down from a grandmother I never knew. Most of the RPPCs are from M. J. Hoover Studios, Carlisle & Newville, PA. The photocard stock is from AZO and was manufactured between 1904 and 1918.

I have collected the most interesting (to me anyway) ones into a photoset on my Flickr photo sharing site. You can see them by clicking on the image to te left.

My grandmother was Bessie Geedy of Newville, PA. She passed away in 1947. Her dad, a veteran of the 126th Regiment PA Infantry, was wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville.

The people in the photos are her family and friends. Most of the pictures are unmarked and the people unidentified.

Reflecting Self Portraits

It's a photograph not a Photoshop composite. Taken with an Olympus C5050.

Self Portrait circa 1972.

The full size image on my Flickr Photo sharing site gives a better hint about how this was done.

Reflections of M. C. Escher

The image below is a photograph. It's not a PhotoShop creation.

Inspired by M. C. Escher's 1935 Lithograph "Hand with Reflecting Sphere" .

This one, a play on M.C. Escher's 1946 Lithograph "Three Spheres II" is a PhotoShop creation. It's a composite of four images.


I have posted some similarly inspired photos into a Flickr PhotoSet I call On M. C. Escher click the link to see them.

You can see my post about my brush with M.C. Escher in my post on visiting Castrovalva in Abruzzo, Italy.

Goerz Pocket Tenax

Goerz Pocket Tenax

The camera belongs to a friend. It is a Goerz Pocket Tenax folding plate camera manufactured by C. P. Goerz of Berlin about 100 years ago. The lens an F6.8 Syntor with 5 inch focal length. The compound shutter and aperture control works and the bellows appears light tight. The camera needs only a trip to a good shop for a careful cleaning and lubrication to be fully functional.

The camera kit includes a 7x5x3 inch wooden carrying case and numbered 3.25 x 4.25 inch glass film plate holders.

Camerapedia has this to say about C.P. Goerz

C. P. Goerz was founded in 1886 by Carl Paul Goerz (1854-1923), a salesman who once had been in apprenticeship at Emil Busch in Rathenow and later was partner of Eugen Krauss in Paris. Originally Goerz sold mathematical tools for schools, since 1887 also cameras. By taking over F. A. Hintze's workshop in 1888 his company became a camera maker itself, named Optische Anstalt C. P. Goerz since 1890. It was based in Berlin.

I have posted a few other pictures of this camera to a set called C P Goerz Camera Check them out.

Should anybody have any more information about this camera, please leave a comment.

You can learn more about plate cameras and how they operate at licm.org.uk

Goerz Pocket Tenax Kit

Conspiracy Theory

Who knew that Kenn Starr had a company in India? Or that Monica was part of an diabolical plot to sell butter?


Billboard seen in Mumbai in 1998.

I have placed a few pictures taken in and around Mumbai, India in 1998 into a photo set on my Flickr site. Clicking HERE or on the photo above will take you to the photo set.