Apparatus

I had already bought a photo copy stand to help with digitizing the old family photos from my mom’s apartment. But when we unearthed a box of tintypes, I knew I had to step up my lighting game. That’s 2 off-camera flash heads, plus a lamp to give me enough light to focus by. These all have polarizer gel over them; the polarizing filter on the lens then blocks just about all unwanted reflections.

Documentation

My mom is downsizing again and my brothers and I are going through her apartment, ruthlessly discarding junk and documenting the rest for family members to claim. This, for example, is the toy banjo that we siblings each annoyed my parents with when we were kids.

Clock

If my father’s research is accurate, this clock — which has been in my family since new — was made in 1857. It’s a pendulum-regulated, weight-driven clock and still works fine after all these years.