Photography

Look Up

Photo of library bookstacks, looking up at the ceiling, showing the books towering above the viewer

We have hybrid schedules, since going back to working on-site.  I love working remotely, but on my remote days I miss walking in the stacks.  This was taken on the 10th floor, where the photography books are kept.  Like art books (those are on the 9th floor), photography books are often oversized.  Only unlike the 9th floor, which has recently been remodeled to accommodate large art books, the 10th floor stacks aren’t set up for the size or volume of books it houses.  The stacks are too close together, and when there are books hanging half off the shelves, because they don’t fit, you feel a bit like they’re going to cave in on you from above.

And no, I’m sure a lot of our stacks aren’t ADA compliant.  The building opened in 1970, I think, and the stacks floors are largely unrenovated.  You could not fit a wheelchair or scooter between the stacks.  I’m not sure you could even fit a walker between them.  And people, including staff, leave step stools between the stacks.  Every time I walk, I move the step stools out of the way, because the stacks shouldn’t be an obstacle course.

My Garden, Photography

More Garden Surprises

Several other things were in that bee and butterfly mix. I love the little flax flowers and the yarrow, which is growing in several of my beds now. I hope they all get well established. The lavender was a surprise from a few years ago. I planted it in one of the beds, but it ended up in a small flower pot. Likely moved by chipmunks or birds. It’s been wintering over just fine in that pot, but I should probably plant it.

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Common flax

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Coreopsis

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Lavender

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Yarrow (newly bloomed)

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Yarrow (older)

Genealogy, Photography

Lo-Fi

These are from my great grandpa’s negatives. They’re 110, so the quality is pretty grim, and they’re scratched to hell, which hasn’t helped. I like the lo-fi feel of a lot of them, though.

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Field

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Hot air balloon

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Flood in Austin, Minnesota, July 1978

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Hormel Plant, Austin, Minnesota

Genealogy, Photography

Grandpa Mert

I edited a few more of the negatives I scanned. These are 70mm negatives of my grandpa Mert, from when he joined the Navy in 1944. He was in the Seabees and spent most of WWII stationed in the Marshall Islands (on Kwajalein Island and Ebeye Island). The first photo must have been the keeper of the bunch, because it’s the one everyone in the family has seen. The rest were outtakes that I’d never seen. They were with my great grandpa John Meineke’s negatives, so I’m assuming he was the photographer.

The last photo is flippin’ adorable.

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