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Friday, May 31, 2013

Insta-Friday - May 31, 2013

I am so excited to participate in Life Rearranged's Insta-Friday again!!! I love documenting life photographically with my DSLR, but realistically I can't carry that thing around with me.  I am super thankful that the iPhone 5 has such a great lens, and that there are amazing photo apps out there!!! And Instagram makes it all that much funner!!  Wanna follow me??  I'm shannonbromenschenkel.


My sister Sheena and I with some super cool neon lip gloss!
Happy Memorial Day!
Who doesn't love a carnival?
It's been a rainy spring!
Who wants to buy this gigantic, expensive Jackfruit?
Beautiful flowering crab apple tree!!
811 Dig
New Running Shoes! Yay!
Love this show!  Can't wait for the next season!
Mutant Dandelion
I could spend all day on the porch of this old barn!
To die for... guacamole!
You know you find an awesome antique shop when they have an old car hoisted up and a vintage mannequin under it looking like she is fixing the motor!
Finally got me a 15 gallon Red Wing crock!! Happiest girl ever!
Smart dog knows exactly where to lay so she doesn't get wet!
Look.... we have a cow (I mean dog) grazing in the meadow (I mean yard)!
She's perfect, just like Mary Poppins!
Waiting to get into mommy & daddy's room!
Super cute puppy feet!
6th, 7th and 8th Grade Band Concert.... 260 students, 2 instructors for the final song! Wow!

life rearranged

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Voices From the Past - A Group Photograph

When I saw this photograph, I instantly fell in love.  Someone clearly took precious time to carefully number each person on the front, being sure to put the numbers in the same position as each person, and put a name with each number and person on the back.  The writing is so elegant, and the names are so beautiful.   The photograph is mounted on a beautiful embossed cardboard, and I imagine the numbers and names being written with an elegant fountain pen.   I wonder what they were posing for?  Was it a graduating class?  Was it a family picture?  Let your imagination travel back to the early 1900's.... I'd like you to meet this lovely group of people...


1.  Betsy Johnson
2.  Edith Anderson
3.  Sophie Larson
4   Morris Johnson
5.  Nora Greenland
6.  Tertulia Forzen
7.  Naydean Miss
8.  Fulton Kaufman
9.  Bertha Jackson
10. Cora Garvin
11. Helen Christianson
12. Worthington Mahin
13. Otillie Kjelland
14. Alice Baker
15. Edith Berrisford
16. George Lenhart

I did an internet search of some of the names and found two of them in the 1940's North Dakota census. Worthington Mahin was born in 1879.  Otillie Kjelland was born in 1883. I don't believe it is a coincidence that both are from North Dakota, both born around the same time, and both in the 1940's census.... I believe these two people, if not the entire group, are from North Dakota.



A closer crop of the group....


Monday, May 27, 2013

Voices From the Past.... Instant Ancestors

A couple years ago, I started collecting vintage photographs.  Antique stores, flea markets, eBay, thrift stores.... It always amazes me that people's personal photographs end up in boxes and bins, for sale and for others to profit from.  I just can't understand... who gets rid of their photographs? For someone as passionate about documenting life photographically as I am, I just don't understand it.  I've purchased entire boxes of photographs, which have included full wedding albums, baby photos, snapshots, photos in beautiful cardboard frames, tintypes, international photos, photos of people's Christmas trees, vacations... if you can imagine it, I've found it and I've purchased it.  Some have writing on the fronts and/or backs and some are left up to our imagination.  It's a shame that those memories aren't still being cherished by the original owners loved ones, but I will enjoy them and I will claim them as mine... as my instant ancestors. We all have stories, and these images tell stories from days past.  Stories that shouldn't be forgotten, memories that should live on.  I will share them with you, my blog readers.  I'd love to hear what you see when you look at these images.  What stories come to your mind? What are the subjects thinking or feeling?

This image makes me smile because photographers posing their subjects on railroad tracks is a pretty popular current trend in the photography industry.  I can imagine how adventurous and daring this girl felt as this image was being shot!  I bet she was having the time of her life....  with that big smile on her face, cute jacket and rolled up jeans!




I also want to share with you this adorable display of "Instant Relatives" at an antique shop in Waseca, Minnesota.  So creative, so vintage and so super cute!


Stay tuned for for more "Voices From the Past".  I have hundred of photographs waiting to have their stories told!