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Photographing the Barns of Sibley County
Barns have always intrigued me since my childhood, having grown up on a small farm on the eastern end of Sibley County
in the little township of Faxon. When I realized one day that about 35 barns were already missing in the area around where
our farm was located I decided that I really wanted to photograph what remained of the barns in the township. After I had
been taking the photos for awhile I realized that it wasn't just Faxon township that was losing barns, but the entire county
was rapidly losing the dairy barns that had made it such an important milk producing county in the state of Minnesota.
So began my journey to attempt to photograph all the barns that remained in Sibley County. I began this in 2005 and have captured
over 1100 barns in this photographic journey. There are 17 townships in Sibley County, all but 2 being 36 square miles in
area. I have met many wonderful residents of this beautiful, mostly rural county. Their interest and enjoyment in viewing
the photos that I have taken so far is what has spurred me to develop this website and to share some of the many barns that
I have found with as many people as I can. I hope that you will enjoy viewing these photos as much
as I have enjoyed taking them. Thank you for visiting Barns of Sibley County. Harriet Traxler
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My Camera Equipment
I began photographing the barns using an HP digital point and shoot camera with 6.0 megapixels. My latest
camera, which I purchased in March of 2007, is the Nikon D40 SLR. This is turning out to be my favorite camera to use, both
for its ease of use and trouble free performance. For printing the pages of the book I use a Ricoh
Aficio digital printer which does a very good and speedy job of printing out the pages. It only takes a few moments to print
out the entire book. I also use an Epson 1900 wide format printer for printing out the covers. This is done on paper with
a tacky back to which the cover boards and spines are applied to and then finished off in A Fastbind cover maker. It is all
fairly simple and makes putting the books together a rather effortless enterprise. I use to laminate the cover sheets before
adding the cover boards but found a low odor clear spray that gives the covers a canvas like appearance which I use now and
really do like the feel and appearance of the cover. And I have branched out into making other
books for myself and others. I am currently working on a photo book about our wonder Fall photos here in Minnesota.
Printing the books...
It is truly
a print on demand operation as I print out the books when anyone is interested in purchasing one of them. And for the township
books I have been adding the barn of choice on the covers, front and back. It has been a popular addition to my book printing. CALENDARS... Each
year I print out a new calendar that is available from November through January. 13 barn photos plus rural photos on every
page.
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