Translator
- I am a photographer and EFL teacher out to see the world! I do stock photography, fine art prints, and event and wedding photography, as well as teaching English lessons. I am currently spending some time in Berlin, Germany, though I’m originally from Minneapolis in the US. I speak English, French, Russian, and a little German and Turkish. Prints, cards, and usage licenses are available for the photos on this site.
Kira Hagen Photography on Facebook
Travel Blog Archive
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Travel Research
Posted on March 6, 2010 | View CommentsI like to know as much as possible about places before I visit or move to them, and as I’ve been doing a lot of travel over the last few years I’ve worked some basic online research methods. Of course books are great and I... -
On Seeking the World’s Soul
Posted on February 13, 2010 | View CommentsThe last trip got to me. Just a bit, nothing too bad, only traveling two weeks around Turkey, where I’ve now lived for 5 months. It left me exhausted, though, and I’ve spent the last three days since getting back to Samsun in the house,... -
Upgraded and broke my theme
Posted on June 29, 2009 | View CommentsHaving some problems with my site at the moment — my apologies! I upgraded wordpress and the template I’ve been using for the last few years broke. So, trying to find a new one that displays both images and text well — so far, a lot harder than I... -
Sorry about the mess…
Posted on February 27, 2009 | View CommentsI just stopped using Zenfolio’s photo hosting and now some of my older image links are broken. I’ve switched to self-hosted Gallery2 software and am in the process of uploading photos and updating broken links, but it might take a couple days. Hopefully I’ll be... -
Mycoremediation
Posted on July 11, 2008 | View CommentsI’ve just been reading up on mycoremediation, or cleaning soil with beneficial fungi, at Fungi Perfecti. Here’s an exerpt: What can you do? Delineate your garbage into categories. Not only compost all organic debris, but segregate the refuse into piles appropriate for a variety of... -
Terra Preta
Posted on July 11, 2008 | View Comments"Terra Preta", or "dark earth", is an Amazonian Indian technology which can vastly improve soil fertility and pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, potentially keeping it out for thousands of years. Biomass - plant and animal waste such as manure, waste wood, and crop leftovers - can be turned into charcoal (or "biochar") and then buried in agricultural soil, making rich black earth that plants grow very, very well in. Charcoal is extremely porous, and provides a perfect environment for beneficial soil microorganisms that help plants grow. It also holds water, and can greatly help crops to survive drought conditions. -
Redesigning this site
Posted on July 9, 2008 | View CommentsI’ve been playing with a big site redesign — I’m thinking about switching to the “Options” theme and using Gallery2 for my photos, since google can index it and I can still set up print ordering. Anyway, just testing some things out. I feel like I’m staring... -
Solstice in Berlin
Posted on June 21, 2008 | View CommentsIt’s the shortest night of the year. I’d much rather be out at a bonfire than here at the digital hearth, but at least Tony and I went out to the Friedricshain Folkpark and climbed the big hill out there. We had some good bread... -
Recovering posts
Posted on April 21, 2008 | View CommentsSo I couldn’t figure out how to get that backup to work, but luckily I’d been crossposting just about everything from this blog to LJ and was able to manually copy and paste most of my posts back in. I skipped some that were just... -
Hacked
Posted on April 20, 2008 | View CommentsWell, some bit of malware just ate my site. I’m extremely annoyed — as if I wasn’t in the middle of moving to a new city and trying to get the apartment ready and all that! I do have a backup file from two weeks ago when I...
