The lake is drained in the spring before the thaw raises the water levels again, and for a little while you can see old tree stumps and even bricks from old buildings that were flooded by the dam.

In early 2012 I got a little obsessed with the Novosibirsk Reservoir on the Ob River, aka "the sea". My city, Novosibirsk, emerged at the turn of the 20th century as the site of the Trans-Siberian Railroad bridge over the Ob. In the 1950s, a hydroelectric power plant was built on the river, creating a 100 mile long artificial lake. The grand undertaking flooded several villages and part of the city of Berdsk, as well as swaths of fertile land and forest. For all that flooding, the hydroelectric dam is actually pretty small and doesn't meet the city's full electrical needs. However, the construction of the dam was a bonus when physicist Mikhail Lavrentyev was looking for a place to build an academic center with "an attractive site, railroad connections, and plenty of electric power". So that was the origin of Akademgorodok, where I grew up. We spent the summers at the beach on the reservoir. The lake has its issues, including pollution and erosion, but that's not how I experienced it. Anyway, I took some photos. (I'll be adding more soon.) I'd like to be there for an algae bloom one year!

My hard drive crashed, and through much effort by my dad, the files were recovered. Thanks, dad!!

 

Horse chestnut tree
torn hole
stitched around the edge with grass stalks
moving in the wind
Trinity College, Cambridge
24 July 1986  

Andy Goldsworthy

Wilson Creek.

(Is this photo off-kilter because I didn't line it up with the waterline, or does something like this not matter when the composition is okay?)

Whitetop Mountain.

Thinking About Being Called Simple by a Critic

William Stafford

I wanted the plums, but I waited.

The sun went down. The fire

went out. With no lights on

I waited. From the night again–

those words: how stupid I was.

And I closed my eyes to listen.

The words all sank down, deep

and rich. I felt their truth

and began to live them. They were mine

to enjoy. Who but a friend

could give so sternly what the sky

feels for everyone but few learn to

cherish? In the dark with the truth

I began the sentence of my life

and found it so simple there was no way

back into qualifying my thoughts

with irony or anything like that.

I went to the fridge and opened it–

sure enough the light was on.

I reached in and got the plums.

Fireline in Akadem.

Ancient art in the Republic of Khakassia, on a visit to my friend.

Some kids I know were tenderly caring for two dead flowers which they'd stuck in the ground.

Overlook onto the River Inya.

Oksana holding an apple tree that grew on my windowsill for two years. We planted it at her family's dacha.

I got to go to Thailand in January 2012 and visited this cave.

The bad news... in the middle of triumphantly scanning all that film, my scanner started acting weird. It's not under warranty any more. So, I whittled an egg in frustration. My first little whittle.

Update: The scanner was an easy fix!

I finally got all my film developed!! The final batch was from fall 2011 to summer 2012 in Akademgorodok, Russia. I don't usually take photos of strangers, but I had to make an exception for this woman and her gorgeous scarf.