Iron Mountain Trip

My first trip to Iron Mountain was in June 2014 with Chris. This time I went with Tracy to meet up with Fred, the Iron Mountain Digital Studios team & the folks at the Bettmann Archive. We recently relocated our entire film collection to our vault there & had meetings about digitizing our archive.

It's really an amazing place. Most people know Iron Mountain (founded in 1951) as a paper shredding company but it's much, much more! A few stats about the former limestone mine: 220 feet below ground, 2700 employees, 26 miles of roads & only one tenth of the mine is developed. The largest active vault is 220,000 square feet ... the size of 6 football fields!!! INSANE!!! The history is fascinating & security is really tight.

Definitely watch these 2 videos. The first one is about Iron Mountain & the second one is about the Bettmann Archive collection. It was so amazing to see the Bettmann Archive vault ... 20,000 square feet filled with the most famous photographs in the world.

The new visitor center

We were in a golf cart following Bethany & AJ underground.

Iron Mountain Digital Studios HQ.

One of the two Hasselhoff Hasselblad scanners being used to digitize our archive.

I'm not sure if Fred is inbound or outbound.

Tracy & I in our vault.

Fred checks out some of the boxes.

Everything is very well organized.

On my last trip here, I was so bummed I wasn't able to visit the amazing Bettmann Archive. This time, Leslie & Sarah gave us an awesome tour.

The broken glass plate negative of the historic 1932 image of "New York Construction Workers Lunching on a Crossbeam" is stored in Pelican Cases.

When they opened a random drawer in the archive & I saw Lynn Goldsmith, I immediately asked if I could see some Bruce pix. So awesome!

Files upon files of the most famous photographs in the world!

Old card catalog

Ditka's for dinner with Tracy.

Pittsburgh Bound

Thirsty Starbucks Siren gets her caffeine fix.

Loaner

I got a loaner TLX with 1961 miles while my transmission is being replaced. Hmmm ...

BFF Sleepover

Google stayed over for a few days while Mary went to Orlando. He & Stella love hanging out.

HUGE stick!

Guard dogs!

Stella was wondering why Google was in her chair

Unlike Stella, Google is the ultimate lapdog.

They were both exhausted after a 5-day playdate!

Breakfast at Panera

It's been a long time since Stella's been out for Breakfast.

Patiently awaiting whipped cream delivery.

More Sony RX10-IV

I shot some more pix of my favorite subjects with the Sony RX10-IV. The Zeiss 24mm f/2.4 - 600 mm f/4 range & sharpness is AMAZING!

Great smile!

I love Google's counter-clockwise tail.

Sony RX10-IV

I've been testing the Sony RX10-IV. It's an amazing point & shoot with a zoom equivalent to a 24mm f/2.4 - 600 mm f/4 lens. The Zeiss lens sooooo SHARP! It can shoot a crazy 24 fps. Here's a review.

This is the equivalent of hand-holding a 600mm f/4 lens.

Google, Stella & Mary were all willing to be test subjects.

Transplant Week

Rhoda, Enid & I took Charlie & Maddie to Chili's for dinner. Rhoda came to town to help out during Matt's kidney transplant

Fishing ... Larry ... Stella ... Lisa

Stella was barking at a fish on the bulkhead.

Obviously, Larry the Anhinga, left the fish treat for Stella.

The usual taunting ...

Lisa brought Stella a custom-made Snuffle Mat. She loves sniffing out the hidden treats!