Bragen Rights Photography & Photo Booth opened the doors to its new studio location, 717 Marshall St., on June 1, according to a press release. Previously, Bragen Rights Photography & Photo Booth was located downtown in the Historic Bessesen Building.

Owned and operated by Brandi Hagen, the business specializes in newborn, birth, senior and family photography. It also has a photo booth available to rent for any occasion.

With the move came a piece of craftsmanship by Zakry Krenz. Hagen said she dreamt of joining the Little Free Library movement — a nonprofit organization that fosters neighborhood book exchanges around the world at no cost to the reader.

Krenz, a welder who by trade builds chemical plants and tanks, was able to replicate a Canon camera to use as the library.

“I thought it sounded like a lot of fun,” Krenz said. “It wasn’t going to be hard, but it was going to be challenging because it required different kinds of fabrication work as far as bending, welding and cutting.

Hagen’s vision for a Little Free Library came about last spring when she was looking up ideas on Pinterest for a new studio. A photo of a library made out of an old phone booth had popped up in the search.

With more research, Hagen discovered library stewards around the world have purchased and installed the boxes sold through the nonprofit, while others have explored more extravagant designs like carving out a tree stump, using an old newspaper distribution box to make a robot, and building replica movie theatres, school buses and farm animals.

“After that, I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and I knew I didn’t want it to just be four walls with books inside,” Hagen said.

Since there were no blueprints for the camera library, there was a lot of trial and error with the actual design, size and how to make it weatherproof. Krenz was the only one who physically made the library, but there was involvement from the people around him.

“Some of the brightest people in the fabrication world put their heads together to make this happen,” Krenz said. “They brainstormed with me, and it was fun working on a project other than our daily tasks.”

Krenz worked on the camera in his spare time over the following months in a welding shop about an hour away from Albert Lea.

“Zakry gifted me the nearly finished library on Christmas, and at that time, I didn’t even have my own building to install it at, but I wanted it up and being used,” Hagen said. “It was torture having it sit in our dining room staring at me every day.”

After securing the new high-traffic location in April, the library was the first project on the to-do list. Once Krenz welded it into place, Hagen added the finishing touches of vinyl decals to match the buttons on her actual camera.

“I think that we make a good team, and we can do anything we set our minds to,” Krenz said. “It was a lot of fun to build, and it’s pretty cool that something I made is being used by kids and adults every day.”

The library was installed on April 23 and just two days later, Freeborn County Commissioner Mike Lee was its first visitor.

“I see the way my business and this town has grown since I rented my first space three years ago, and being able to contribute the library to the community is the best feeling in the world,” Hagen said. “Every time I see visitors stopping by, or someone sends me a selfie of them with it, I can’t help but get a little excited.”

The Little Free Library is located at 717 Marshall St. The donated books are for children and adults. The library is covered by a canopy, and has a bench, too.

There are other registered and unregistered Little Free Libraries around Albert Lea, too. A map of libraries around the world can be found at littlefreelibrary.org/ourmap/. There is also a Facebook page dedicated to more local libraries, which can be found by searching “Little Free Libraries of Southern Minnesota.”