2010 01 01

Why SomewhatNorth? I live quite close to 53 38'N and 113 38'W which is near the north west edge of the most northerly large (~1 million) metropolitan area in North America. It is also one of the few cities in Canada more than 300 km from the US border. At an elevation of ~670 metres (~2200 ft) we live in a landscape that can be "harsh and unforgiving" (to quote Connie Kaldor) and envision ourselves on the edge of the tundra. In the grand scheme of things we are about as far north as Manchester, Hamburg or Minsk. In other words only somewhat north.

At the urging of some co-workers, I picked up my trusty Pentax ME again in the spring of 2006 after about 20 years away from taking pictures. Having upgraded a little, I now use a Super Program most of the time and occasionally a SF1N.

As I near retirement I have found, to my surprise, that there is a great deal of pleasure to be found roaming around in public gardens taking pictures of flowers. Many other things catch my eye as well.

I shoot film exclusively, develop and scan commercially to CD, manipulate and crop with digiKam and occasionally GIMP and print comparatively few pictures.

Update 2011 03: Picked up a Pentax Optio I-10 point & shoot digital to see what it might do.

Further update 2011 05: Picked up a Pentax K-x DSLR to continue my exploration of digital. I like some of the results from the point & shoot but do not like not having a view through the lens.

2011 10 18 - 20,000 views - I'm amazed, thanks to all.

2012 05 18 - 30,000 views - I'm still amazed, thanks to all

2012 10 13 - 40,000 views - Thanks again to all.

2013 04 08 - 50,000 views - Again thanks to all!

2015 01 30 - 150,000+ views - Thanks in part to changes to flickr's counting methods but thanks to everyone who has stopped by

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