Maybe the last post of the year?

I think this is the last blog post of the year, but one never knows these things in advance. Maybe tomorrow I'll wake up with a rant boiling out of me. As I write this I've got two draft posts started, December IotM, and the 2023 IotY. Yes, the dithering has started.

Both of those are looking back sort of posts. This one might be that as well, looking at the 2023 that disappeared in a blur. The project that started the year was digitizing the many negatives that had been living in a box in the basement. You know. The envelop of prints from Blacks with the negatives tucked in the flap. You've probably got one as well. The prints probably scattered to albums and frames. Like the one ad says, a surprise in every handful.

I was surprised that I couldn't reliably date most of them. But it was fun going through, looking at the prints and negatives. Surprisingly often the two things bore no relationship to each other because they had been shuffled around. I suppose if I was really on the ball, or we were famous and I was doing it for a biographer, or we had kids that cared about what their adults were up to in the 'pre-crustacean era' as a the kid of a friend of ours puts it, I'd organize the prints and negatives sequentially, name the people, and add the date. Do not hold your breath waiting for that.

The biggest surprise was discovering a trove of negatives from the late 1940's to early 1960's time frame. I wrote about that here. I've been gradually publishing our old photos in the Of the Day section of my blog.  Several of my readers have been amused/interested at seeing photos of our younger selves.

The biggest project has been the books. Since the summary here, I've sent another book off to the printer. That one isn't for me, it's a commission. My client gave me an extravagant budget, and a really clear description of what they wanted. They supplied several photos to be included, that gave me a sense of the light they were looking for. It was fun going through my photos and thinking about them from another person's perspective. There were any number of photos that both of us think are "good" photos, but they didn't fit the criteria of the light. If Blurb is to be believed, and they've been right on so far, I'll have it Jan 9.

This was a big year for trips and photo events! They include:

• Any number of rambles in various places around Calgary alone or with various friends, carrying various cameras. I could go through Lightroom and develop a detailed list of where and with who, but I'm not going to.
• Vancouver Island in February. We stayed near Sooke, and had a wonderful time exploring the coastline up to Port Renfrew. We have several friends that live in the Comox area, and thought about visiting, but sorry guys, it was a long drive. We'd rather come out and stay in Comox, and get a much better visit in. 
• Mid June day trip out to the Lake Louise area. 
• Sean and I did two separate day trips exploring the Sheep and Elbow Rivers. 
• There was a mid July road trip SE of Calgary that turned into a bit of a steam train chase that was lots of fun. 
• A September trip to Dinosaur Provincial park. 
• A late September trip to Ontario to visit Linda's family and for me to see a cousin in Montreal. (Hi SC!) 
• An October trip to Jasper spread over several days and nights.
• A paid corporate photo session that was lots of fun for all involved.
• Several races for Rose and Richelle.
• Many events for the Community Association. 

There's photos from most of those published on my blogs, and the dates give you some clues for the blog roll, if you really want to see them and somehow missed them along the way. All that added up to just under 20,000 photos so far this year. I don't know if I'll be out enough over the next few days to tick over the counter, but it's not important. I'd rather get a few really good photos, than some arbitrary number of poor ones.

Linda also had any number of projects this year; always on the go with something. This is a happy photo of her that she sent into her Master Gardener's Association. 

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

Driftwood (BC)

Flower and Film (new)

Plus a serendipity Yukon from 2017.

Film (old)

More of the construction of the front flower bed. I don't know what the orange line is.

A serendipity from 2017 of downtown reflected in the Elbow River.

Another serendipity of the sky. No idea why I took this photo.