User:BrettA343

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About Me[edit]

Hello. My name is Brett Aubrey. I'm a not-terribly-experienced ex-mountaineer, plus an ex-photographer, and, going back five decades, an ex-submariner and ex-skimmer (surface forces: frigate, destroyer escort and aircraft carrier. I was in Naval Combat Information Operations - NCI-Ops - ex-RP) and when I got out of the Navy I went back to school for Computer Programming and two business certificates, passing all with Hons. I progressed quickly through typical IT positions as a programmer, programmer/analyst, systems analyst, data base analyst, data base administrator and Supervisor - Data Base Systems for our large division of a pipeline company. I then started an IT consulting firm for several years. After retiring from IT, I then took my hobby of photography to a professional level and ran Intersite Imaging and Intimate Imaging for some 5 years, and then retired more permanently. I started mountaineering late in life - in my late-thirties - and after five not-spectacularly-successful knee operations, don't do any at all of what I used to love to do in the mountains. My wife and I - married at Lake O'Hara's Elizabeth Parker hut (we rented the whole hut for four days) by the grand-daughter of Ernest Feuz (see Ernest Peak) - also did Kili's Kibo summit by the normal (hiking) route. We've also hiked extensively throughout Banff, Jasper, Yoho parks and we've done three West Coast trails, so some of that may prove useful here. And I have experience in other areas such as sea kayaking, caving (a bit), scuba diving (both for the Navy and recreationally), paragliding and skydiving (now mainly from a historical perspective), which is all turning out to be useful in 2022/23 as I edit related articles.

My initial Wikipedia interests were primarily around the Canadian Rockies, more specifically around the Columbia, Wapta/Waputik and Lyell Icefields; mainly for photography, hiking, mountaineering, adding Wikipedia pages I know to be missing and modifying pages I find to be wrong, missing photos or having photos I think can be improved upon. Plus, I have a few photos of the Baffin Mountains, which I've used. I'm also trying to get Google Earth and Maps to attribute my photos to the correct mountain, which they both not only fail to do, but so far they've rejected 24, sometimes repeated (and correct) change requests with simple 'NOT APPLIED' responses. I now have more change requests about Mt. Forbes and the Lyells and the use of my photos (for a sixth time), in 'PENDING' status, with still more waiting to submit. GE started updating things as I've been suggesting, though they're still (lol) listed as 'NOT APPLIED': they've used my photo for Walter Peak instead of the monster mountain they had along with the monster mountain). Right now, however - Summer 2022 - I'm still getting my feet wet as a Wikipedian (my first minor contribution was on Oct. 31, 2019), and we'll see where that goes. I'll note that many dates for my photos are SWAGs and they're from the 1960s to the 2010s; shot with a variety of Nikon equipment (Nikkormat FT in 1965 and many more Nikon bodies - my favorite was the FE2 - with Kodachrome, to Nikon's D700 and D3x in 2008 when I 'went digital'. As of about 2016, I'm out of photography and no longer have gear. BrettA343 (talk) 17:17, 4 March 2023 (UTC)

My Contributions (Photo Gallery)[edit]

I've added photos to the following Wikipedia items on Canadian mountains and related articles (many of which had no or only one photo): List of mountains in the Canadian Rockies (all 3 photos of highest peaks), Mt. Forbes (all photos but the aerial shot), Mt. Columbia (all, but one in the Gallery), Columbia Icefield (infobox and all in the Gallery), Athabasca Glacier (two headwall shots: one approaching, one on), The President and The Vice President (infobox), Mt. Lyell (infobox and two more), Mt. Athabasca (infobox), Mt. Andromeda (infobox), Walter Peak (infobox and two more), Mt. Assiniboine (infobox and one more), Crowfoot Mtn. and Crowfoot Glacier (infobox), Mistaya Mtn. (infobox and one more), Wapta Icefield (infobox), Waputik Icefield (infobox), Mt. King Edward (infobox and one more), Mt. Alberta (infobox & two photos, new Gallery), Eon Mountain, (Infobox), The Twins (North Twin and South Twin (infobox, one more for N. Gallery of 4 for S.), Oppy Mtn. (infobox), Mt. Balfour (two photos), Mt. Bryce (Gallery & three photos), Mt. Beatty and Beatty Lake (infobox), Mt. Patterson (one photo), Castle Mtn. (one photo), Mons Peak (infobox & one more), Pulpit Peak (infobox, showing pulpit), the Stutfields (one summit shot), Mt. Kitchener (two summit shots, one of summit), Stephen SE1 (one photo), Arctomys Peak (infobox), Baffin Island (one air photo), Baffin Mtns. (infobox and Loki), Akshayak Pass (infobox and one photo), Breidablik and Thor Peaks (infobox for Breidablik), Mt. Asgard (one photo), Midnight Sun Peak (infobox), Bow Lake (infobox), Hector Lake (infobox), Icefields Parkway (one turnout photo, two Gallery photos), Mountain Rescue (one photo under 'Canada'), Fairholme Range Mts Inglismaldie, Girouard, Peechee from Vermillion Lakes, (infobox), Mountaineering (four photos under negotiation), Ski Mountaineering (infobox photo), Sask. Glacier (one photo), Camping (one mountaineering photo), Kite Skiing or Boarding (infobox), Alberta lakes (infobox and three more), Takakkaw Falls (one zoomed-in photo; detail), Inuksuk (infobox and Gallery - Blowup and wide of the same shot - infobox changed out as it may have been created by non-inuit), the Elizabeth Parker hut (infobox), the Canadian Rockies (infobox), Parachute (3 photos & text), Parachuting (2 photos), Formation skydiving (one photo), the Goderich Goodtime Boogie (6 photos & text), HMCS St. Laurent (infobox and one photo), HMCS Bonaventure (2 photos), HMS London (one photo), HMS Rhyl (one photo), Sea King (2 photos), Wolverine (one 'track photo'), Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies and Scrambling (infobox - Not my photos), Whiteout (infobox) and Alpenglow (infobox - where an infobox does not apply, I mean the top-right photo). I've also added a Volvo 1800E (infobox), DC-3 (1 photo) and one Canadian O-class submarine night image to 4 related articles. More shots to come.

My Contributions (Other)[edit]

I've spent more time clarifying the Lyells and especially Walter Peak - AKA Lyell 4 - than other peaks, partly because the latter was defined here at Wikipedia as 'a mountain' while the references and most common language this editor has read or heard calls it (the 4th highest of 5) 'summits', 'peaks' or 'subpeaks' of Mt. Lyell. The UIAA definition of subpeak also applies. The end result of this misattribution of terms is that sources like Google Earth (GE) notes it as a major mountain (with a major mountain photo which is NOT Walter Peak... corrected as of 2019-12-10), identified at up to 200+ Kms elevation, while the Mt. Lyell massif's higher summit isn't even noted close-up. Indeed, a GE 'Search' for Mt. Lyell points erroneously to the lower and 0.6 km (0.4 mi) distant Walter Peak. I've likewise changed text for two other Lyell subpeaks: (Lyell 5 and 3) and will add Lyell 2 (Edward Peak) soon. And I've deleted the Geology and Climate under the subpeak articles and pointed to the Mt. Lyell article for those subjects. I've also clarified the Alpenglow article to indicate reference sources [3] to [5] attribute the phenomenon to 'Direct sunlight' as can be seen from my cropped photo at top right of Mt. Forbes. And I've corrected relative heights of Mts. Alberta and Forbes to align with WP's list of Rockies peaks and made many other small changes. I've also revamped the Parachute article in two ways; I've broken apart 'Annular and Pull-down apex' so that each has its own sub-section and have largely rewritten 'Pull-down apex'. I've also sourced, cropped and added a Paragliding infobox photo and added Paragliders section which is now complete. And as noted in the 'Photos' section above, I've added 3 photos to 'Parachute'.