[Alnilam]

Hello to everyones who concerns enough to open this post!

Nice to have you have a look here! I am from Germany, North-West region of beautiful 'Münsterland'. So please be lenient with my wording - I'm neither a native nor frequent english speaker.

I am (as many others) a lover of pentax for many years now. My father started with an old pentina (wonder if anyone remembers) - which I took for Pentax (until the time I was 12 yrs roughly). Then I started with my first self-owned SLR, a Minolta x-700. That one died in a sandstorm, unfortuntely unaware of me (this happened in death valley in 1998, when I was on vacation in Las Vegas and California).
So, as it had to come, all I pictured from then on was lost. This made me really mad when I discovered this - after being home again. I immediately terminated any affection to Minolta and turned to Pentax - finally.
Up to now I have never been disappointed by any of their cameras I owned, even although the first one (MZ-5n) was severely mistreated by me...

All the best,
Frank

[Unregistered User 8]

So please be lenient with my wording - I'm neither a native nor frequent english speaker.

Leniency is not needed Frank, your English is fine. Hi from Australia and welcome to the Pentax forums. Good to have you here.

[Alnilam]

Thank you, Peter - but wait 'til I'm getting in a hurry...

Although my aunt with all their family members lives near Perth, I'ver never managed to get there. Nontheless Australia deemes me a very interesting country to visit, if not distance (and costs) would be as they are. (Beside al those shark-bitings, spider-killings and snake terror all around there ... )

Greetings,
Frank

[Kerrowdown]

Welcome to the forum, enjoy all that you find here.

[Unregistered User 8]

(Beside al those shark-bitings, spider-killings and snake terror all around there ... )

[alpheios]

Tach auch und ein moin aus Bremen.
Welcome to the forum.

[Alnilam]

Soso, in Bremen hat also auch schon mal jemand eine Pentax gekauft, hard to believe...

Danke and moinmoin back nach Bremen!

[BigMackCam]

Soso, in Bremen hat also auch schon mal jemand eine Pentax gekauft, hard to believe...

Danke and moinmoin back nach Bremen!

Welcome to the forums

Just a small reminder that all posts should be in English, or accompanied by an English translation. Thanks

[Alnilam]

Sorry and thanks for reminding me - I wasn't aware of that.
Of course I'll do so from now on.

Greetings,
Frank

[C_Jones]

Welcome to the forums.

[TER-OR]

Welcome from Chicago!

I enjoy seeing some German now and then, though mine is corroded from disuse.

[Alnilam]

Hi Terry!

Thank you for welcoming me!
So from where do you have your german language knowledge? I know in Illinois there is some sort of german hot spot somewhere (for immigrational reasons long ago), so maybe you have some ancestors accordingly, or (even more unlikely) did attend appropriate classes at the Goethe-Institute in Chicago .
Anyway, my foray in using my mother-tongue here is all over again, again...

Best regards!

[TER-OR]

No, I grew up in Cincinnati - very German. Parents from NW Ohio, mostly German. My families have been here since around 1880, but my wife's grandmother spoke almost no English. They're from NE Ohio, and one wing of that family were former Amish. So, just school German without a lot of chance to use it outside that - I can read better than speak, as usual.

I should have studied Latin instead, it likely would have been more useful!

Though if I get to visit Germany at some point I'll refresh some basic conversational German just to be polite. When I was in The Netherlands, it turned out almost everyone spoke English and was eager to converse with an American - so I learned very little Dutch. (It's like very simplified German, IMHO - though they don't like to admit that)

[Alnilam]

So Cincinnati it was. OK, that's not really IL.
As I have had a look to your surname now, that sounds typical swabian (southwest german region). Sure latin would have been more useful - but be happy you didn't go through that (unfortunately I did).
My home is quite close to the dutch border, less than 30km. It's easy to understand that Dutch seems to be some sort of simplified german - agreed, and don't let them hear (besides this assumption is as well simplified). IMHO Dutch is a mix of english and german, flavored with the local dialect spoken in my home. With some decent efforts, I am close to understand Dutch (if spoken very slowly). When we get to take turns on a local dutch market once in a while, I always feel a little embarrassed to have them speaking german with me (instead of me speaking dutch with them - but that would be way to awkward...).
So you have been there - quite unusual IMO. Wherever you've been there - wasn't far from here anyway .
I've been in the US three times now (mostly vacation), and Chicago was the first place to have a look at. From all cities I visited, I liked this the most (so it did beat such prominent names as San Francisco or Las Vegas, what surprised me, but it did).

There are so many, heck uncountable things to be photographed in your beautiful country. Since my equipment is improving and my last visit is quite a while ago now, I am very much looking forward for the next visit - which is unfortunately not due for a long time (can't come alone anymore - costs have quadrupled since )...

Best regards!

[TER-OR]

Unfortunately travel has become less convenient, just when we need to have more people meeting each other.

There's always something to photograph everywhere - it's about being observant. I have been doing a lot with bees recently, spending time in the prairies, parks, neighborhood etc. You can see this on my Flickr account. I'm giving presentations to local groups now as well.

The name Miesle was originally Müβle, modified to Muessle for English characters, then eventually Miesle for reasons no one remembers anymore. Not all parts of the family changed the name at the same time, so there are multiple spellings in the cemetery. If you ever see the name, they're related to me in some way - fewer than 100 people carry this name. This doesn't mean I know everyone! Another wing of the family was from the Alsace and also changed name spelling from Leschenne to LeJeune. Again, I don't know why. I celebrate the Alsatian heritage by enjoying Gewurztraminer wine, and introducing people to the variety.


San Francisco is a fun town, I've been there a couple of times on business and have taken a few vacation days around those visits. It certainly beats a lot of towns for activities.

And yeah, I know Dutch is a bit more complex than I described. It's grammatically simpler, though, or at least a bit more similar to English. The English language itself is a complex mixture. PBS ran a series you might be interested in called The Story of English. The Story of English - Wikipedia
That's worth watching, it's really enlightening. Though it's probably worth an update now, I'm sure most of it holds up well.

When my brother was still playing a lot of music he'd get to Europe with various bands/artists fairly frequently. Jazz and blues artists often put together bands for touring, and Nick was an active session/touring bassist. His agent is German, and they became good buddies so now Nick will go to Oktoberfests etc. if he has the time and money. Sounds like a fun vacation to me!