#365: Still Life With Bottles

I had an outing planned which I hoped would provide my 365th blip, but it unfortunately required for it to be not raining, therefore I have decided on an indoor celebration instead. So, what's yours?

I came to a faltering halt after my 364th last Saturday, undecided about my next step. I had set myself a challenge of taking 365 consecutive blips, but they began a few days later, on 31st March. I decided to take a self-imposed abstention from posting and commenting until the day I'd met the challenge (although I have still looked and read every journal entry I'm subscribed to), a kind of trial separation to see what life would be like free of this strange daily obsession, and how much of the many neglected areas of my life would recover.

In the twelve years up to March 2010, when I joined, I took 1,542 photographs (excluding those deleted as soon as they came off the camera). In the twelve months since I signed up I have taken 8,020. Apart from the one-a-day posted to Blip, I have also posted over 5,000 finished images to another site I won't name but beginning with 'F' and ending in 'lickr'. I think those statistics speak for themselves as to the impact this site has had, not just the Blip team who keep things running so brilliantly, but the many wonderful folk on here who have dropped by to see my journal and spur me on with their encouraging and always friendly comments, and those whose journals all around the world I have so enjoyed subscribing to and thereby sharing in some small degree with their daily lives.

I do feel that my own photography has begun slightly to improve overall, when I look back at my first few blips. Getting a DSLR removed many of the frustrations I had felt using a digital camera before, having previously been used to SLRs, but I also gained in confidence and experience simply through the habituation of daily use. I do know that there is huge scope for technical and artistic improvement and I have every intention of developing and growing as a photographer.

The findings of my three-day absence are that I didn't save a lot of time. I was still on the site, reading journals and visiting the forums, and still taking pictures because I have today met my 365-day challenge, and shall shortly back-blip the missing days.

From now on I won't be blipping every day, but I can't stay away. I missed commenting and interacting too much. I do need to catch up on some non-photographic projects though, so I may not comment on days I don't blip, and I may resort more to back-blipping. Time will tell. This is a special place, and my thanks to you all.

Back-blips:
Chaveywell (27.3.2011)
Berhills Farm (28.3.2011)
Smokey (29.3.2011)