Guildford Cathedral

Apologies for changing my image but I wasn't too happy with the earlier blip. This is a night shot of the somewhat austere Guildford Cathedral, designed by Sir Edward Maufe and completed in 1961.

I've made a calendar of some of my monochrome sailing photographs, including this one so posted some of those off today.

I do hope that Blip Central is going to make this change succeed. It's a tribute to Joe and the team that they created something that, for many people here, went far beyond just a web site for showing off pictures. I don't engage with the community quite as much as some do, but it's clear when you hear of the various meets and read the comments, that many members have formed close and lasting friendships and, beyond this, they have a bond with blipping itself. It's become an internet institution and in it's non-intimidatory approach it's encouraged thousands to take up photography in a way that local photographic clubs could never do. 

When something as powerful as this happens ( look at organisations such as the Scouts and the Women's Institute), the grass roots become as important as the leadership. It's difficult, in that sense, to view Blipfoto as a business, but a business it is. I spent many years in newspapers - also businesses - that relied on a strong connection with their readers. If you made changes to the newspaper, the readers always had something to say about it. For a redesign, we'd spend weeks making dummies and testing them on people. I guess this has happened with new blip, only it's more difficult to do mock-ups of functional features. Sometimes it's not until you lose something that you realise just what you had. I wasn't as wedded as many people were to the grey background, although I did think it stylish, but I did like the functionality (before it began to creak) and I liked all the statistical stuff and those little icons and symbols. 

The speedy functionality of new blip is welcome and much of the difficulties we're having are the same as getting used to a new home where your stuff has been put in different drawers and cupboards. But some of the drawers and cupboards are no longer there. It took some time to get spotlight functioning reasonably fairly but in its latter stages it did seem to be featuring more of the unsung blippers who were good shot-takers. Now it's gone. I hope the "popular" section is a fair replacement but it does seem to be packed with, well, the popular blippers. Well the Daily Mail is a popular newspaper, but some wouldn't give it house room. There has to be room for other stuff. However popular or polished an individual is, I don't need to see several examples of their work in the same section - I can see that in their own journals. The whole thrust of the site is one a day. So can't we start afresh the next day or within a day or two?

I don't mind institutions but I cannot stand cliques and I cannot stand gush or over-bearing self-promotion. Blip central needs to dilute that if this is to be an inclusive  community. I know they're listening, I know they asked us what we wanted and gave us a taste of what was to come. But the exercise was rather thin and rushed, possibly because of the critical nature of the site outages.

Some of the reaction has been ludicrous and some plain dim, but some has been technically astute and much has been heartfelt and delivered with a genuine sense of loss. I have mixed emotions. I've surprised myself in how much I care - more than I thought. Some adjustments we can make ourselves: for all those headache sufferers, it really does help to turn down the brightness of your screen. I don't know how things will turn out but, as the improvements and fixes come through (fingers crossed), I'm lining up with the Just Williams. Don't be a Violet Elizabeth Bott.