No. 1095 - Three Years of Blipping

What a year.  The wonders of Yosemite in February; the unexpected excitement of winning the Lovers of Light competition in March; taking a wonderful trip to the Arctic Circle in September are just a few of the highlights.

It has been a struggle at times.  Competing work and personal life pressures probably showed me that I was dedicating too much time to taking photographs and as such I had to rein back slightly.  I love the support that fellow blippers have given, especially your kind words and gestures.  It really makes such a difference.  With the recent changes to the Blipfoto website in the last couple of weeks I was so pleased that the spirit of Blip was protected by the one thing that can’t be changed by a new website design, it's members.

Not to say that the recent migration to new servers and the re-branding hasn’t impacted on us all in one way or another.  Who would have thought that white could be such a contentious issue?  I only realised today that I have reached 500 ‘followers’ (subscribers?).  It almost seems to have religious undertones to be ‘followed’.  I still can't get used to the new terminology.  I am humbled by so many people having felt my images worthy enough to be linked to my journal.  The fact that I had to count each of my followers now the statistics are sadly not available was a frustration.  It was lucky I still remembered my 9 times table!

I do hope the changes won’t have any lasting impact on this fantastic community.  I have received assurances from people at Blip Central that they consider themselves as much a part of this community as the members.  Unfortunately, their public statements, post change, have been equivocal.  They need to go further and better explain the plans for the site as it seems to be having a very unsettling impact on many who were seasoned and dedicated blippers.  So far it feels as though the change has been imposed and despite the protestations that members were included and involved in the planning of the change, I feel few of us expected such a monumental shift in the previously cosy world of Blip.

As for me, I have no plans to stop blipping.  That view may change and to some extent how the site develops over the next few weeks and months will influence my view.  I was initially re-assured by increasing my time spent on Blip, getting used to the new site, viewing and commenting on more of your journals, sounding out your views and opinions.  There were a whole range of opinions from 'what change’ to 'OMG what have they done?’.  In nearly every case there was a willingness to wait and see, Blip Central will make things right.  Let’s hope so.

I hope you enjoy this image.  It was taken today, well at least the desktop, which is from my trusty study desk where so many of my images are uploaded.  I thought that as it is very near the end of the year I would wax poetical.  I can take no credit for this, T.S. Eliot penned the original which I have taken liberty and changed slightly to make it more appropriate for Blip:

“For last year's images belong to last year's website
And next year's images are awaiting upload.
And to make an end is to make a beginning."

Here’s hoping 2015 brings you all much excitement; but perhaps in my case not the same pressures as this year.