Blip and Polaroid ..........

………. maybe Bliparoid?

(..... maybe not as that sounds a bit like an unpleasant (itchy) medical condition!  Lol).


When I discovered Blipfoto back in January 2012 I knew nothing about it except that it featured fabulous photos and was free to join the basic site (very important!) ……. I was happy to get my first comment,  excited to get my first five stars, my first heart was a momentous blip-occasion and I was absolutely thrilled to get on the (infamous) spotlight page for the first time after about six months.
 
I found it a bit tricky to navigate but with help from other lovely blippers I found my way around.  I started to take proper photographs and not just snap away at anything;  I learnt to look differently at possible subjects and, if I am honest, I got a bit competitive and wanted to post the best picture I could each day.  I started to exchange comments with people from around the world as well as in the UK, I saw slices of their lives and read about their good times and bad.  I formed friendships with people I had never met – something I never expected.  
Blip became a daily best friend and I fell in love with what it added to my life.

I bought a DSLR camera, I bought lenses, I bought accessories – Himself splashed out on a £250+ tripod for me even though he was fed up to the back teeth with blip this and blip that (he loves me really).  
I had my first  blipmeet in Cambridge and met people I would never have come across in my normal life.  I have had blipmeets in Oregon, various other states in the US, Scotland, London, the North West of England and locally – all wonderful.

In 2013 I travelled to the USA and met with more fabulous blip-buddies and was generously invited into their homes – something I would never have experienced otherwise.

In 2014 I organised a big blipmeet in Florida (the now slightly-famous BoBB 2014) – what a fabulous time we had …… in fact so fabulous that we are doing it again in April this year in Savannah, Georgia with some extra new friends we have made through this site.

Now Blipfoto has had a makeover – we all do it – we change our hairstyles, our fashion, we diet (or put on weight), we buy a new car, we move house, we have children or buy a new pet, we have new hobbies  – we are still the same person but just look a bit different or maybe act slightly differently ……… not everyone likes or approves of the “new us” but it is what it is ……. maybe we went a little too blonde or lost a little too much weight, maybe the car was not as comfortable as the old one we had but we work around it, we tweak it or we change it to make it more acceptable.    

Think of it like a new or different camera – we want more advanced functions, we want to have more pixels, we want a lighter model or one that we can put in our pocket rather than hang round our neck – we are never going to find that one camera that retains all the things we loved in our old one and has all the new additions we desire – but we work around it and grow to love it while still missing some of the old functions.

To me this is like the new Blip – I like parts of the new look and new stuff but I miss a few of the functions, I miss bits of the old look, am not sure I like the slimmed-down version quite as much as the cuddly old one BUT (and it’s a big but) I still want to post a good photo each day, I am still learning from other blippers, I still enjoy looking at views from around the world and, most importantly, my blip-buddies are still my blip-buddies ……. surely this is the one of the main things, the friendship and the camaraderie that a lot of us have found here?

I will be staying on the new ‘’ Polaroid Blipfoto ‘’ and watching as it evolves – I will try to stay patient and let them work through the glitches and processes and  I really hope those people that I follow each day (even though I haven’t been commenting lately - sorry) will stay too – I know that the friends I have made here and met in the “real world” will remain my friends even if they cease to be blip-buddies.

If you have read this far – thank you very much ….. you have patience!!
 
As for my journal entry today ….. it’s my upside-down house and a cherry tree in a droplet that was quivering in the wind – I decided the focus should be on the lettuce-leaf-like lichen on the apple tree branch instead.
(I have backblipped yesterday's blackbird on the same branch)


 
~ Anni ~

 
Quote of the Day (advance apologies if you are offended)

I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered however I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: 
 "No good in a bed, but fine against a wall."

 -- Eleanor Roosevelt