So is this the end?


Woke up this morning to scroll through blipfoto and came across rumours of it’s demise.  I proceeded to read through a number of the forums and evidence seems to suggest that this is actually happening.  The facebook page hasn’t been updated in over 10 days, Joe’s journal has gone empty since March 2nd, people are reporting a complete lack of response to any of their emails/phone calls.  It looks real.  And I don’t know how to feel about it.

Blipfoto began for me on January 1st, 2011.  My colleague Paul had turned me on to it as he’d been a member for some time.  Intrigued by the idea, and curious as to how long I could actually post a photo every day, I joined up.

It became so much more than just a daily photo journal on some website built by a few guys in Edinburgh.  It became a documentation of my surroundings in a way that wasn’t mirrored by facebook or flickr.  It became a reason to go out every day with the camera.  It became an excuse to buy more gear.  It became a way of looking differently at my environment.  It became an outlet for me.  It became a way for my friends/family around the world to keep in touch and see what’s going on in my life.  It became a purpose every day, to take a photo, from an insignificant snapshot to an image that gained me much attention and something truly special to me.  Some days I took horrid photos and relied on processing to make it look “good”.  A lot of days you guys got my cat Dylan as I couldn’t be bothered to think of anything else.  The hardest part has always been trying to think of something new to photograph when your routine is pretty much only going between work and home.

The library of photos I have wouldn’t have existed if it wasn’t for blipfoto.  I’ve gone out some days with the camera just to get “a shot” and ended up coming back with something truly magnificent that I would be so proud of.  Some shots won me awards and competitions, some are hanging up on the walls in my hallway, some remind me of a wonderful/horrible/silly/awkward/dangerous/fun thing that happened that day.  When I look at each one I remember specifically what was going on in my life at that moment.  And that's important to me because I actually have a pretty crap memory.

I’ve taken a photo every single day for over 4 years.  The only break was a result of the breakdown of my relationship of 11 years.  It was a mortifying time in my life and I used blip to try to get myself back into routine, to continue doing something I enjoyed doing, and to continue to be a form of communication to the world, and to myself.

So now what?  Now I suppose, like all of you, I will continue log in every day and prepare for the day that there is nothing to log into anymore.

Then we’ll see what the next move is.