Reflecting on the city of hills.

After abandoning my original plan for today of photographing the New Year's day loony dook (a tradition which is similar to Canada's Polar Bear Dip), I was in a bit of a dilemma as to what to photograph.  Blipfuture was encouraging everyone to use their posts to encourage people to pledge money to save Blipfoto.  Although I support this effort, something didn't sit right with me about using my journal in this way.  My clever husband suggested I go up to Blackford hill for a New Years day walk.
 
Standing up on Blackford hill with the city of Edinburgh laid out in front of me it all became clear and I knew what my photo for today needed to be.  The beauty of blipfoto for me is individuality, the ability for the blipper to make their journal their own.  Some people use it to better their photography, concentration on one theme or subject, document their daily life and so much more.  For me it started as way to challenge myself to explore new subjects, but it has developed beyond what I hoped it would be.  I use it to experiment with new techniques, explore the areas around me, document my life; it has helped to rediscover and develop aspects of myself both personally and also in terms of my photography.
 

I started my blipfoto journey two years ago with a picture of Edinburgh taken from the Braid hills just behind Blackford hill.  I intended it to be a challenge for a year, but now it is part of my life.  While looking out over Edinburgh and reflecting on all this I realised that the only way I could mark this day was to photograph this beautiful city that has been my permanent home for just over ten years, the subject of my first Blip, and the place where the blipfoto journey began.