Bellahouston

I was going to try and Blip more in 2013... and I missed the 1st of January. Oh well! I did back Blip for New Year's Eve though.

When I very first started to Blip, back in 2008, I knew nothing about photography but managed some averagely good pictures, and I was really enjoying taking photos and hoping to learn more about the technicalities of it all.

Somewhere between then and now, I lost my mojo. My photos nowadays are nearly all taken on my phone, are few and far between, and are a bit rubbish. I want to change this in 2013 and get back into the way of things.

Perhaps the first step would be to get my cameras working again. My basic but good compact broke while I was Estonia in May and I bought a replacement that was cheap so ideal at the time, but really isn't a great camera. And my SLR also developed some kind of fault back in the spring. I don't know if it's a write off, but I might at least find out if it can be fixed. Also, my lovely boyfriend bought me a Lomo LC-A for my birthday back in April and I have yet to have one film from it developed. This is a sorry state of affairs.

In addition, I have an ever-expanding shelf of photography books, none of which I have read properly. The most recent addition is The Photographer's Mind by Michael Freeman and it looks really interesting, so perhaps I should make some time to actually read it.

This is all part of a vague new year's resolution to "do stuff" and make more of my time. Who knows how good at it I'll actually be, but perhaps by telling people here I'll have more incentive to do it. Some of the "stuff" I want to do more of includes:
-take more photos, retrain my eye and then try to understand some more of the technicalities.
-climb more hills. I have my eye on a couple of Pentlands this Friday. Oh please let the weather permit it.
-volunteer for the Water of Leith Conservation Trust, or at least fill in an application form and see what happens.
-sign up for a night class this term as I didn't do any last term and missed them. I am considering baking, French or woodwork.
-cycle more. The excuse of flat tyres shouldn't be an excuse for much longer as I finally ordered a presta pump today.

Even if I only managed to get stuck into one or two of those things in earnest I'd be pretty pleased!

Oh, and the Blip is of some grafitti on a footbridge that next to the local secondary school near my parents' house, Bellahouston Academy. I tried like mad to be a proper Blipper and really look for interesting things to photograph while I was out on my walk today, but the dreich weather and over-familiar urban landscape didn't fill me with inspiration. Definitely need to get back into practise!!