Totally Hooked! 

“I’m a new member - only been blipping for 6 weeks and totally hooked.
Thank you for allowing me to join this wonderful family.”

We spotted Cathy, blipper Cathy1947, after she left this heartfelt message on a recent community post.  Keen to find out more, we asked her if we could write a blipper profile about her. 

Cathy is a keen amateur photographer with a love of nature. She lives in Scarborough, on the North Yorkshire coast of England with her husband and two dogs. Thoroughly enjoying retirement, she has been fortunate to be able to travel to many places including China, Canada, the USA and throughout Europe.  Last year, however, she decided to stay closer to home, visiting Scotland - her country of birth.  

We look forward to seeing more of Cathy’s travels at some point in the future, but for now, let’s welcome Cathy and find out how she, as a new blipper, is keeping her journal going in unexpected times where staying close to home, for most people, is the only option.

About photography and the discovery of Blipfoto

I spent years simply enjoying taking holiday snaps. In 2007, my husband bought me my first DSLR. For the next 10 years or so, I stayed on auto mode - and at the time, that suited me.  You could say that my interest in understanding more was inspired by me looking at other people's photos and wondering, how did they do that?!  In February 2019, I enrolled on an online photography course and learned how my camera worked, finally embracing manual mode.

I had actually started my own 365 photo journal in October 2019 but whilst I was on one of my photo expeditions, I met a lady (lovelupins17) who told me about Blipfoto.  The rest is history!  {Well done lovelupins17!}

I quickly discovered that Blipfoto is a great place to post my photos and record my daily activities while allowing me some interaction with other like-minded people from all over the world.

Although I’m interested in many facets of photography, I’d describe my journal simply as a snapshot of my day-to-day life.  It’s satisfying putting my day's experiences in my journal - it really is like keeping a diary but in pictures. {‘Through the pebble’ is a lovely example of her eye for a new perspective while at the same time, sharing her day’s adventure.}

How is the lockdown affecting your original idea of journaling?

It’s true, I have found finding a photo to represent my day more restrictive as I’m unable to travel but, on the other hand, I’ve enjoyed the unexpected challenge of having to think outside the box {How about Cathy’s ‘Feeding the ducks’ as a humorous example of that?!}  With the seasonal changes along with being able to get outdoors, at least for a limited time, I’ve found that there is plenty to keep me motivated in my photography - even unearthing an old camera in the loft as I tidied up my house!  

As well as photographing nature, I’m a keen gardener with a passion for flowers and growing my own fruit and veg (you may see more of those as our spring and summer in the UK progresses.)  I’m particularly keen on macro for fauna and flora but also like cooking, so food photography is always a possibility. {We adore Cathy’s creativity with food here}

Being a new blipper

I have already made lots of friends on Blipfoto - people who give me encouragement to keep blipping. Thank you all for that!  It’s made me feel very much part of the community at Blipfoto.

In terms of helping myself fit in, I take part in some of the daily challenges and I do like to browse and comment on random blips.  That often fosters exchanges here and there and over a relatively short space of time, I’ve built up a set of people that I feel I’m starting to get to know. My little abstract quiz gave me an opportunity to say hello to more people too. 

I can honestly say I have found the community to be more sincere than other social networking sites.

My motivation

I made it my goal to blip every day and that motivates me to keep on blipping. I’m enjoying the challenge of coming up with original ideas each day but sometimes, it’s rather difficult to choose which one photo to blip! Here, I’d watched a guy on YouTube doing macro photography with no expensive equipment, so decided to give it a try; this humble daisy actually earned its keep with two photo journal entries!  Colour often catches my eye too, like this entry into the Derelict Sunday challenge where I had to fight through a few nettles to get what I wanted.  It was the wheel on a trailer that I’d blipped before - it’s amazing how many new opportunities you can find in one small place. 

On top of just having fun looking out for something in my day, other members really motivate me; receiving feedback on my photos is always a pleasure but I also enjoy commenting on other blippers’ posts.

So yes, I look forward to being able to travel again and record those adventures on Blipfoto but I’m thoroughly enjoying recording my day in these unexpected times.

For anyone considering starting a Blipfoto journal right now I’d say, “Go for it! It's a great community!”