One hundred entries for each swan

I feel a little bit of a fraud even mentioning that this is my 600th blip, mainly because this is not deemed to be an official celebration day as evidenced by the distinct lack of balloons or other celebratory devices.
However, I'm posting so infrequently nowadays, that to reach any kind of milestone is quite an achievement. At the current rate of posting, my two-year celebration will come after three years of blipping, and my thousandth entry after about 5 years, and despite efforts to rectify the situation I'm somewhat struggling with the work/life/blip/mojo balance. So I apologise to everybody who I haven't commented on recently, which is virtually everybody on blipworld.

I like this place a lot, since it is full of genuinely kind, intelligent, helpful and talented people, many of whom I am proud to count as friends. People tell me that since I am so busy at work, I should kick back a bit and just post and run, comment when you want to... however, there are serious drawbacks due to guilt issues that arise from not contributing fully - for instance, something simple and innocent like commenting on someone's journal could be interpreted as ignoring everybody else, and although it is obviously not possible to comment on everybody every day, there are still a significant number of people who I would like to keep in touch with and don't. The notion that this is some sort of betrayal tends to drive me dotty because I cannot ignore the fact that this place is full of real people with real feelings, and even if most people couldn't care less whether they get a comment or not, it matters to me that I may have let someone down. And while we're on the subject, it is important to me that I post a good picture and do a good write-up because it is at least polite to do one's best for such an appreciative group of people. The problem is with keeping up a good standard. Although I think my photography has improved immensely over the first year or so ( from a pretty low base), it has been difficult to move it forward lately due to lack of inspiration, motivation, mojo, intelligence, time, equipment, software, talent, good diet, exercise etc. So why does any of this matter? Why not just walk away and save myself?

...it's because after 600 bloody entries and almost 2 ½ years, I've realised that blipping is not something you do, it's something you are. It is for better or worse part of my very being now.
I am proud and happy to be part of this great community.

So thank you to Joe and the team at blip central for working so hard to create this wonderful world of Blip - this wonderful world that gives such great joy, triumph and entertainment, the chance to communicate with wonderful people and the opportunity to improve all aspects of photography and writing.

















I'm sure it's not your fault that it's totally fucked my head up and ruined my life ;)