I am a self employed land surveyor based at Roy Bridge, Inverness-shire, Scotland. Many of the blips will be from interesting work survey sites but I am afraid there will be a lot from our family dog walks on the forest tracks and hills around Lochaber.

Time for a wee update on this section 22 Sept Read more...

I am a self employed land surveyor based at Roy Bridge, Inverness-shire, Scotland. Many of the blips will be from interesting work survey sites but I am afraid there will be a lot from our family dog walks on the forest tracks and hills around Lochaber.

Time for a wee update on this section 22 September 2013; about 500 blips in.

I have read other blippers' bios with great interest and respect. Some are written with a care free "Give this thing a go" type of attitude and others write many paragraphs carefully worded with a poetic golden pen. On their daily blips people have related the most harrowing of personal events and the happiest too; the arrival of a new baby or puppy are frequently reported. In between there are normal things from special people all around the world which makes you think, oceans apart, we are all the same.
I don't think anyone can afford to take them selves too seriously and the ability to have a wee laugh (at your own mishaps) through a blip is refreshing.

Then there are the photographs.

I have hundreds of Kodachrome slides boxed away from 35mm film days. In real terms it was a very expensive hobby back then where camera and lens were the smallest

part of the outlay. The digital age allows everyone to freely push that button, experiment at will, and discard the rejects without financial pain. The result is a lift in quality which is hugely evident in blip. More remarkable is the proportion of these amazing shots from devices where the built in camera is a secondary component to a phone handset. Its a constant reminder that the best camera you can get is the one in your pocket.

I am very good at "rationalising" purchase choices in a perverse manner. The full frame Nikon I enjoy so much, probably because lens behaviour is exactly as I would have expected on my old Minolta, I could justify because there wouldn't be any film or processing to pay for later. The big sensor favours the wide lenses which I seem to default towards. I don't have a long lens or macro at this time.

Post processing software probably replaces the film and processing cost. The power and artistic ability of modern packages are quite stunning and even an underexposed (especially under exposed in fact) can be rescued and adjusted to something that is quite acceptable. I suspect a large number of published blips are the results of many skillfully tweaked superimposed PS layers. I look on with envy and think I must get some lessons on how to do that.

Blip is compelling and a year, or even months on, is a very useful journal to reflect upon. My wife Mrs Cakes has also succumbed.

At the top I mentioned family dog walks. The loss of our first dog Bruce is still very raw in our minds. He passed away mid August. Every day is precious and should be made to count in some way.

Any way, thank you very much for looking in.

If you want to contact me my email address is mail at stuartjross dot com (sorry pathetic attempt to avoid spam)