happy new year and 500th!

Ok so not exactly a year! Today is the first day of Nowruz the Persian new year.

Took me over 3 years to take and post 500 blips, a snail would've done better than me! But it's been a wild ride. So much has happened since I started blipping and it's affected and changed my life completely. I discovered a lot about me and the world around me and it was all because of blip and my blipmates who kindly guided and supported me throughout this journey. i've won a couple of local and national photography competitions and even been featured or shortlisted in a couple of international competitions such as Sony World Photography Awards, knokke heist Belgium, Emirates photography competition, Art of expression, child photo Serbia... , which I would n't have dreamt of before. But the most amazing part of it is being able to take pictures and share my view of the world. There's so much to tell, I think I've covered at least a part of it in my interview with Sony.

This is a special blip and I want to dedicate it to a special person. Someone I've lost a long time ago, but has always been with me and in my thoughts. My grandpa (in the picture). He passed away when I was 3 and even though I was n't with him long enough I have quite a few memories with him. He was in bed for a couple of months before he passed so I must've been around two or two and a half in those memories. I remember them in detail and those are the only thing I remember from that era. He was a shepherd and he took me and my older brother with him a few times when he was taking the sheep out. He would give us both a stick so we would feel like contributing to the process. It would make me feel all macho and I would run around and try to shepherd the sheep. Once I was beating a sheep to make it go faster but grandpa first shouted "DON'T" then explained to me they need to go one by one and me beating the sheep only hurts it and I should not hurt any creature especially the ones that can't defend themselves. Although I didn't understand what he meant at the time, but that lesson always stuck with me. So many little details I remember the short time I was with him. Those were the happiest moments of my childhood and I always had nostalgia about it.

Anyways I want to thank again my fellow blippers who have always been supportive, educative and patient with me, also Joe and his gang for this great site.

I've done a couple of series including strangers, hands, old houses and macros. Here are a few of my personal favorites of the lot:

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