Blip Birthday

As I am now one year old in blip years I decided to try something I've been meaning to do since day one, the long exposure sparkler shot. I got up at 5am to make sure it would be dark enough, set up the tripod, found some old sparklers that had been sitting in the draw since new years, and got to it. As you can see I far from perfected the art of controlled light trails but I think you get the idea (it's supposed to say '1 year' in case anyone missed that). Easily the hardest part for me was making sure I centred the writing in the middle of the lounge room (unsuccessful) and remembering to write the letters backwards (only successful on the forth and last try). It was however five in the morning so I'll give myself a break, and it turned out alright. I also did a couple using the light from my phone once I ran out of sparklers but they didn't look quite as nice. Although I did have a favourite from those, a smiley face, which if you're interested you can see here.

Now to my past year of blipping. What a wonderful experience it has been. I thought to commemorate it I would give you my top ten, so in no particular order here they are. 1)Yesterday's lady bug made the list, probably just because it's a fresh one. 2)Another insect one, a daddy long legs, mostly I was happy with the amount of detail I was able to get on something so small. The list had to include some South America ones so 3) and 4) are a Machu Picchu campsite and the Colca Canyon Condor. Number 5) comes from my recent trip to New Zealand and 6) is a macro of a dandelion. 7) and 8) are portraits, a photography skill I still need a bunch of practise with, but I thought these two of Annabelle and my main man Jonathan came out well. 9) is one of the cutest little ducklings you're likely to see set on a very autumn backdrop. Finally 10) is another spider and my favourite little head scratcher.

There were plenty of other photos throughout the year that I am proud to be able to say I've taken, and I wouldn't have taken any of them if it weren't for blip. Blip is such a great one to encourage and motivate anyone to practice photography, after all, what's the best way to get good at something? Do it every day. Blip certainly provides the opportunity to do that. The community of blip is also great, often providing lovely compliments, or simply motivating me through their wonderful and often impressive photos. And I'd like to thank samsticks for introducing me to blip and basically giving me a new hobby, you can't give a much better gift than that.

Finally thank you to everyone who followed along (namely my beautiful family) and provided constant compliments. While I will still undoubtably be blipping in the future I won't be blipping every day as I have other projects I'm working on, but will be blipping probably every other day, or at least when I have a really nice photo. I will however still be taking my camera with me wherever I go because you never know when a good photo opportunity will arrive, if blip has taught me anything, it's that.

Thanks

- Damian