Anniversary

It's exactly a year since I posted my first blip, and I'm pleased that I've managed to keep it going, although I haven't managed every day.

I started because I thought the discipline of producing a decent image every - or most - days would help me develop as a photographer. I'll leave it to others to judge whether it has, but there is another thing too. Photography is therapy; I have for many years lived with depression, and in the last year anxiety has been a bigger part of the mix than it has been for some years. The craft of taking photographs - especially using my old manual lenses - is a great support; there is something indescribably special about the feeling when, in the privacy of the viewfinder (I don't do screens on the backs of cameras), the image comes into focus. It's been an eventful year of highs and lows for all sorts of reasons, but getting out with my cameras has been a refuge and a challenge.

So, a year on, I'm hugely grateful to my small select band of followers who have been so encouraging and supportive. Thank you all.

Yesterday was Blipfoto's tenth birthday and I missed out on the red balloon-fest. But here are the nearest things I came across today to red balloons - some hips from the waste ground at Horsdean on the northern edge of Brighton, a favourite local walk.