Where next?

This is it, the 365th blip of 2011, a full set. I'm not usually so good at keeping New Year's Resolutions. So where next?

The daily blip has been a great discipline in learning to use the camera and how to deal with whatever the weather serves up. Some days are easy, all I have to do is get up early and be presented with a colourful dawn. Or go out late to see extraordinary sunsets. It's the claggy days of poor visibility that really challenge you to find something different, or with a hint of magic. On the foul, wet days you simply have to be a bit more creative.

The flip side to all of this is that I've tried too hard to get something respectable every day, and this has meant that in recent months at least I have played safe. I've tended to keep going back to certain places and at certain times that I know are almost certain to yield something of interest. I've stopped taking risks. Before I became so cautious, I produced some of the blips that I've been most pleased with. Some were wholly unexpected, and could have been found almost anywhere, like the spotlit web. Or I stumbled over them when looking for something else, like the 365 stoat.

The time has come to rebalance my activities somewhat, to spend less time blipping, and more doing the other things which frankly I've been neglecting this last year. I want to keep going, but not on a daily basis. I will try and take photos every day, but I won't post a blip unless I think they are worth seeing and I have something to say. And I will try out new locations, different times of the day, I will take the risk of not getting something usable in the expectation of occasionally finding something exceptional.

Thanks to everyone who has followed my journal in 2011, without your comments and support, I would not have kept going this long.

Happy New Year.