A Waspish 365

Wasp Orchid, Ophrys apifera var trollii. Nikon D5200 Tokina 100mm f22 1/125 ISO 200
On Sunday we had the best orchid day ever – we saw literally thousands of orchids. And among them all, one single Wasp Orchid, possibly the only Wasp Orchid in VC55 this year. The Wasp Orchid is actually a variant of the Bee Orchid (var trollii), but with wasp-shaped flowers. Wasp-type flowers can even occur on the same plant as bee-type flowers. But still – one spike on one site in VC55. One careless footstep and …

My 2015 List (as of 21.06.15):
Early Purple Orchid
Green Winged Orchid
Man Orchid
Common Spotted Orchid
Greater Butterfly Orchid
Southern Marsh Orchid
Heath Spotted Orchid
Fragrant Orchid
Bee Orchid
Wasp Orchid
Pyramidal Orchid
Common Twayblade

So, 365 (non-consecutive) blips. I was all psyched up for a 365 but then I lost confidence in the site during the Great Blip Crisis of '15 and subsequently decided that robotic blipping every single day is not healthy - so I don't. But this site has been very important to me during the last year. I've improved immeasurably as a photographer (good) although I have slipped backwards slightly recently (bad), spent a lot of money (in my terms, but not as far as most people are concerned) on kit (good/bad), and probably most important of all, found a community of people online I enjoy interacting with (that's you that is). So I plan to carry on blipping, hopefully with more focus on quality than quantity, and I hope you will keep commenting on my shots - good and bad. 

Next week I'm going to an academic seminar on "Narratives of wellbeing in photo-a-day projects": 
365 photographic projects involve a commitment to trying to take and share online one photo every day for a year. As a vernacular practice of self-healing and self-change, 365 projects work to promote good well-being and behavioural change. The seminar will explore some forms of visual/textual narrative found in 365 projects, discuss how they may be understood as an informal method of maintaining good well-being and describe forthcoming interdisciplinary work across the health, social computing and digital societies fields.
And if wisdom cannot be found in an academic seminar, where is it? 
This post is for SarumStroller.