A Blippers' Photographic Exhibition

One of the things we love most at Blip Central is seeing the blipping community getting together to do exciting things. We heard of one such group of blippers putting together an exhibition of photographs in celebration at the community ownership of blip, and we wanted to share the story with you all.

Half a world away from Blip Central there is a little village called Blackheath in the majestic Blue Mountains, approximately an hour and a half west of Sydney in NSW Australia. For a village of its small size, Blackheath boasts an extraordinary number of blippers (13 in all, including 4 honorary "Blackheath Blippers" from a little further afield). There’s great excitement in the group this week as on Saturday the 5th of March they will host the opening of their first collaborative photographic exhibition - “Blackheath Blipping”.  For many of those contributing it will be the first time they have ever exhibited any of their photographs.

The seeds were planted for a Blip exhibition after Gemaxphoto had put on an individual one - it was such a success that he was offered the opportunity to do it again. He suggested that the “Blackheath Blippers” mount a group one and ten of the blippers agreed to take part.  They believe it will give them a great platform to promote Blipfoto to other budding photographers and would be journal keepers and they see it as "an incredibly exciting way to celebrate the joyful rebirth of Blipfoto".

The blippers that are taking part in the exhibition are: Cymbeline, isbi, WalkingWombat, Hobbs, Gemaxphoto, 59, jensphotos, pennultimate, Beckett, and Trisharooni.  Jolang, the much loved 87 year old matriarch of the group, will be on hand at the opening on Saturday with her trusty iPad to record the event. Some of them are pictured in their gallery in the blip today (from left to right): Beckett, Trisharooni, isbi, Gemaxphotos and Cymbeline.

Trisharooni was the original Blackheath Blipper and started her Blip journey way back in 2010.  Trish was soon joined by her friends Cymbeline and Hobbs. Because it’s a small town and a close knit community the word spread and the number of blippers grew. Rather than meeting formally on a regular basis, they love nothing better than hearing that a blipper from overseas or another part of Australia is about to visit. Then it's time to congregate, roll out the red carpet, and do their very best to entertain the visitors. They act as tour guides and show their blip visitors the wonders of the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains. Many of these visiting blippers freely admit they have been encouraged to visit the region because of the images they have seen posted on Blipfoto.

We asked them to tell us what blip means to them collectively.  It’s obvious they truly value the friendships they have developed with blippers all over the world and the knowledge and skills that are so generously shared within the community as a whole.  For many, Blipfoto has given them the motivation to improve their journalistic and photographic skills and this journey has been enhanced by their Blackheath blip buddies encouraging them all the way.

They hope the Blackheath Blipping Exhibition will be the forerunner of many more throughout the world. This enthusiastic bunch of blippers also fervently believe Blackheath is the “Blip Meet” Capital of the World - and they challenge you all to show them that you can do better where you are! We'd love to hear more stories like this about what you're all getting up to that we can share on Blip Central - let us know by mailing us at mail@blipfoto.com and maybe your story can top theirs!

The Blackheath Blipping exhibition starts on the 5th and runs throughout March in Blackheath, New South Wales, Australia.

As we said at the start of the post, we think one of the great things about Blipfoto is the blip meets that take place. We've also mentioned in past posts that we've been planning a special celebration to mark the fact the community owns Blipfoto now. To do this, we would like to encourage a week (and a bit) of special blip meets, between the 19th and the 28th March, where blippers arrange to get together in small or big groups and have some fun. Let us know what you're planning and we'll share the details here, and we'd love to share the pictures and stories afterwards as well. Have a think what you might like to arrange, and we'll put more information in a post coming very soon.

Finally, some of you may have missed the fact that Joe has blipped yesterday. From all of us here, a massive thank you to Joe and all of the previous Blipfoto staff.