200th .....

..... blip

And flying high.

Well here it is my 200th blip. I had planned on a light painting but it was extremely misty first thing this morning, so instead decided to go for plan B and use giant balloons to help me fly over the moor. I bought some giant helium number balloons ( 40" tall ) from one of the card shops in town and Mr M gave me a lift up to the Cow & Calf rocks at lunch time with the balloons and all my kit. I hadn't planned how I was going to keep the balloons together so that the 200 could be read, but after a bit of Bear Grylls style bush craft, using some bracken stems and a bit of parcel tape they sort of stayed in position.

We had quite an audience with a full car park, lots of walkers enjoying the dry weather, a café of people watching and a bus load of school children who were visiting Ilkley for the literary festival ( hello to the nice school teacher who had to explain to all her pupils why two grown men were jumping around on the moor playing with balloons ). Despite my bush craft skills, it was fairly windy up on there and the balloons were flying around everywhere but where I wanted them. I had planned on being a flying penguin ( hence the snazzy outfit ) but couldn't see a thing out of the tiny hole in the mouth of the rubber mask so gave up on that idea. This isn't exactly the image I'd planned for today, but it's the only one of the fifty or so taken where the balloons were facing the right way and not all folded up.

This is also My first blip with my new Nikon DSLR, yesterday was the last day of my 99 consecutive blips with the TZ20 challenge and proved to be my most favourated of all 99 ( thank you all so much for all the comments stars and faves, they were unexpected but very much appreciated ). I don't think I'll be able to use the Nikon for all of the next 99 blips as it will be a bit bulky to take on runs, but I will try and use it for the majority of photos.

So, here I am 200 days in to this journey called blip and I'm thoroughly enjoying every second of it. I never go anywhere without a camera and am now known as John 'with the camera', I see and do so much more than I used to pre blip and take every opportunity to get out on a bike ride or run, as much for the photo opportunities as the exercise. I know it's a cliché and has been said many times before, but the best thing about blip is you lot. Every day I look forward to seeing what interesting and stunning images you have blipped and really enjoy reading the more often than not funny write ups. Thanks to all of you who visit my journal, especially the regulars ( you know who you are ) and for all the comments and feedback, every one of them is very much appreciated. I'm now looking forward to the next 100 blips.

So today's blip is my .....


..... 200th blip.


100th blip