500 Blips: the Kaleidoscopic Cathedral!

So, the big 500, without a single gap, has come round – and as I don’t even have a table in my tiny bedsit, I thought it far easier to go out and get my Blip rather than set one up.

I wanted something a little special and so have been planning this interior of Salisbury Cathedral for a while. NO computer or Photoshop trickery, other than to selectively adjust exposure but my circular Sigma fisheye lens. I had already tried this type with St Thomas's Church Blip back last June and that was quite a spectacular viewpoint.

The 180 edge to edge degree angle of view (‘normal’ fisheyes have 180 degrees from corner to corner) one in effect sees the entire Cathedral interior from ground level up! The difficulty – and knack – is to get it exactly dead accurately centre, without a tripod, whilst looking directly up. Do that a few times and you get a headache (well, I did). Shuffling a few millimetres and it can go off-centre and all wonky!

Then, there’s the gentle squeeze of the shutter as the camera was literally (the heavy FX D700 – about 1.5kgs with lens) sitting on my face as I found that the most comfortable.

Here, I am directly underneath the Spire – quite giddy to think of all that 404ft pinnacle reaching high above me....On LARGE you can see the Christmas tree that is still up, the pulpit and the organ. East is at the top, west at the bottom.

Lens is Sigma EX 8mm f3.5

I hope you like my special Blip for you!!

So this is the bit where I thank you all, the Blipfoto Team and all who contribute to this wonderful site, that has really become a huge part of my life. Daily taking photos to the standard of ones I could only do occasionally before I started out on this journey, this odyssey. All the humorous banter, the favourites, stars and comments – and of course those pesky Spotlights!

When I started out, back last September, I was really quite worried that I’d make a picture a day. Now, with 540 subscribers, 175000 views and seemingly somewhere in the Spotlights every single day now, this whole Blip thing has taken on a life of its own! I also recently found that my Journal was the 6th most popular on the entire site....Huge and lasting thanks to my good friend David for introducing me to Blip - he had pretty well stopped after his year, but...

...I feel as invigorated now as at any point before, possibly more so. Again, a big huge thanks for improving my mental health and life generally for giving it some purpose, doing about the only thing that I have any hint of talent at! Bless you ALL!