99 red balloons

Happy New Year to everyone @blipfoto (speshully my 57 followers, many thanks)!!!
I looked out for a party style blip today, to mark the day, and a store usefully next to my office has this balloon filled shop window.

2010 has been my year of blipfoto, defined by it, and the year has flown by. Started after seeing a small mention in a comment on another photo website, I signed up straight away and then went for a walk with my camera.
So it began, a 365 photo project I'd wanted to attempt since buying a book of photographer Frank Horvat's 1999 photo a day project(click for his website) ,a project I had tried and failed at previously, only lasting about a week!
Blipfoto gave me the incentive to go for the full year of photos, hugely encouraged by this website being the 'home' of so many others trying the same. I was spurred on by all photos great and small, those posting beautiful portraits and jaw-dropping landscapes, to the wonderful 'diary of my life' type blips of curries and TV remotes ;-)
We were all united by the want, the need, and the habit, of blipping each day. I became one of this army of blipfotographers!
As those who have read my little bio' will know, my work is as a newspaper photographer, and many days are insanely busy, with assignments and deadlines. Blipping has been at times an almighty headache and others, a blessed relief!
I decided to use my 'work' photos as little as possible, otherwise it would simply be a record of something already in print (though some have been worth blipping). This meant everyday I had to find a blip, to look for a pic, to find the time...
And yet it quite quickly became the first thing on my mind...'get the blip! Sod the pics!!' Well, maybe not quite as determined/dismissive as that, but you get the drift ;-)

So just 1 blip short of my year, I'd like to send huge thanks to every one of the mind boggling 39,209 folk who have had a quick look, and my gratitude to my 57 subscribers who I presume have wanted to take a regular peep.

I suppose 99 red balloons is a bit mean, as I really need at least 39,268 balloons to wish you all a very happy, blippy New Year.
And as blipfoto.com is a fine Scottish web site, I'll raise my glass of Glenfiddich at midnight and say, slange var!