To Post or Not to Post -- Revisited

by Terri

If you read my post back in June about whether to post DSLR photos to Instagram or just to post photos captured with your phone, you will know that it elicited a pretty big response from people feeling very strongly one way or the other. I have to admit to having been in the “purist” camp, only posting phone photos to Instagram and reserving my DSLR photos for Facebook and Flickr. Well, here is what I found out: 

•  I was “two-fisted” shooting a lot of the time so I could have iPhone photos as well as DSLR photos of everything I shot. That got old very fast! In fact, the photos of the pomegranates above were taken at the same time, just one with my iPhone and one with my Canon. 
• Because it is so easy and always handy and with me, I began shooting more and more with my iPhone until I was barely picking up my big girl camera at all.  
• Since a big part of the fun of Instagram is the community, the sharing of your photos and commenting on those of others, I was tending to shoot only with my phone so that I could have that community activity that I have come to enjoy so much.
• But some of the joy of photography was gone. I didn’t feel as creative and before long I wasn’t even shooting much with my phone.

When I’m not shooting, I’m not happy so I knew something had to change. And one day I took a photo that I really loved and I wanted to share it – on more than just Flickr. So against all my self-imposed rules, I posted it to Instagram. And it didn’t feel wrong – it felt good! 

So I’ve dusted off my Canon and am shooting a lot more with it than I have in a long time. I also feel a freedom that I never felt before to post my favorite shots to Instagram. I mean, really, so many people are doing just that. Some of the people I admire most on Instagram are shooting and posting photos from their DSLRs.  Why wouldn’t you want to post your best photos? And more times than not, my best photos are created with my DSLR.

If you haven’t done it and have wanted to try but just don’t know how to go about it, Kat Sloma from kateyestudio.com has a wonderful series of tutorials on transferring photos between devices and it helped me to streamline things. It erased that thought that I was having so often: “Oh, it’s so much trouble. I’ll just shoot with my phone.” Yes, it’s a few extra steps but it has gotten me to pull out my big camera again and I’m really enjoying that creative process.

Exercising my Creative Muscles

by Kelly

It's a slippery slope my friends.

I never intended to get sucked into Instagram stilllife hashtags.

At first I was just playing along with Kim Klassen and her #mystillsundaycompetition.  But then I started following other creative IG'ers.  And then I started checking out all the hashtags that they played along with.  And pretty soon....yep...you guessed it.  I fell down the rabbit hole.

For me it has nothing to do with keeping up with my IG friends or having my images picked out of the pool to be featured.  No, what I have come to love is the act of starting my day with something fun and creative.

The other thing that I enjoy is the tactile aspect to these kinds of still life shots.  I spend a lot of time behind a screen at work (and to some degree with my blogging/photography), so I particularly enjoy getting to inject a bit of craftiness into my days.

Even though I don't really consider myself to be a 'still life' photographer, playing along with these kinds of tags feels a bit like I'm exercising my creative muscles.  But in a fun way!  And numerous studies show that exercising creativity in one aspect can permeate into many other areas of your life. Plus, making time for play and fun has been shown to increase productivity and innovation.  It decreases stress and anxiety.  And it can even boost your mood and energy.

It's like Crossfit for Creativity!

Delaney Gates, a talented IG photographer whose creative work I just love, recently compiled a fairly comprehensive list of IG still life focused hashtags.  You can find that here.  A few of my favorites are:

• #mystillsundaycompetition by @kimklassen
• #gatheredstyle by @aquietstyle
• #nodtonotions by @delaneygates
• #itsamoodywednesday by @gudyherder
• #byarrangement by @sarahnotes
• #fridayfaffingcompetition by @am_i_dreaming_now, @katherinedorrington, and @juliabesidethesea

Besides exercising my creative muscles, starting my day with these lovely little things just makes me so happy.  And more importantly, it reinforces my beliefs that there is always something to be grateful for and that there is beauty and joy to be found in our ordinary lives.

Thank you for letting me share it with you.

Love, Kelly

P.S. Don't forget that you can always play along with our own IG #focusingonlife tag!

To Post or Not to Post

by Terri

Edited in Pixlr

One of the more contentious debates to spring up from the increasing popularity of the photo editing and sharing app Instagram concerns how people are capturing their images.

I have had this discussion with many of my friends and they all seem to feel very strongly. On the one hand, you have a group you might call Instagram "purists," who believe the whole point of the app is to shoot and share images captured with their phone cameras. It’s called Instagram.  You take a photo and “instantly” post it to Instagram. Well, sometimes not so instantly. There are a billion apps to play with first. 

Edited in Tooncamera

On the other hand, take a look at some of the photos people are posting on Instagram and it's clear many of these shots were captured with professional cameras with high-end lenses and then formatted and posted on the app. The winners of contests and features seem to be photos that are obviously NOT taken with a phone camera. The real giveaway is that creamy, dreamy background that you can only get with a wide-open aperture, something even the best depth-of-field apps can’t duplicate. And the technology is such that it is easy to go back and forth between images on your computer and your phone, so why not do it? Is this a form of Instagram "cheating"? Some people certainly seem to think so.

All photos taken and edited with an iPhone and posted to Instagram.

Photographer Jorge Quinteros wrote:

"At first I puzzled about how I felt with photographers uploading their processed DSLR photos onto Instagram but I’ve concluded that I dislike it. I use Instagram to share photographs taken exclusively with the iPhone because there’s a level of authenticity to the process as opposed to bypassing the limitations the iPhone may have when shooting with it and replacing it with a DSLR. The purpose of an app like Instagram is to celebrate the increasingly mobile culture. There’s no right way or wrong way to use the service but sharing DSLR photos on Instagram seems almost like violating the spirit of the app."

So there seems to be two schools of thought – (1) Instagram should be reserved for phone photos only, or (2) anything goes.  Well, I guess there’s a third school of thought – who cares? For me, Instagram is all about sharing your best phone photos, for showing what is possible to be captured with just your phone. It’s a challenge for me to see how close I can come to a DSLR shot with just my phone camera. And I really LOVE playing with the apps.  

Edited with Tooncamera

So here’s my question:  what do you think? Do you reserve Instagram for your phone photos? If so, where do you share your DSLR photos? Or do you post both types of photos on Instagram regardless of what kind of camera you used to capture them? And if you don't use Instagram, I would still like to hear your thoughts on this subject.

Maybe it is a wave of the future that I just need to catch up with. It wouldn't be the first time I have been caught a bit behind the times. I know that's what I've been told by many of the people I've had this discussion with, except for the ones who happen to agree with me! :-)  So I'm putting this question to you: what do you think about posting DSLR photos to Instagram? Can't wait to hear your thoughts.