Instagram

I am feeling in a blogging mood this afternoon, so prepare yourself to be spammed with my blog posts, hopefully you will find them interesting as I have a few A number of things to talk about.

So up next, Instagram.

Until I got an iPad, I had no interest in ever having Instagram, I didn't understand it, didn't see the point iron it but it was one of those free apps I decided to trial one afternoon. I have to say, almost a month on it has become an addiction of mine, I am forever instagrammimg (or instaspamming as I have renamed it), and it really didn't take me long to get the hang of it.

So what is Instagram?

Basically it's a photo sharing application that allows you to post photos, view photos, search photos and like photos. You can follow people, and people follow you. The key to Instagram is the humble #.

So lets say you have a glass of peach juice (which I just so happened to have the other day), and you are very happy that you have this glass of delicious peach juice. You upload it to Instagram, whack a filter on it and hashtag it! Simple as. The filters make the dullest photos look really quite artistic, and the hashtags allow your picture to be found. Kind of like trends on twitter.

I hash tagged my picture with things like 'peach' 'drink' 'love' now anyone who searches for these will find your Image, can like it and follow you. Easy as that! Top tip, words like #love #friends #swag and #follow are apparently highly searched, so me as the addict I am, include them in most. Tags ;) haha!

I hope that all makes sense :/

Why use Instagram?

This year I am king the 2013 happiness challenge. If you haven't heard of it, it's basically where you write something positive that has happened each day and on New Year's Eve at the end of 2013, you sit and you read them, remembering everything wonderful that happened in your year. This challenge has really helped me to look for the smallest things that make me happy in my day, and really appreciate them, a compliment a lovely meal a joke an evening out, a cuddle with my dogs etc etc. little things that make me smile. So I jot those down everyday, but how does that relate to Instagram? Well, I find myself photographing all these little things that make me happy, for example, the peach juice or pretty frost on my car window. I know it sounds so pathetic and twee when I try to explain it, but these little things that might brighten up my day a tiny bit, are permanently recorded, photographically and I can go back and view the things that have made me smile. That was a terrible explanation, but I hope I got my point across.

Photographically it helps you get your work viewed, and you can view other photographers work, but if you are uploading serious shots, I'd recommend putting a watermark on them, just in case. Put a link to your twitter on Instagram and your website, vice versa and keep connected constantly, it's free!

I honestly can't speak more highly of it, I love instagram!

Happy Instagramming people!
Bye for now
Becky