Late to the Instagram game?

Yes I'm late to the game.

I used to have an iPhone 3GS, and loved taking pictures with it - back in 2009.
I shot my family's trip to UK with it, and had a real hoot tooling around all the different apps.
Then it got pickpocketed in 2010, and thus ended my short mobile photography.

I finally got another iPhone earlier this year, but the camera as much as I thought I would, as I still carried my DSLR everywhere!


 

 Well, last weekend, I went on a Minimoon (short cheap trip, no kids!) with my gorgeous wife to Bali. My inlaws were zipping into town, and whilst seated in the plane, I saw them disembark from the plane next to us (their flight was delayed, we missed them), and walking on the tarmac - oh no! Camera in the overhead compartment, and so whip out the iPhone - snap - and upload immediately?!!! wow.









 Whilst lounging around the villa, I tried out various apps, hipstamatic (which I loved from before), camera + (which I remember was highly acclaimed!), iphone's own camera, and of course instagram.

I did find that the instagram app, was the easiest to use - in terms of adding filters - I really didn't want the filters to be the gimmick of the pictures, and spend too much time combing various apps to get the "effect" - bit too gimmicky.

There's also seem to be whole communities around Instagram. Although I did notice that people used #hashtags, which I had to google and see what its about.

The interesting thing about Instangramming/Mobile photography is, its quick, easy to use, and really quick to process/upload if you want to feed into your social media (facebook). 

The square format is interesting - and I did find myself having to compose and think photographically differently! Somehow, I suddenly felt freer to take the frivolous - working not on the technical aspects of the picture, but how to frame it, compose the picture. 

 The rules of photography still applies, rule of thirds, leading lines etc, but just framing a picture in a square is different, its fun, its quirky. 

And the good thing is, its fast, non-threatening and discrete. Just whip up the camera, snap, and you can always process it discreetly a few minutes later. 

, and during one of the days, we just nua (did lots of nothing, wife read) in the villa, where I toyed with the iPhone and checked out mobile photography, trying out various apps!

 To be honest, after reviewing the pictures in the computer, the quality of an Instagram and a DSLR picture is vastly different. But they serve a whole different purpose altogether.

It is an art form, that is completely different. And that's the best thing about Photography - you are not bound by the equipment you have, and after all, the best camera you have is the one you have on you - and most of us always carry our phones with us - so that's no excuse!

So keep shooting, with whatever you have.
See you on Instagram! (look me up @ soosing)