Why Instagram is not the place for Photographers

Especially those artsy/minimalist/super-enthusiast types.

This is probably one of the most hypocritical posts I’ve written because I consider myself to be one of those mentioned above. I take pictures with a camera that’s better than a camera phone, edit the photos on Lightroom using things like radial filters, graduated filters, spot removal etc. And all I do with them is just post them on Instagram for likes.

And to be completely honest, there’s nothing wrong with that.

For the first few weeks of posting many many backed up and edited pictures, I really enjoyed it. I’ve never been the kind of guy who posted social media daily but having bought that camera and having edited those pictures, I felt like posting on Instagram was one of the reasonable things to do.

I realised after some time that Instagram is just not the place for photos like these.

I feel that these photos look nice, Don’t get me wrong. They might not be taken by professional hands but I’m still proud of the pictures that I took. The problem with posting photos like these on Instagram is that it’s not the perfect place to showcase pictures like these. Instagram’s main draw is that it’s a mobile app that lets you share experiences as they are happening, or a few moments after they happen. So it doesn’t make sense to keep uploading pictures that you’ve taken a month or 6 weeks prior to posting.

Now it’s not that you can’t post backed up photos or artsy-fartsy photos. It’s your account, you can do whatever the hell you want with it. What I’m suggesting is just they should make a solid social media app (preferably on desktop AND mobile) where photographers can casually share their photos without having to be judged by any art snobs. Perhaps like a cross between Instagram and 500px (although I think 500px is pretty darn good).

What I was REALLY hoping for is that Medium becomes that place. A place to just make a post with one paragraph, and a wall of pictures. But perhaps there’s no audience for that in a writing-focused blogging platform. I’ll still keep uploading in Medium though and I encourage other people to do so too.

If you made it this far, thanks. This wasn’t meant to offend anyone though, It’s just the thoughts of a daily-instagrammer and what I’ve seen other people use Instagram for. It’s just a different vibe, but until there’s a better alternative, I’ll stick with IG. Hope you guys liked this post. How about a clap?