That Photo Thing

I’ve never fancied myself a good photographer. I had joined Instagram a while back, and then left when they had the wording gaffe that said they would sell our pictures without our permission and we could do nothing about it. Well, they’ve since fixed their wording and–after some prodding from a friend–I rejoined.

I think I’m glad I did.

What I love about Instagram are the filters. Though many pictures come out nice without modification, there’s something nostalgic about looking at it with an Instagram filter. Like fresh baked cookies, running barefoot in the grass, or jumping off a dock into a cool lake on a hot summer day. The memory is there–either in muted tones or high saturation. It’s almost like it’s injecting emotion.

Another app I’ve played with is Snapseed. It’s nice, and I’ve created some creepy, high noise shots with it. It doesn’t have that nostalgic feel, though I’m pretty sure I could capture it if I tried. It’d just take more work, and I find myself sidetracked by the creepy factor using the grunge and drama effects.

I also have a Flickr account, but I haven’t felt professional enough to throw anything up on my profile. Flickr, to me, says classy or noteworthy. So far, none of my on-the-fly-phone-camera photographs have met what I’d expect to see on Flickr (nor would I feel confident in their quality to encourage others to use my photographs in blog posts).

I use the different apps for different feels. Instagram for nostalgia, Snapseed for atmosphere.

One thing I learned from Rise of the Machines by Kristen Lamb (which I finished, btw) was that people react to emotion, and pictures are a good way to connect. Plus they rank you higher in the search results.

I said I’d give a rundown of what I learned from the book, so here it is: Give more than you take.

It had some very interesting thoughts which should’ve been super apparent to me, but weren’t. Such as if you want to build a readership, blog about stuff readers want to read. They love your books, so they want to be carried away with the same type of story telling, or find out more behind the person who made the characters they fell in love with. Sure, writers are readers too, but for an author platform, sticking to just writing topics is going to limit your outreach. Aim for high concept topics.

So back to photos, do you like unmodified or manipulated better? Do you have a fancy app you like using?

And if you haven’t heard, Melissa Maygrove is having a Follow Fest blog hop coming up on the 23rd. If you’re a writer who wants to network with other writers, it’d be a grand opportunity to sign up and meet others with the same goal.