#the404

March 24, 2014

In the current cell phone market, only three smartphones (my opinion) that have a top notch camera worthy of ditching your compact camera:  Apple 4S, Samsung Galaxy S II, & Nokia N9.  The camera on those phones are shockingly good.  All three of their app markets have photo altering applications.  The one I'd like to focus on is the most popular:  Instagram... strangely only available for Iphone!!  I listen daily to the 404 podcast, so this article was inspired and dedicated to Jeff Bakalar and the404 team.  I recall Jeff expressing a couple times that he can't fathom why people take perfectly awesome photos with their smartphone camera and ruin them with some old timey kind of effect.  I believe he also said, "in the future, people will look back at us and think for a long period of time why people uploaded a lot of crappy looking pictures".  Well I have an answer for Jeff.

Think about all the pictures we take on our smartphones and digital cameras.  That's quite a lot.  Facebook holds a gigantic amount of pictures uploaded by the masses.  Most of these people came from Friendster or Myspace and have a good understanding of how to promote their online identity.  They have learned so well that's its become a competition!

There is always someone in the world that's better than you, that's why organizations give out medals.  When people use Instagram it's a cheap thrill and just a lazy approach to pretend your a real photographer (unless you are), so you can falsely promote your online self.  I'm a photographer, I went to school to study media arts.  I would hope what comes out of my camera people don't interpret as a cheap thrill.  

If I sound bitter, I'm not.  I love technology! I embrace it!  Since I'm an Androider, I sadly can't use Instagram but if it was available I certainly would.  After all, its just a another tool to capture a picture.  Also Instagram doesn't really take jobs away from the digital photographer, it really brings them to center stage and makes their work sought after.  Instagram is popularizing and creating a trend for over exposed, black and white, 1977, etc. photo effects.  Some of my clients actually care more about the effects than the rule of thirds or photo journalistic quality.  Also if you think about it, its just the modern culture appreciating those older photos and how we in the modern age don't have to worry about all of those crappy camera problems our parents had, expect of course those out of focus blurry shots!

Instagram is a great tool for the average (Apple Iphone) user.  It will automatically turn a boring picture into possibly a timeless image, save you tons of money by avoiding to buy Photoshop, and possibly give you the attention that you are unconsciously demanding.