I’m just one of millions of new Instagram users, now that it’s available for Android. I’ve been playing with it a bit and I’ve uploaded a few things. There’s a lot to like, and a bunch I’m still figuring out.

[instapress userid=”steveskojec” piccount=”12″ size=”90″ effect=”0″]

As you may already know, I’m a fairly avid photographer. This is a hobby for me, so it waxes and wanes with available time to pursue it, but I find it therapeutic when I can just get camera in my hand and start shooting. I’ve thought often about starting a photoblog so I have somewhere to display the various things I shoot on a semi-regular basis, but now I’m not sure.

On the one hand, Instagram has that beautiful built-in community and social network integration that makes sharing a snap. Every picture I take can be in one place, and I can use tags to separate themes. It’s easy enough to throw an Instagram gallery into a post or page (as I’ve done here) or to put a recap of my most recent Instagrams in the sidebar, as I’ve done on the right.

But does this replace the utility, control, and look/feel of the good-old photoblog? Should a photographer spend the extra time and effort to get their DSLR photos on their phone for the upload to Instagram, as I’ve seen some do, and not worry about the loss in size/resolution? Is it worth it to put pictures in both places? With a service like ifttt, you can easily set up a rule that will post your Instagram photos to the tumblr of your choice.

(This ties into a larger discussion that I am still contemplating: we’re all content producers now, and many of us produce in multiple forms of media. How do we best showcase our work online without appearing unfocused? I don’t know about you, but I use all of my various creative talents in my work, so they do play a role and are relevant to our personal brands.)

What do you think: are photoblogs out now that Instagram is ubiquitous? Or do we need to cross-pollinate content between platforms and not just restrain things to one place? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This