Video and article on Instagram

[Andrew O'Neill]

Anyone out there see this? http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/14/opinion/hernandez-mobile-photography/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

I found it interesting as I'm participating in a art/photography show this month where most of the contributors' work (of the photographers) will be taken with iphones. I'm going to feel out of place with my carbon transfer prints...
Anyways, he makes some interesting points (some of which I don't agree with), great graphics... and some of the viewer comments are interesting.

[ShawnHoke]

I thought I would hate Instagram, but I actually like it. I find that I'm wasting less film on snapshots and using my iPhone instead. My primary interest when I use Instagram is storefronts, signs, and weird stuff I see when rambling around NYC, so I use it to capture stuff on the fly. Often I'll go back with a "real camera" and take the same shot if I find it interesting enough.

This is my Instagram feed (http://web.stagram.com/n/shawnhoke/). Very few food or drink pictures, don't worry.

Andrew, your carbon transfer prints will look make those puny iPhone pics look bad!

[Pawlowski6132]

What am I missing?? Isn't instagram just a program that turns your iphone photo into an 'old' looking photo? Whatever that is? Why is is so popular? I can think of ten aps that do the same thing.

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Andrew, do me a favor and pour some glop on the phones and tell them it is a carbon phone! That is the only way they can do carbon instagram!

[Andrew O'Neill]

lol

[welly]

What am I missing?? Isn't instagram just a program that turns your iphone photo into an 'old' looking photo? Whatever that is? Why is is so popular? I can think of ten aps that do the same thing.

Kind of. There's a bit more to it than that. Think of it as facebook for mobile phone photographers. Yes, you can add various filters to the images and do some very basic editing but I think that is a little less of the point and the community is more of the point. You can share images with (real) friends very easily, find yourself a bunch of online instagram friends should you wish to, comment on photos and so on, and there's something of an ecosystem building up around instagram. For instance, buy yourself or a friend a pillow or bag made up of your instagram photos - http://stitchtagram.com/. Etc.

It's the lomography of online photography I guess. It is what it is and definitely not worth anyone having a strong opinion of it either way. I use it every once in a while. It's not that serious (to me, anyway) and a stupid/fun little time waster when I'm on my way somewhere and want to do something moderately creative to pass the time.

[Andrew O'Neill]

It's the lomography of online photography I guess.

Good point, welly.