Hey everyone! Can you even believe that half a year has gone by? … yikes! How’s your year going so far? It was one of my New Year’s resolutions to take and post a #photoaday on Instagram for all of 2015. My goal was to try to keep up my creativity and learn something about my own strengths and weaknesses as a photographer. I figured the halfway point is a good place to review and see how it’s going… and here we are, halfway.
For my IG friends, you might have already caught on that I’ve been posting a #photoaday. A lot of you are posting every day too, sometimes even more. And if you’re not on Instagram, you’re missing out on a lot of fun! But don’t worry, you can get caught up on at least half a year right now…
* regular coffee posts *
I like to post my coffee vignettes. Something about coffee that inspires me. #givemeallthecoffeeCreativity:
So I starting making a deliberate effort to post every day sometime around the end of last year. I realized then, that I was having a lot of fun with it, learning new things about photography and meeting an inspiring group of fellow IGers. That’s when the idea to challenge myself began.
* 6 months of Hunter boots *
To help me out I started to follow and post to feeds and hashtags that connect me with some inspiring Instagram communities. These have been some of my favourites:
@my_365’s #my_365 (daily prompts)
@it’s_my_week (a new theme weekly)
@transfer_visions (which accepted me as a member in June! yay!)
@nothingisordinary_ (frequent features and occasional specific prompts)
@kimklassen’s #mystillsundaycompetition (I heart Kim Klassen)
* most liked and commented posts *
Some of the tags will select features to repost on their own feeds and some of them don’t. Either way, it’s a great option for finding IGers to follow, and for building your own following too.
Strengths:
Well, first of all, I’m doing it! I’ve posted every single day so far this year without missing. And, since I’ve had some of my posts featured by the amazing feeds I mentioned, it’s motivating me to come up with great images to post. Who doesn’t appreciate their work being recognized and shared?
* a few features *
Do you recognize my stuff? First grid top left and bottom left. Second grid top left. Third grid bottom right (for My Week of Circles).
Weaknesses:
As I look back through my feed, I realize that most of my posts are taken with my iPhone. It’s really too easy to quickly whip out your phone, snap a photo, make a few edits and post a #photooftheday on the go. (I talk about my process for taking photos with your phone camera in this post here if you’re looking for some tips and editing ideas.) It is possible to create some great images with only your smartphone and a few editing apps.
* most popular iphone photos *
BUT… I wish that I had made the effort to take out my big camera more regularly. The idea really was to learn and improve my photography. And there’s a lot more to learn on a DSLR than a smartphone camera. Out of the five posts that had the most engagement in my feed (likes and comments), four of them were taken with my big camera. That should tell me something. #usethebigcamera
* most popular nikon photos *
The next 6 months:
Sooo... in the next half a year, expect to see more photos taken with my Nikon on Instagram. That’s gonna be my biggest goal. Some of the photos you see here are available printed as greeting cards in my Etsy shop. Please stop by and browse through what’s there already. And I plan to have more photos in the next half a year that are worthy of a greeting card too. You’ll see them on Instagram first but stay tuned to the blog for new designs being announced! Sign up to receive new blog posts into your email inbox if you don’t want to miss it.
Thanks for recapping with me! It’s been a lot of fun. Are you on Instagram too? Leave your username in the comments and I’ll follow you. Will you follow me? We’ll take pictures and share them together...