Instagram 101

Following on from my worldwide phenomenal smash hit successful blog "Twitter 101" published 18 July 2011, I now present you with its cousin (once removed) Instagram 101.

Step 1.  Buy an iPhone (I don't believe that the Blackberry/Android versions of Instagram have been released yet - please correct me if I'm wrong);

Step 2.  Download the Instagram app (and guess what, it's free!);

Step 3.  Take a photo using Instagram, then apply one of the filters, possibly do some funky in focus/out of focus stuff with your image;

Step 4. Add a caption (or not).  You can even geotag the picture so people know roughly where you were when you took it.  Its entirely up to you.

Step 5. Download it to facebook, twitter or flickr.

ANYONE can be a whizz bang photographer with Instagram. Anyone.  Even me.  Here are some of mine:

If you'd known me as long as I've known me, you'd know that my photography in the past has sucked.  Really, really sucked. 

I only took ONE good photograph in the whole of the 80's.  Ok, so I was a kid, but still.  A whole decade and only one decent pic to show for it?  That is sad.  

By the way, another cool thing about Instagram is that you can follow your friends who are using the app too.  Once you're following you can "like" and comment on their pix.

I know that if I can't sleep Kate from the UK or Team Vancouver (too many to name) or Eston of Kenya will have uploaded something interesting to look at on Instagram.  Buildings, traffic, seasons, planes, pets, kids, food...the list is endless.

Oh, one more thing.  Instagram has already taught me to find beauty in the most mundane things.  Even letterboxes.  Here's one I took last week.

How pretty is that?  It even looks like a real photographer might have taken it, not someone who only took one decent photo in the whole of the 1980s.