Say Cheese

As those of you following me on Twitter or Flickr know, I’ve fallen in love with Instagram. Like blogging, it gives me a chance to create something cool out of a moment. I just have to take enough chances.

Here’s why I like it:

• It’s ubiquitous. I’ve always got my iPhone with me, so taking pictures with it is trivial.
• It embraces its constraints. The iPhone has a fixed focal-length lens with not a ton of resolution. Instagram owns what it is and turns those optical limitations into a feature.
• It gives me just enough choices. It gives me twelve filters to choose from. That, combined with the aforementioned fixed focal length, means that my only real choices involve composition — which is what I’m primarily interested in improving anyway.
• It gives me fast feedback. See it, shoot it, apply a filter to it, have a look. I can go from zero to finished product in under a minute, and if I don’t like it, I can do it again. Once I’m happy, caption and publish. Done.

All of these add up to something that allows me to learn quickly. I won’t say that I’ve made great art with it so far, though there are a few shots I’m proud of. I can see that in the short time I’ve been using it, I’m been happy with a higher percentage of my shots. So there you go.