[alan_smithee_photos]

Coincidentally posting a thread not related to the previous one (https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/137-photographic-industry-professionals/2...instagram.html), listend to an interesting podcast yesteday from "Cameras or Whatever":

This week we have the Product Manager of Licensing at 500px (and good friend) Nuno Silva to talk about how Instagram feeds can become a career in photography, even for an inexperienced photographer.

17 - Instafame ? Ania & Tyler Stalman

The guests on the show note how, for now at least, Instagram has become *the* site for many working photographers, and has turned lots of amateurs into pros or semi-pros (they're getting paid at any rate).

I've totally found this to be the case in my own decidedly amateur/part-time endeavors. I've been active on flickr and tumblr for years and have a pretty large following, but once I started posting on instagram I got way more interest from people wanting me to shoot them and shoot for them. For example, on Monday I shot her:


Never shot before, saw my feed and reached out.

And later that day shot a lookbook for a local clothing designer:


(just a preview, straight off the card)

I have to schedule folks way out or turn them away right now. I've never got that kind of action from any other platform. I'm sure the zeitgeist will move on in a couple years but for now, Instagram is working.

[Drake Avenue]

Well it definitely does help when you such a consistently great feed such as yours! With that being said, I too have found that Instagram is my main buzz generator.

[alan_smithee_photos]

Well it definitely does help when you such a consistently great feed such as yours! With that being said, I too have found that Instagram is my main buzz generator.

Super nice of you to say so! I really dig being able to keep up on your work on IG, too. It's gonna be your fault if/when I finally pull the trigger on a 67...

I was surprised to hear the comments on the podcast about IG becoming *the* place to go for people in the industry, whether it's models deciding who to work with, art directors evaluating photographers, agencies trying to find hot new talent, etc. There's the insta-famous thing, of course, but for people who are legit (or trying to be) I was still surprised to hear how integral IG has become.

[narual]

You can post to instagram with real cameras now? I thought it only worked with cellphones.

[boriscleto]

I like what Suicide Girls did about Richard Prince...

Whoever Bought This $90K Richard Prince Instagram Print Is About To Be Pissed | Fast Company | Business + Innovation

[dadipentak]

You can post to instagram with real cameras now? I thought it only worked with cellphones.

I'm in my '70s and don't have one of those smartphone thingies but I'm thinking, "if you have a wifi-enabled camera ..." Am I on the right track?

[mattb123]

I post some photos on Instagram that I take with my SLR and then export to DropBox. From there I use my phone (you could use a tablet too) to post them to Instagram. When you post, the app give you a choice of using the built-in camera or specifying an image.
I haven't gotten any jobs from it but I have heard that people do. A pro woman mountain biker reposted one of my photos from last weekend (with proper attribution) and its gotten over 600 likes so the platform does have the potential to reach people.

[alan_smithee_photos]

What I do (which probably means it's a goofy workflow) is:
- Download the "real" camera image to my phone or tablet
- Open up in an app like SquareIt so that I can maintain my aspect ratio but save it as a "square" image (white or black borders on the top and bottom or sides, depending on the orientation)
- Post to Instagram, looking up the file on my device rather than shooting a new image with the app

So, yeah, you can post any image that you've saved on your device. Doesn't have to be a cameraphone image, but you can still only upload things via the IG app itself.

[narual]

Ah, cool. I found a desktop program called "Gramblr" that uploads stuff to instagram for you and put a few shots up: https://instagram.com/jcovergaar/
Maybe I shouldn't have put the text on them and left them in the original format, but I don't usually take photos with the intent of cropping them square.

[johnmflores]

Good to see some positive opinions of Instagram and social media for a change. Yeah, there are risks, but I think that the upsides outweigh the downsides right now, and posting to Instagram from the road is part of my storywriting workflow.

[ZoeB]

I've been using LR mobile to post images i've taken on my DSLR to instagram, although i have a pretty decent camera on board, so I'm not afraid to post images directly from my phone either.

[Bromberger]

I found a desktop program called "Gramblr"

when i saw that site the other day, my internet safety senses rang the alarm...

no imprint, company info, legal adress, etc
just a file that downloads, might as well be a virus or a scam

i'm sorry, i'm sure you mean well, however i am careful

did you register? what kind of info do they want, and do you have to give them access to your instagram account?

[narual]

when i saw that site the other day, my internet safety senses rang the alarm...

no imprint, company info, legal adress, etc
just a file that downloads, might as well be a virus or a scam

i'm sorry, i'm sure you mean well, however i am careful

did you register? what kind of info do they want, and do you have to give them access to your instagram account?

Given that I give precisely zero sh*ts about my instagram account, and I'm on a pretty well secured mac, I wasn't terribly worried about it.

It works. The interface sucks. It's probably written by some programmer who wanted to get his photos on instagram. It looks pretty much like something I'd do to get the job done. Of course it needs your instagram info. It's logging into your instagram account on your behalf.

First screen, you put in your instagram username and password. Second screen you choose a file and then hit "upload". It requires the photo to be a jpg/jpeg that's 650x650 or less, and less than 500kb. Third screen is a box to type the caption and a button to 'save caption'. Fourth screen provides a direct link to the image, a web link, buttons to share on Facebook and twitter, and an "upload another" button that starts the process over. Your credentials are saved while the app is open, but if you close it and reopen it, you have to reenter them. I'm not particularly worried about it.

[Bromberger]

Given that I give precisely zero sh*ts about my instagram account, and I'm on a pretty well secured mac, I wasn't terribly worried about it.

It works. The interface sucks. It's probably written by some programmer who wanted to get his photos on instagram. It looks pretty much like something I'd do to get the job done. Of course it needs your instagram info. It's logging into your instagram account on your behalf.

First screen, you put in your instagram username and password. Second screen you choose a file and then hit "upload". It requires the photo to be a jpg/jpeg that's 650x650 or less, and less than 500kb. Third screen is a box to type the caption and a button to 'save caption'. Fourth screen provides a direct link to the image, a web link, buttons to share on Facebook and twitter, and an "upload another" button that starts the process over. Your credentials are saved while the app is open, but if you close it and reopen it, you have to reenter them. I'm not particularly worried about it.

ok. thank you!

[narual]

If you're on a windows box you can use Bluestax to run the instagram app if you're paranoid. Bluestax for the mac is barely even beta quality and basically doesn't work, though.