Dear @80degrees and @skeletonkey, or How I Stopped Clogging up the Stream and Learned to Love Instagram

Hi, how are you.

I'm fine, thanks.

I just wanted to take a moment to tell you how much I enjoy your photos. They are all beautiful.

BEAUTIFUL.

@80degrees - I know you. I am not surprised by your use of composition and color. I am not surprised at the poetry and rhythm of your subjects. I am not surprised how many 'likes' you get. @skeletonkey - holy crap! I had NO idea.

Before I fell down the Instagram rabbit hole, I thought it was all about a square format and filters. I mean, to a certain extent, it still is. But I was basically taking tons of pictures of my daughter and making it look like she was from the 70s. I was clogging up the stream.

And then @80degrees pointed out the warren for the field...

'Ah, I see. I get it now.'

Well, I'm still getting it, but what I think I got was that photography is the thing here.

Sure, you can take tons of snaps of your loved ones, and things you like to eat and drink and pet, but you're going to clog the stream. Instagrammers follow family, the famous, and photographers. They don't want to see ALL those shots of your kid on the slide. They want your best ONE. Or maybe TWO if they're really good.

So now I take pictures with my other apps - although mostly the one that came with the phone. But then I put these pictures through my arsenal of photo/art apps. And THEN I bring them to Instagram.

I'm into it.

Of course, if I were REALLY into it, I would know the right #iphoneograpy hashtags, and I would know my emoji keyboard as well as my qwerty keyboard. Also, I would make time to give the proper props to everyone who has labored over their digital and mobile works of art, and I would thank everyone who has propped mine.

But sometimes I take time and pay attention.

I've noticed you, @skeletonkey. Different, but perhaps from the same school as @80degrees; clean lines, great use of color and/or contrast, strong compositions. And as it happened, the other day I put 5 and 6 together and got something near a dozen, specifically when I clicked on your profile.

Holy crap, that's Marielle! No way! She's just a kid. Oh, wait a second, she's actually a teenager. Whoa... How did that happen?

Ahem...

So, @skeletonkey, you are your own artist. You have a confident and surprisingly mature eye. That said, it's easy to see the apple doesn't fall from the tree that happens along the way. Good work, both of you!

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@skeletonkey

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@80degrees

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