INSTAGRAM - IT'S HIP TO BE SQUARE

My first Instagram photo. It would be 17 months until I posted again. #CellPhone #Filter #Frame

I admit I'm late to the Instagram party and think I've figured out why.

It wasn't because I don't dig the square format, I do. I don't mind filters and frames don't scare me.

And it wasn't the fact that four of the top ten followed accounts are either Kardasians or Jenners, half sisters to the Kardasians, female pop stars Beyonce, Rhianna and Taylor Swift, then Justin Beiber and finally Ariana Grande, someone I've never heard off. *

I think the real reason I was late is that I could never choose a side in the debate about what type of photos get posted to the site.

This photo was taken with a FujiX100s, processed in Instagram. #Camera #Filter

Not the photograph's genre, but do you post photos taken with a professional DSLR camera and post processed, or as the instant in Instagram suggests, do you post photos taken with a mobile device only. Don't think that is a hot topic? A quick search of the Internet will open your eyes. **

I joined the service and posted my first photo taken with my cell phone on April 11, 2012. The next photo taken 17 months later (yes almost a year-and-a-half later), again with my cell phone, came on November 23, 2013.

Then for reasons I can't explain, the next 11 photos, the last of which was posted on December 31, were all re purposed photographs taken with either a DSLR or my Fuji X100s and post processed.

Then came a bit of self examination. Is this how I wanted to use Instagram? Did I want to join photographers that shared photos this way. After all I reasoned that I'm already sharing my camera photos on Flickr and additionally sharing my favorites on 500px.

The start of a New Year and the start of becoming a regular Instagram contributor. #CellPhone #NoFilter

So for my next two photos I returned to using my cell phone. The first of these taken on January 1st while covering the Mummers Parade in Philadelphia was a disaster for several reasons, mostly due to my cell phone and a crashing app. For the other reason you can read about in a previous blog post.

The most recent image before I started writing this post was taken again with my cell phone on January 9th, and is of a donut. More typical of photos on Instagram? Now it was a maple glazed bourbon bacon donut, but was I now fully committed to using only a cell phone and was this how I was going to start off the New Year as an Instagramer?

Finally if I told you I just upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy S4then you know I've answered my own question. Yes, I'm going to only post photos taken with my cell phone. Does that make me an Instagram purest? Does anyone really care? After all I only have 12 followers and only posted 15 photos in nearly two years.

Final photo before this blog post, but not the last. #CellPhone #NoFilter

I enjoy seeing creative photography, so if I see a cool photo on Instagram that clearly was taken with a DSLR it really doesn't matter to me. And I won't take the radical move of unfollowing these Instagram "impostors" either. Just know that if you post in this fashion there is a Hipster with an iPhone somewhere shedding a tear.

* The 10 Most Followed People on Inastagram: Should You Follow Them Too? By Joshua Lockhart.
** Should You Post Photos on Instagram that Were Shoot on a Digital SLR? By Dan Havlik.