Six Months of Instagram, Part 1

Being an Android user, I was a bit late to the whole Instagram party. My friends had been constantly taunting me with their filtered, retro-style shots for at least a year by the time the app was finally released on Android in April of this year. I was one of the over one million users that downloaded it in the first day; conveniently, that was right around the time I found out about my trip to New Zealand so I had plenty of scenery to test the app out on!

This was the second photo I posted on Instagram. I had a lot of time to take photos at Laser Skirmish since it's difficult to play on crutches.

In the months since, Instagram and I have become good friends. I don’t post on it constantly, but my boyfriend is not far wrong when he says, “Oh, that looks cool…are you going to Instagram it?” I think it’s a great way to keep people up to date while I’m on the move — and it’s a hell of a lot easier than trying to describe a place in 140 characters — and it’s spurred me to take more photos on my mobile, which I never used to do. My Instagram photos spurred quite a few conversations on Twitter during my trip to New Zealand and were the inspiration for the Tiki Tour of Canterbury book that I put together afterwards.

One of my favourite Instagram photos from my New Zealand trip. This shot of Mount Cook was taken on the Tasman Glacier terminal lake.

That said, my mobile photos are still usually a duplicate of something I’ve already captured with my SLR or micro 4/3s cameras because its quality still isn’t quite as good as I would like. It’s still a sore point for me that most of the photos I took of my cats as very small kittens were on my mobile (since I’d just had knee surgery), and that mobile (an iPhone 3G) had a terrible camera. Never again.

So why Instagram? Why didn’t I just find another mobile photo sharing service that was available on Android and stick with that? Well, I tried to use another service — PicPlz — but I found the results to be mostly underwhelming, which others must have agreed with because they closed their doors in July. The filters were too heavy-handed and often destroyed the photo, whereas Instagram gives me subtler options (and I often only use four of them — the less retro-style ones — anyway). I tend to stick with just using the default filters because I haven’t found any apps like SnapSeed that I enjoy using on my phone; most just take too much time and involve too much frustration. Plus, it’s undeniably more fun to share on a social network that has active users.

So without further ado, here’s a peek at my life over three of the last six months through the filtered eye of Instagram. I wanted to do all six months, but there was no way I could fit all of them into one post! Of the 225 photos I took in that timeframe, I’ve included 29.

At Easter I went down to Grafton for a long weekend on the Clarence River. We camped in a five-star campground and spent most of our time cruising up and down the river. It was great, and just what I needed.

My trip to New Zealand to write for the Wotifblog was insane, but in a good way. I saw so many stunning places, did so many crazy things, and ate so much food that I needed about two weeks to recover afterwards. I came back with a renewed appreciation for just how amazing Canterbury is.

Only a few weeks after I got back from New Zealand, Queensland had a long weekend for Labour Day. James and I took that opportunity to head down to the Granite Belt, specifically Stanthorpe, for a weekend of wine tasting and relaxation.

The following weekend, I was an official photographer at the Australian Body Art Carnivale, which this year was a celebration of all things ‘Under the Sea.’

In late May, I went down the coast for a weekend to go to the Gold Coast version of Brisbane Travel Massive. The weather was perfect for the beach, and I wished I’d taken my swimsuit so I could get in!

In June, I went to the Blogopolis conference in Sydney. I loved the ceiling and the nibblies — and the conference was good too!

On my free day in Sydney, I went to two of my favourite spots in the city — Circular Quay and Adriano Zumbo’s patisserie.

I’m not always traveling, but I’ve found plenty of things to take photos of closer to home. My cat Wolverine is a common subject, although I have to make sure I don’t post too many photos of him. I just found photos like him dancing for food too amusing not to post.

The sun is always setting too, no matter whether you’re watching its rays split between the trees, strolling on the beach, or sitting in the office.

Two of my favourite treats: Swedish meatballs from IKEA and macarons (these colourful ones are from Marché du Macaron in Brisbane).

I was able to catch a few special events around Brisbane on camera, like the (very waterlogged) Winter Festival in King George Square, a very foggy morning from Mt. Coot-tha where the city looked like buildings in the clouds, and the buildup to State of Origin Game III on Caxton Street (what a party that was)!

Do you use Instagram? Why or why not?

About Kristin
I'm Kristin, a Texan born to an American father and English mother. I've been living in Australia since 2008. My first plane flight was when I was three weeks old and I've been hooked ever since. I never feel quite right unless I have a plane ticket (to anywhere, whether it's Sydney or Sweden) booked in my name. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.
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