Give Instagram a go

I enjoyed Molly Hollman’s

Viewpoint (AP 23 May) about Instagram. I have found it to be very useful for my photography (that and my subscription to AP). I’ve stopped using Flickr because it was tumbleweed territory for me. Other sites, like Photocrowd, want you to constantly appraise other people’s pictures, which I don’t particularly like.

I started my Instagram account more than two years ago and post about one photo a week. I constantly archive pictures and keep the number of visible photos on my profile quite small. I only follow folk whose photography I like – I currently have 50 posts, 255 followers and follow 152 folk, and I’m happy with that (”gordonmallarkey). It’s nice to view images from a selected group and to interact with them (i.e. either public comments or private messages).

Some people follow tons of people, and expect you to follow back, but I steer clear of that rigmarole. Molly mentioned that photos might get stolen; however, I always resize my pics to 1080 pixels so that the quality is good enough for Instagram viewing only. I use an app called Square Pic (from A Photo Studio), which lets me post pics in 2:3 ratio with white borders, portrait or landscape (posts are usually square, so this program is great for photographers). I then upload this version. I add tags to best describe my pics (e.g. #blackandwhite photography, #icm etc) as that lets potential new followers see your latest efforts. I also follow some non-photographers for inspiration (for example ” stephenellcock).

Gordon Mallarkey