Instacrap

So, you have a few hundred pounds laying around. You want a new, cool phone. However, you also want to take pictures and easily share them with friends. You also want to look as if you can take a good picture without really thinking. And not only that, but you're looking for a passing bandwagon to jump on and go for a long boring, monochrome journey on.  Well, what is one to do? To buy an iPhone and download an Instagram app like every other blind sheep in the world.

Perhaps I'm being a snob and I've not really 'gotten it', like most other fads, but I don't get what the hell you all like about it. I just typed 'Instagram photos' into Google, and it occurred to me that had I entered these photographs into my A level Photography coursework, I would have lost marks for bad editing. All that has simply changed is the 'warmth'; they have cooled the picture, which simply means putting a blue tint to the picture. That's bad editing skill. Honestly.

But it's not even that. It's that these people have done nothing. They pointed their phone, tapped the screen then autonomy done everything else. The app puts the blue filter on, or whatever you want. Then people select other things for the app to do automatically, such playing with the focus. I've seen a lot of photographs that have the focus in the centre, and blurred around the edge.  Looking at Instagram photographs makes me think I need to go and get my eyes tested.

Anyway, it's popular, so I thought I'd try and Instagram one of my photographs. This photograph is one of my favourites from the past few weeks. It got quite good feedback, but all I done was stand in a hedge for 10 minutes, changing settings on my camera, then an hour editing the pictures. It's nothing compared the effort of you iPhone user, but this is what I managed to produce.

Then with the use of Photoshop, I added two filters and within a few minutes, I had turned it into your typical Instagram. It's pointless. I don't think any picture looks good with the blue filter. You don't get a photograph that artistically shows something in a different way. Instead you get a photograph that is as artistic as a child that got some crayons and a colouring-in book for their birthday.

So, what is the point of Instagram?

Well, the only answer I have to that question is that it makes the monotonous more interesting. With everyone posting pictures of food on plates, cats on sofas, themselves in mirrors, inane tattoos on stupid people and alcohol before consumption, using this app helps to perceive them as more interesting. And it also allows your life to be shared with 'friends' on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook in one easy swipe.

But I'm not all negative about Instagram and the people that use it. For example, one has to commend how it has gotten people more interested in Photography. It isn't a hobby that should only be undertaken by those who can afford it; everyone should be able to, and with camera on phones getting increasingly better, then why not. However, it is at the juncture that I'd like to point out that you can buy an easy-to-use 14 megapixel digital camera for under £50.

Also, some of the people have an eye for a good photograph. I've seen a few which are well composed, with great subjects. The problem with them? The quality. They've ruined what could be a brilliant photograph, just because they're stuck on a band wagon they can't get off. And now it has started to spread to the medium of television, with many shows opting for blue filters.

Perhaps the rules for a good photograph have changed. Maybe this is just photography for the people. Or maybe I'm right. Instagrams have no personality. No individualisation. They're 2D. It's like someone mixing a dubstep track using computer-generated sounds in their bedroom and listening through cheap speakers. Photographs taken with a camera, professional or otherwise, can have character and have real depth. They are like an orchestra performing at the Albert Hall.

You know what, stuff it. Stop using Instagram and just take a normal picture. It's a waste of space on your phone. If you take a picture you like, just upload it. Don't touch a filter unless you know what you're doing with them. We need to vaccinate this Facebook-led disease as it threatens to take hold of the Western world.

If you want to see more of my photography (yes, I am plugging, what of it?), then feel free to browse through my Flickr: Stuart Collyer Photography