gabrielelopez
Established
the point is probably to use platforms for what they are. IG is fine if you don't pay attention and just now and then want to point to something, but not for photography...Flickr is 100 times better, direct contacts even more.
Rikard
Established
That is interesting. Maybe I should give Flickr a try. Personally I have become less active on instagram, but sort of rediscovered tumblr. I found quite a few really interesting photographers there, and it feels like an actual blog platform.
Michael Markey
Veteran
I perhaps should add that also post on FB .
Probably over 50% of my stuff I do for friends or organisations to which they belong and all that is on FB.
Probably over 50% of my stuff I do for friends or organisations to which they belong and all that is on FB.
jpressman
Well-known
I began posting on Insta a while back as a way to motivate myself to keep shooting and to get some outside feedback. I don't put any stock in numbers of followers, but it is satisfying in some way to see people react positively to a post. However, in the relatively short time I've been there I feel like my experience has significantly declined. As others have said, I no longer get all the posts from people I follow. And, although I have zero interest in video clips, they populate my feed incessantly, which means lots of wasted time scrolling past basically crap. And there's all the marketing. And I've noticed that quite a few "followers" seem to be attractive women apparently looking for followers of their own, and not photography fans. Weird. Anyway, it kind of feels like a slog now, and I'm questioning whether or not it's worthwhile.
tortellini_man
Established
i like instagram for the ability to interact with the local community who may not have been there during the exact moment the picture was taken
for example, if i take a picture around town of a cup of coffee in front of some plants, i can tag in the film lab, the plant nursery where picture is at, and the coffee shop where the drink was from
it doesn't seem super great for general photographic discovery, but for specific topics it has helped me learn stuff (like tidepool photography for example has an instagram community that the algorithm tends to smile upon)
for example, if i take a picture around town of a cup of coffee in front of some plants, i can tag in the film lab, the plant nursery where picture is at, and the coffee shop where the drink was from
it doesn't seem super great for general photographic discovery, but for specific topics it has helped me learn stuff (like tidepool photography for example has an instagram community that the algorithm tends to smile upon)
Michael Markey
Veteran
Yes same for me .Its declined markedly but with effort still has some interesting posts .
JohnGellings
Well-known
Well, I for one, at least enjoy looking at the work of some of the people who wrote in this very thread on Instagram. It gives me a different perspective after only seeing their written thoughts for many years.
jpressman
Well-known
Yes, I do too. It unfortunately takes a lot more effort than it used to. Of course "effort" is a relative term, everyone's threshold is different.
Jamie Pillers
Skeptic
I've never used Instagram and have looked at it maybe two or three times. But I've been using Flickr for years. I don't post images there to get 'likes'. I use it as a cheap way to make my photography available to friends that want to see what my work looks like. I organize the work into Albums, each based on some theme I'm interested in. Then I point my friends to the Album page, not the photostream. Works well and its free!
JohnGellings
Well-known
For sure, but you are still in my loop! It has turned into a third party marketing platform for the most part. And for photography, cliches and derivatives reign supreme.
DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
Many interesting comments here. Much useful information. Thanks to all.
For almost a decade I had a personal web site for my images, mostly stock for small publications and book publishers. It was moderately successful, as much as all/anything to do with selling photography can be in this crazy 21st.
But gosh, the work involved. I had to set it up, using a so-called 'free' sites that give you a limited selection of ta few hings and then try nonstop to get you to upgrade. Which I didn't, maybe that was part of the problems I had.
For me the setting up and (initially) the posting was difficult, but I persevered. I put a password lock on the folders, so anyone interested to buy had to contact, fill out a brief but detailed online form, and get a password which I monitored and changed regularly. Unsurprisingly, serial browsers/thieves looking to copy my images came at the rate of 10-25 to I was warned, hence the password. My Decline rate was high.
In 2018 I closed the site temporarily to focus my energies and time to other projects. Along came Covid - 2020-2021 were no sale years. In mid-2022 publishers again queried if I had specific images, which I did. The merry-go-round was spinning again, if less lucratively. 2024 can be summed up as a so-so year. 2025 so far, nothing. I live in hope.
How did this lead me to Instagram, Flickr et al? At the start I used those, and had a small number queries and a few good sales. I then got the brilliant idea of contacting universities interested in my areas of expertise (almost entirely Asia), which was also successful.
I used Facebook and Instagram to direct traffic to my site. Twitter I didn't like so I avoided it. I had/still have a Flickr account, but I've yet to post anything on it. Now after reading many of the comments in this thread, I may use it, in a limited way.
The problem for me with sites like Flickr, is my photographs are competing with too many images by too many others. Potential clients I refer to that site start browsing, with the inevitable conclusion...
Conclusion, for photographers like me Flickr, Instagram et al can actually reduce my potential business.
This year I'm quietly (and slowly) returning to the stock image market. Which will be an interesting experience, given the strange ways the world (and the global photo markets) are going of late. I'm hopeful, but not holding my breath about any future sales.
For almost a decade I had a personal web site for my images, mostly stock for small publications and book publishers. It was moderately successful, as much as all/anything to do with selling photography can be in this crazy 21st.
But gosh, the work involved. I had to set it up, using a so-called 'free' sites that give you a limited selection of ta few hings and then try nonstop to get you to upgrade. Which I didn't, maybe that was part of the problems I had.
For me the setting up and (initially) the posting was difficult, but I persevered. I put a password lock on the folders, so anyone interested to buy had to contact, fill out a brief but detailed online form, and get a password which I monitored and changed regularly. Unsurprisingly, serial browsers/thieves looking to copy my images came at the rate of 10-25 to I was warned, hence the password. My Decline rate was high.
In 2018 I closed the site temporarily to focus my energies and time to other projects. Along came Covid - 2020-2021 were no sale years. In mid-2022 publishers again queried if I had specific images, which I did. The merry-go-round was spinning again, if less lucratively. 2024 can be summed up as a so-so year. 2025 so far, nothing. I live in hope.
How did this lead me to Instagram, Flickr et al? At the start I used those, and had a small number queries and a few good sales. I then got the brilliant idea of contacting universities interested in my areas of expertise (almost entirely Asia), which was also successful.
I used Facebook and Instagram to direct traffic to my site. Twitter I didn't like so I avoided it. I had/still have a Flickr account, but I've yet to post anything on it. Now after reading many of the comments in this thread, I may use it, in a limited way.
The problem for me with sites like Flickr, is my photographs are competing with too many images by too many others. Potential clients I refer to that site start browsing, with the inevitable conclusion...
Conclusion, for photographers like me Flickr, Instagram et al can actually reduce my potential business.
This year I'm quietly (and slowly) returning to the stock image market. Which will be an interesting experience, given the strange ways the world (and the global photo markets) are going of late. I'm hopeful, but not holding my breath about any future sales.
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jpressman
Well-known
No kidding. If I see another silhouette or puddle reflection I think I'll scream...
. FWIW, I admire your work, it's partly to blame how I got onto Insta to begin with!JohnGellings
Well-known
That’s great to hear. I also admire yours. I’m always interested in seeing it.No kidding. If I see another silhouette or puddle reflection I think I'll scream...
DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
No kidding. If I see another silhouette or puddle reflection I think I'll scream...
You forgot sunsets. Looking at a sunset image often as not drives me to drink. Actually, my partner does that. I no longer have a licence.
I hope you exclude cats. Death by clawing will result...
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Dogman
Veteran
And flowers. One more flower of radioactive color and I'll scream. I might scream anyway, just thinking of the things.
bulevardi
Established
Sorry to react to this more than a year after you started this thread.
I'm also a bit done with Instagram lately... perhaps some other people have the same experience as I do.
Just wanted to talk about it. (sorry for my rant)
Before I was a Flickr member (still have my account, but at some moment the interactions tumbled down to zero).
So I then switched to Instagram 10 years ago, as that app was booming at that moment.
I also was switching from carrying my heavy DSLR to my lightweight phone to take daily snapshots underway, commuting to work ...
It was the time Instagram was still photo focused.
Nowadays it's more rewarding for video-posters, making reels, posting daily stories, more going the way of TikTok.
Lately I noticed that it took away too much of my daily focus and productivity, and it seems to make me addictive and lazy.
Therefore I now started a digital detox for the next month... see what changes in my daily habits.
However, last week I was looking for alternatives for Instagram that are less addictive, but still interesting, and I also became aware at that time that lots of other people were fleeing away to alternatives.
Things were happening in the news, with Elon Musk, a lot of X users switched to something else.
With the less-ethical Meta strategies the same, a lot of users were starting to look for other stuff...
So I read about the Metaverse.... and there's the Fediverse too.
Didn't know about that.
There's Mastodon (X alternative), Pixelfed (a bit alternative for IG), Friendica (FB alt), and so on...
There's aswel BlueSky (X alternative) who is making a new photo app too to go live soon (Flashes).
So I made accounts on these platforms to test them out... it's a bit difficult to start from zero again, and almost no mainstream users there that I was following on Meta platforms.
BlueSky has "starter packs" with groups of users that you can follow directly with one click, so you get a whole bunch of people to follow with the same interest, e.g. photography.
I'm now using a website called Fedica, where I can schedule posts so I can upload a couple of my fav/best photos from before... and it's handy, you can plan and post them directly to all the platforms together at once.
But I'll now just test it out now for a month and see what's happening... I'm not sure I'll return to the other side again as I know how bad it goes.
Now that I think of it more from a distance, I see a lot of people selling themselves online, almost onlyfans, a lot of people became the product, and the content is lowbrow superficial.
There's much more reasons to make the switch from Meta/X to Fediverse.
What irritates me the most: a lot of my friends posts do not show up in my feed and after a year I go to their profile and see that they posted a lot of stuff I wasn't seeing ... they then think I've been ignoring them all the time, but that's because the feed is not shown.
IG and FB decide what content is shown, based on dodgy algorithms.
It has long been known that Meta manipulates the behaviour of their users and made them believe they have the freedom to post their opinion and are really connected to each other. But the opposite is true.
The lack of moderation on hate speech, algorithms that prioritize controversial discriminatory content (racism, LGBTQI-phobia,…), in order to get more outrage engagement leading to a wider spread of bad ideas. Invisible shadow banning censorship, echo chambers, reducing people’s reach, dividing people, pitting them against each other and so on.
The opposite of how a harmonious society should be.
More irritations: saturation of commercial advertisements in the feed, privacy issues, tiktokification by rewarding superficial reels above quality photography. Half your feed full of fake AI posts to waste your time. And above all: you are the product, people don’t realize their private data is being sold and you don’t get a single penny.
One could stay indifferent and continue supporting all these things above… or one can be part of the SOLUTION BELOW!
Switch from the Metaverse and X to the Fediverse.
There’s free alternative platforms, community driven, no algorithmic manipulations, no ads, real privacy and data control, open-source, decentralized, no billionaires involved or people on top who decide what's happening. More authenticity, less social pressure.
Imagine we all make a move towards ethical technology and free ourselves from corporate surveillance. Think about apps like Pixelfed, Mastodon, and many more!
Wouldn't it be cool if we all moved there?
If we all slowly make the transition, as from next week? Or let us just try for a month and see what happens if Meta suddenly loses their grip on all of us? You don’t have to close your accounts, yet.
What’s your opinion about this? Would you do it?
Or do you have other alternatives?
Disappointed_Horse
Well-known
Mastodon and the Fediverse are the best things to happen to the internet in the last twenty years.
I deleted my Facebook and Instagram accounts in 2013. I deleted my Twitter account after Musk bought it. I haven't missed them at all. I get much more engagement on Mastodon than I ever did on any of the other platforms despite having far fewer followers. (I don't understand why people continue to refer to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as "social networks." They haven't been "social" for a very long time. What they are is algorithm-powered advertising networks.)
If anyone would like to connect with me on Mastodon, I'm @Disappointed_Horse@mastodonapp.uk.
I deleted my Facebook and Instagram accounts in 2013. I deleted my Twitter account after Musk bought it. I haven't missed them at all. I get much more engagement on Mastodon than I ever did on any of the other platforms despite having far fewer followers. (I don't understand why people continue to refer to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as "social networks." They haven't been "social" for a very long time. What they are is algorithm-powered advertising networks.)
If anyone would like to connect with me on Mastodon, I'm @Disappointed_Horse@mastodonapp.uk.
bulevardi
Established
I can relate.
I've never really fit into that X/Twitter platform, perhaps it's just nothing for me... I'm more into photo sharing apps (insta/flickr).
I'm quite new to Mastodon/Bluesky/Pixelfed platforms, and for me I don't seem to have much interaction at all.
Perhaps I'll have to give it some time and get to know some interesting people.
I understand the principle to protect privacy, but something I found handy was synchronizing contacts from your phone, which isn't possible with Fediverse apps.
Also, on Instagram you can look on location and easily find likeminded people going to the same shops and bars and find a direct connection.
Somehow I find it nice to get to know more local people online (to catch up for a coffee at lunch), than people from the other part of the world online - which you probably never meet.
wlewisiii
Just another hotel clerk
Don't like Mastodon, real PITA to deal with. Bluesky is fine though. I have deleted all but one photo of my cat from Insta just to keep the account open for those I follow.
Disappointed_Horse
Well-known
Hashtags are important to get engagement on Mastodon. For example, I post a lot of political stuff on Mastodon so if I use a hashtag like #uspol that gets a lot of engagement.
I follow quite a few photographers on Mastodon but post photos and photo-related stuff here on RFF more than anywhere else. (I'm also on Photrio and Pentax Forums.)