I guess most bloggers have been familiar with Instagram. Without a doubt, Instagram is a popular social media application and used by millions people around the globe. It was reported there are 200 million Instagrammers and 20 billion photos shared on Instagram. Impressive number! Instagram provides the easy way to publish images directly from mobile-phone. This is the strength of the Instagram. You can express yourself through images at anytime and anywhere. No surprises that there are plenty of selfies pictures on Instagram.

I am a latecomer to Instagram. I started being active on Instagram during my recent trip to the Philippines (I have been in Instagram longer than that but as a passive Instagrammer). While Instagram’s initial aim was to publish pictures from a mobile-phone camera; nowadays, more and more images from a regular camera like DSLR, compact camera or micro four third published in Instagram as well. Some regular cameras have wifi option that allows photographers to post the image to social media directly.  I admitted that I “cheat” the Instagram’s initial aim – to post image directly from the camera medium. In my case, I edited my pictures to put watermark then transfer the images from laptop to mobile phone.

The way I express my self through Instagram is not by showing to the world of my selfies but more on presenting images that I took and yes, mostly underwater images. I find out that after being active for one month in Instagram, from less than 100 followers, now I have 516 followers, and two of my images have been featured by Instagram Water of Our World and Instagram World Spotlight. Being featured by other Instagrammers helps to boost image popularity. The key is to put the right hashtag (#) and to hope the moderators will choose your image 🙂

Again, I am still new, having 500+ followers in Instagram is nothing compared to many Instagrammers and WordPress bloggers who have thousands of followers. However, appreciation and comments are usually positive and motivated us to keep continue taking pictures. All photos in this post are my images that I published in Instagram during my recent trip to the Philippines. Guess what; the clown fish picture is the most popular among all pictures 🙂

Hope you enjoy the way I express myself!

Practical Information

Instagram picture size is 612 X 612 (usually I use image size of 650 X 650 or 700 X 700 before transferring to mobile-phone)
To format your picture in several sizes, use application InstaSize
To re-post Instagram picture, use application InstaRepost
To get Instagram at desktop/laptop (easy way to give “hearts” and searches), use IconosSquare