Photographing Landscapes (Cities) and Instagram Captions!

 Landscape Photography and Instagram Captions!

In the previous blog post, I covered the topic of full body shots and as promised I would recap on the amount of attention it got. My post received an insane amount of interaction with 534 likes in a span of four weeks since the last blog post. I've started to notice a trend on my feed that full body shots would generally get more attention than any other kind of photos so if I'm starting to lose retention with my followers, I'll generally post an #OOTD shot. As stated by Aimee "A smart strategy for outfit shots is to imagine that you're costume-designing a scene in a movie or styling an editorial photo shoot for your favorite magazine, minus the assistant and wardrobe trailer (though these things help, I assume). That is the essence of a cool story, and your caption should follow suit" (Song Aimee, 76). Being able to tell a complex story without the having professionally taken shots in every photo shows a level of mastery that I have yet to achieve but at the least, I'm able to create relatable captions.

Creating a caption that's witty while maintaining a sense of character can be really difficult. It's more than just putting random words into a sentence; it has to be relatable. The main goal for almost every post is to be able to have my followers relate with me. The caption doesn't always have to correspond with image, it could be completely random but Aimee reminds her readers this: "Don't be afraid to infuse some self deprecation and wit into your post... As long as you can laugh at yourself, your followers will, too" (Aimee, 159). Being on Instagram long enough, I'm able to pick out the captions that I feel are too overused. Whenever I feel inspired I'll write my caption down in my notes and edit later when I post. More often than not, many of my captions come from texting my friends and realizing I said something really edgy. At times I may even ask a simple question such as 'when's your birthday?' because it drives user interaction. Here are some examples of captions that I've used for some posts.

Not Edited

"make every good thing you do a lifestyle" 

Edited

"obsessed with things we can't have and have the things we don't need" 
"it's positively positive to have some negatives"

Each one has a unique statement that samples who I am as a person. Much of my emotions and thoughts are embedded in each post I make, and although they may be slightly cheesy, the caption is like the icing on a cupcake; it completes it.

Instagram isn't mainly for selfies and food photos, when I don't have the energy to post a photo of myself or think that none of my recent shots are appealing to me, I'll turn towards photographing the world around me, specifically, cities. I've been in love with cities ever since I've been given the chance to explore downtown Seattle as a child for field trips and was entranced by the bustling people, the tall buildings, and the busy atmosphere that feels like something is always going on. In this post I'll be exampling some of the tactics I've learned to take a photo that truly captures Seattle's sense of place. Aimee says "You're technically traveling any time you leave the house. So learn to embrace all your adventures and share them with your followers in a beautiful way" (Aimee, 132). Recently having the chance to travel downtown, I took a picture of Seattle from the Space Needle.

The methods and techniques I've used to make this image my own is through the capturing and the editing process. Three things I kept in mind were to "Lose the zoom... take the photo as close as you can get to your subject and crop later so you don't lose quality and get stuck with grain" (Aimee, 135). By not using zoom, I'm able to capture a wider depth of the city and because of the Iphone 7's capabilities, using zoom reduces the overall quality of the photo. The second advice I kept to mind was "Don't forget to look down...press your phone up to the glass to minimize glare" (Aimee, 138). Because the natural light of the sun created unwanted radiance in the photo, it turned out to be really helpful holding it right up against the glass. The last piece of advice was to not forget the details; minimal things should be shown to better example the culture. Because my goal was to capture Seattle's sense of place, I tried to include everything, even the Puget Sea water can be seen in the right corner to create a shot that I think justified Seattle.

A touch of my own style was added to the photo with the editing I used to better match my feed. As previous, I'll be posting this iteration and uploading it with a progress report in the next blog post. Look forward to learning about taking pictures of food and editing! Since the people who view these blog posts are all from Seattle, what's places that you personally like to take pictures of when visiting downtown?

Works Cited

Song, Aimee, and Erin Weinger. Capture Your Style: Transform Your Instagram Images, Showcase Your Life, and Build the Ultimate Platform. New York: Abrams Image, 2016. Print.