Week 10: Image Post
How did you author the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram?
The image was taken on my iPhone 6s. For this post, I used the ‘willow’ filter, and set the contrast to +34. I had taken the image on a previous day, so uploaded to Instagram through my photos app. I chose to work with a black-and-white filter, as Lev Manovich in his chapter Instagramism states was a popular phtoography technique in the 1920s/1930s. I wanted to trial older photography techniques in the app. Additionally, in Manovich’s chapter Professional and Designed Photos, it is explained that cityscapes and landscapes were a trend by photography enthusiasts around 2010-2013. Inspired by this, I chose an image from a walk I went on with my family.
How did you publish the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram?
The image is geotagged to where it was taken, in Yass, NSW. The image reminded me of ‘Oh the Place You’ll Go’ by Dr Seuss, so I captioned the image with the quote: “You have feet in your shoes… You can steer yourself any direction you choose!” and the hashtags #ohtheplacesyoullgo and #drseuss.
How did you distribute the photo you published on Instagram to other social media services?
The image was shared to Twitter, shared through the app, with the same caption and hashtags. By the caption indicating the content, it makes the tweet easier to find and understand for any Twitter users. It was also shared to Tumblr, where the interface allows for the tags and the caption to fall into place.
Week 10: Video Post
How did you author the video you recorded for upload to Instagram?
The video is an overhead shot of a bunch of bananas in a wicker bowl, with the cut showing a movement of one of the bananas. I wanted to imitate the still-life painting movement. The video shot on my iPhone 6s, and taken within the Instagram app. The sound was removed to keep consistent with my previous videos uploaded. There was a black-and-white filter put over it also, as I wanted to keep consistent with the last post. As Manovich states, there is a trend in similar looking photos being shared on the one grid. Overall, I wanted to display a simple video with a slight movement that encapsulated the feeling of a still-life, whilst employing the black and white trend.
How did you publish the video you recorded for upload to Instagram?
The caption was just emojis, as I wanted to trial the ‘clean look’. The emojis mirrored this – a banana, a pear, and grapes. I then had the tags go to the bottom of the caption, with #stilllife and #blackandwhite. I did not geotag a location. I think the constrast of the coloured emojis highlighted the lack of colour in the video.
How did you distribute the video you published on Instagram to other social media services?
The video was shared to both Twitter and Tumblr. On Twitter, the use of emojis did not transfer so effectively, with it being a platform so reliant on speech. Additionally, Twitter does not give a preview of the post, meaning the original post is a mystery to any Twitter user, unless they were to click through. On Tumbr it worked a little bit better, where it shows the video in entirety. It still has the function of having to manually click on the video to play it, which does not work as well on a platform where Gifs dominate, and it is designed for users to endlessly scroll with no interruption.