By the username @dogvision (yes, what else 😉 ) we’re on Instagram from the start I’ve been a huge fan because it’s mostly visual and it’s great to connect with fellow dog photographers and dog lovers.

To start with: What is Instagram?
Instagram is a free app that you can download for your smartphone or tablet and that gives you access to a social platform where you make an account to share your photographs. Some people laugh that Instagram is mostly for bad food pictures, and it probably has a history of early adaptors testing out filters on food but since those early days it has developed so much that for every niche you can find top photographers, athletes, performers, brands and so on. While a twitter feed feels like letter soup for a visual person like me, photogrpahs speak to me right away.

There are so many apps, why Instagram?
On instagram you have access to a whole visual world through the use of #hashtags (the keywords). You can be inspired by the work of others as well as make connections with people around the world. Connecting with such a variety of creatives will provide you with variety and diversity even within the small world of dog photography. You can like each others work, follow those that inspire you and leave some comments. You don’t have to become ‘friends’ with anyone to be able to enjoy, follow or comment on their work (unless they have a private profile).

How to start?
First download the app, choose a username that preferably is easy to spell, not too long and that says something about your subject. With dog accounts the name is often related to the breed, owner, name of the dog and/or the location. You can absolutely be creative but it would be confusing to name your account ‘IbizaBeats’ and then only show pictures of beans and eggs.
Once you chose a username, added some information and a profile pictures, you’re ready to start.
Although images can be both square or rectangle nowadays, your images will be shown as squares in the feed grid so it might be useful to keep an eye on your composition on Instagram. My @dogvision feed is still only with square images- because I chose my layout when only squares were possible- but my @fenne.be (for artwork and nature) makes better use of the landscape options.

Instagram is for everyone which makes is wildly popular; you don’t need a fancy camera or special skills, but I think that most people who find joy and inspiration on this platform might want to upgrade their skills and or gear (I would suggest: skills first). As Instagram is mostly visual with a short line of text underneath the images (that definitely not everybody reads) having attractive images is very important if you would like to receive some likes or followers. Again, it’s not a must. You can just have an account to keep track or your own process or to share images with some friends (it’s possible to have a private account).

Following accounts
There are few ways to find out about new and interesting accounts. You can look up some hashtags like #dogphotography, #BorderCollie, … or you can look at some instagram suggestions. Especially if your profile gets more specific, Instagram will be able to give you some good suggestions. If you are following someone, you can also click the little arrow next to ‘following’ to get more suggestions like that specific account.

*Some thoughts about the follow/unfollow game. On my other account @Fenne.be I noticed it earlier that a lot of (mostly new) accounts go for the follow/unfollow strategy. It’s a way to get noticed by a lot of people in a short time, often it works by a bot that searches keywords and they hope you will follow back so their accounts grows quickly. Mostly they unfollow after a few days and hope you won’t notice. Personally I have nothing with this kind of strategy as I think it’s misleading and hypocritical and most of these accounts don’t last that long unless they become sharing-accounts but there are so many already. I think it’s way more fun and rewarding to have some good and really interested followers than to have thousands that don’t care and the pressure that comes with having a big account. Therefore I just follow accounts that I like for several different reasons: creative and good photography as my number one, people I like, good writings or similar interests.

I crop all my images to squares and add my name in Photoshop to be able to chose the position. (you can export with logo in Lightroom too)

Sharing your images
You can create and share an image straight from your phone but if you’re like me and you want to share high quality,DSLR images or you want to edit everything first, you have to edit them first and send them to your phone or tablet (mail, cloud, or other programs) before you can upload them on instagram. The app itself provides you with plenty filters to use but I would suggest not to use a different one every time as it will make your feed look messy. (I have to confess, I never use filters but there are some good ones to try out). When sharing, add some hashtags to your images to add more information and to be found by other users. Images that are shared on instagram are just like those on facebook, not the best representation of your work. Colours and sharpness might be affected.

Video and stories
Except from photographs you can also share video’s up to 15 seconds on your feed and quick snapshots and video’s on your stories. Everything you’ll post on your stories will disappear after 24hours which makes it very low-threshold and easy to experiment with. I feel that this is the only way to share some crappy snapshots or little movies of my (of course) super cute dogs that don’t really fit in my main feed.

Some of my favourites:
@Bordernerd
@Andrewknapp
@Jasperthecowdog

I hope that with this short introduction you’ will get an idea of what is and how to get started with your account. Good luck and feel free to drop me a message below or share this blogpost with the world 🙂