ANDRE BEGIN

My social media journey has been an incubator of trial and error experiences, striving to see what catches on, what doesn’t, and hopefully figuring out the common denominator. For me, Instagram was a challenging one to figure out.

At first, I tried using it as an extension to Facebook, posting random pictures and captions.

Before I knew it, I was posting the same thing on two platforms, to essentially the same group of friends. That was a bit of a fail.

I then tried emulating some of the people whose Instagram accounts I liked and enjoyed.

In doing so, I posted pictures of plates of food that looked too good to eat, new colourful socks, new shoes, pictures to promote my blog and random selfies. Of course, after Ivy the Wonder Cat joined me, she started making guest appearances.

My Instagram account was all over the map. Was it any wonder that my likes were low and attracting new followers wasn’t really happening?

Frankly, when I stepped back and looked at it objectively, I didn’t like my account much either.

It was in the process of taking photos to feature in the blog that something clicked… metaphorically speaking.

I felt the creative instinct and curiosity for photography starting to return. It was like everything I had learned about composition, light, colour and perspective was finding me again.

The reality is that I shouldn’t have been surprised given that I had been a shutterbug since Santa Claus brought me my first camera at age 9.

But when taking stock photos for the blog, I was tinkering with different backgrounds, lighting effects, repositioning the subject(s), changing the background again, adjusting the lighting, adjusting the focus, and so on.

And even then, what you see in the viewfinder is not always what translates well to the digital picture. And then you start again. I enjoyed the process as much as I enjoyed writing.

Thirty, fourty of fifty shots later, you get… THE ONE!

To me, photography was always about creating a picture that is worth a thousand words.

…Voilà!!

And there it was, the Instagram epiphany!

Instagram was to become an extension of the blog. Instead of a blog post of roughly a thousand words, how about posting a picture on Instagram worth a thousand words?

I like posting pictures with an enigmatic quality, that make you wonder what the photographer was seeing, thinking or feeling when it was snapped (or adjusted later, in the editing process). To me, that’s the goal.

At first I started with pictures from the Ottawa Tulip Festival. Those seemed to go over well.

Then I started scavenging through my computer’s hard drive for my most favourite travel pictures over the years that I think each have something unique to say, without me having to say it.

As I posted them, the number of likes went up and the number of followers slowly went up.

And Ivy the Wonder Cat got her own account in the deal too (who, incidentally, remains several followers ahead of me!)

In the end, my Instagram account is not about the followers or the likes, it’s about quality content and curating it in such a way that there is a certain flow and general consistency to it.

Now, my Instagram account allows me to be creative in a very different way than my blog does, but at the same time, seems to keep the creative juices flowing seamlessly from one discipline to the other.

Social Media has helped me feel like the artist I was always meant to be and helped me reach out to an audience that otherwise might not have been possible.

For that, I will always be so very grateful for the opportunity.

Did you enjoy this post? If you did, your likes and shares are most appreciated.
If you haven’t already, please check out the rest of my blog at andrebegin.blog. From there, you can click on the “Follow” button to receive future posts directly in your inbox.
Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André