2013 as the Instayear: A look back on my year on Instagram

One thing I try to avoid is taking "selfies",
though when I do I try to have fun with it.

This is the year of Instagram! In September this humble social media platform passed Twitter (the previous social media phenom) for having more daily active users on mobiles. “Selfie” —“a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website”— was dubbed the Oxford Dictionaries’ 2013 Word of the Year. And Instagram has given birth to, or at least accelerated all kinds of bizarre social behaviors, such as “Simon Says” styled self-photographing: #fromwhereIstand, #lookup, #followmeto… I can feel my attention-span getting shorter... Everyone is doing it, even President Obama!

What can I say? In this respect I’m no different from anyone else. Looking back, 2013 was the year I got hooked on Instagram, too. (Go ahead! Check out my account.) So I thought I would do a wrap-up blog entry about it, recapping the year as seen through my Instagram posts. Below I share some visuals on recurrent themes of my posts, feature some posts from each month throughout the year, and, finally, end with the Top Ten Posts of 2013. Along the way I'll share a few tips of what I think helped improve my photos, though I'm n expert and welcome your thoughts and experiences in comments below. (Certainly, a glance at this page's list of top filters, tags, and Instagramers will depress help you.)

This video, which parodies Instagrammers, had me nailed. 

It's worth a look, especially if you're hooked on Instagram.

Some significant technical clarifications: I got a new cell phone in August, greatly improving the quality of pics I take with it on-the-go. And many of the pictures I take with my Nikon J1 fancy-cam, and then transfer to the mobile for uploading.

Digression: It’s funny how everyone has their own ad-hoc rules and opinions about what’s “natural” for posting on Instagram… pictures taken _only_ with the mobile, or _only_ _in the moment_… or, more polemical, pictures that are _only mine_. Since I don’t want to waste money on data plans, I usually try to aim to post pictures the same day, upon getting wifi access. Or, if posted later, I aim to make them relevant to the moment when I am posting. Otherwise I put the #latergram tag on them.

Valenciagram's photo of the Instawalkers
in front of the North Station on Nov. 11th

As with all of these social media experiments, part of the interest in it for me has been discovering new communities and new modes of social interaction. On April 6th, and then again on November 11th, I joined the Valencia Instawalks organized by Valenciagram. (There's another Instameet this Saturday January 4th in Benimaclet, this time organized by Igersvalencia.) The people I met were great, and have been wonderful, active followers on Instagram (and also useful guides for me in finding photographic inspirations). If I had any complaints, it’s that many of them don’t see past my photos. That is, I continue to be amazed with how rare it is for them to actually go from my Instagram account to my blog… many didn’t even know I had a blog! (So Instagram has limited value if your goal is to get people to visit your blog, since there is no easy linkback feature on captions and comments.)

April 6th Instawalk, a view of the participants taken from the Torres de Serranos

The Mercado de Colón, one of many stops on the November 9th Instawalk

I’ve gone through my pictures to see what were the most popular, and what themes the most common. I had to adjust for one major shift on my account: my year on Instagram was marked by a dramatic growth in followers, from less than 100 followers at the start of the year to over 550 by the end. Needless to say, this skewed the popularity of new posts over old ones. For that reason I thought I would first share with you a portfolio of my instapics before delivering the most popular ten...

RECURRENT THEMES IN MY 2013 PHOTOGRAPHY

It would be no surprise that Valencia features prominently in my Instagram pictures. It's where I live, it's a beautiful city, and, aw heck, I'm totally smitten. Blogging about it already incentivized going out and seeing the city, but Instagram has added a visual element to that obsession motivation. Perhaps the coolest thing about posting daily pictures of what I'm about in the city is how it creates a visual documentation over time, changes in seasons, weather, and so forth.

One of the more interesting Instagram experiments I did was to photograph Valencia's
Viveros park rose garden from the same angle at one month intervals.
The results was you could see the advance of the seasons, up to the blossom in May

It is fun to see the marking of seasonal changes as you look back over your year of photos.
Valencia in the rain, roses blooming, fall colors, oranges on the trees...

But in addition to the hometown, there are some other themes that pop up repeatedly throughout the year, and are worth a bit of explanation...

• Running

Aside from Instagramming, 2013 for me will be the year of running. One of my personal motivation techniques for running was to post a picture after each run, which is why the Rio Turia and Viviros parks feature so prominently on my feed. Social media is all about naval-gazing sharing your lifestyle with others, right?

My main running accomplishments in 2013 were: 1) running the full 16KM loop of the
Rio Turia park in May, 2) running a half-marathon in October, and... well, running more times
in a year than I've ever run before. Thus, the pics of all the running bling.

• Travel

Instagram of Plaza Mayor in Salamanca.

My other big lifestyle tendency is to travel, which also dominates my Instagram feed from time to time. There were short trips to Sevilla, Istanbul, Sierra de Francia, and the Spanish Pyrenees, and two month-long trips: Vienna (and Salzburg) in June and the #USARoadTrip2013 driving down the west coast in early Fall. No real surprise that iconic landmarks get lots of likes. (People don’t get tired of seeing the Golden Gate Bridge or Eiffel Tower… as if liking it is a way to say, “I’ve been there!”) Some my most popular Valencia pics are of that most iconic of Valencia sights, the City of Arts and Sciences. Still, it is nice to know that a breathtaking view can also win you Likes (for example, hikes in the Redwood Forests), since I’m a nature lover. As a personal rule, I always try to take pictures of the less obvious charms of a place, or its quirky attractions. But it’s a poor rule for getting votes.

Some of the most popular pics from my June in Vienna: the steps of the Albertina,
puddle reflection of the Riesenrad, and the facade of one of Otto Wagner's buildings.

The most popular pictures from the West Coast road trip I did in September and October:
Crater Lake, the Chandelier Drive-Thru tree, and sunset on Pfeiffer Beach.

• Street art

In the beginning, Valencia street art was the subject for which I garnered the most likes on Instagram, and also the most valuable responses… other street art enthusiasts would comment to identify who were the artists I posted, and where else I could find their works. Instagram is a boon to street art enthusiasm. The “Insta” in Instagram celebrates the ephemeral, and street art is the height of ephemeral art. (One personal tip: in my opinion the “Lo-Fi” filter is best for street art and any other cartoon-like images. It helps bring out the contrast in lines and colors.)

A composite of a small number of the many, many Instagrams I took this year.

• "Cloudporn"

Talking about ephemeral, there are also all those cloud posts. The hashtag, #Cloudporn, for purdy cloud pictures, can turn you into a bit of an idiot… staring up at the sky snapping photos as you're rushing from one place to another. But it has the merit of being one of the most egalitarian subjects. Anyone can find a pretty cloud to photograph. Some tricks I’ve picked up while taking cloudporn pics: 1) backlit clouds make for very resplendent images, 2) everyone loves a good, fortiutous contrail shot (the cloud stream left by a plane), and 3) people are suckers for palm trees outlining your shot (nothing says paradise quite like a palm tree).

Me with my head in the clouds.

• Cats

I’m not as crazy a cat picture poster as some people, but I do love cats. I have a cat, I foster kittens (PEOPLE, PLEASE ADOPT!), and I see cats all the time in the Rio Turia and Vivero parks. If I see a good cat picture, I’m gonna take it, and some of those pictures show up on my Instagram account. They’re sure to get a fair number of Likes, though very few of them ever get a huge number. The exception was this picture, taken in the Rio Turia Riverbed park around sunset. I think the yellow hue (not a filter!) and the serene look of the cat, instantly won people over.

• Food & Coffee

And then there were all those Sunday paella posts. You guys never got tired of those. (Neither did I!) Yep, I'm guilty of posting pictures of my food. I had a friend who didn't know about this blog, who was making fun of people who take pictures of their food to share on social media. I didn't have the courage to fess up to it. The shame! But I make no apologies. It all tasted better than it looked. (Food photo tip: make sure to photograph food where the main light is to the side of the food, to cast a shadow that is appetizing; and if the light is too low to get the food in focus, you should probably just not post that pic, no matter how good the food tasted.)

I try to justify my food picture posting in the name of sharing culture...
but who am I kidding? It all just looks so delicious!!!

And COFFEE would probably come in a close third for central themes of 2013. Turkish coffee, Viennese coffee, third-wave Portland coffee. This blog post was powered by coffee!

For some reason, people who can give you a lot of flack about posting food pictures
are perfectly happy with you posting coffee pictures. Huh, funny that.

THE INSTAYEAR ACCORDING TO CALENDAR MONTHS

Here are the pictures with the highest number of likes for each month, minus those selected for the top ten list (see below). I’m doing this because I noticed that there was a major shift in my quantity of Likes for photos from June onwards due to the higher number of followers I had. Before July, getting anything over 30 Likes was a miracle. By this fall it was common for many of my posts to get that, and the better photos to get twice that.

So this gives you a sample of the kinds of photos people have liked throughout the year…

- - - January - - -

L'Albufera on January 27th

- - - February - - -

Raised passageway behind Valencia's Cathedral, on February 10th

Honorable mention:

This cute ninot fallera was a close second

- - - March - - -

The Maiden's Tower, Istanbul on a foggy March 29th

Honorable mention:

The March 7th Mascletà on Valencia's Plaza de Ayuntamiento

- - - April - - -

The Palau de les Arts seen from the Rio Turia rose garden on April 30th

- - - May - - -

The Ágora on May 5th, seen on a 8km loop run

- - - June - - -

The Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna on June 9th

- - - July - - -

Palau de les Arts on a 4th of July Picnic

- - - August - - -

Beach umbrella, protection from the sun at Cala Granadella on August 5th

- - - September - - -

Pont del Mar, seen on a run on September 1st

- - - October - - -

Jamón and cheese dinner with wine, on October 16th

- - - November - - -

L'Hemisféric on November 15th (posted November 22nd)

- - - December - - -

"December" by Escif, posted December 1st

THE 2013 TOP TEN INSTAGRAMS

These are the top ten pictures on my Instagram account for 2013, in reverse order. As you can see, half of them were taken almost within a week of each other in mid November, which either means that month I was an amazing photographer or, more likely, that there are some trends or outside factors that determine a photo’s popularity… a mystery to be solved in 2014…

(10) 73 likes… Cat in El Carmen on September 18th (10)

(9) 73 likes… Sunset over Viveros walking to work on November 11th (9)

(8) 74 likes… Cala Granadella (Denia) on August 5th (8)

(7) 74 likes… San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge on October 4th (7)

(6) 75 likes… Palau de les Arts with wild clouds on November 14th (6)

(5) 75 likes… La Peineta bridge on November 19th (5)

(4) 77 likes… Rio Turia, Poseidon and Palau de les Arts on August 21st (4)

(3) 78 likes… Plaza de la Reina as the sun sets on November 23rd (3)

(2) 80 likes… Honey Street Art on December 27th (2)

... and the winner is... 

(1) 81 likes… Escif - Futuro mural on November 14th (1)

A nice way to end the year, no? I imagine that in twenty years some street artist will be painting a mural using Instagram as an emblem of the past, a retro platform, an old acquaintance long forgot. What have I learned from all this? Mostly it has just been very entertaining, though it has expanded my virtual social network some. Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of it, in a less superficial dimension, is that it has increased my interest in photography. After posting around a 1000 photos to Instagram this year, Santa Claus very wisely thought to bring me gifts relating to photography (a new lens!) and books to help me in my quest to discover new photographic subjects relating to my expat immigrant fascination with discovering Spain.

Still, one can get a little carried away with it. Likely New Year’s Resolution for 2014: aim to improve quality over quantity of Instagram posts!

Got these gifts for Christmas and what did I do, Instagrammed it!