DOORS QUOTES // POST TWO

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How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

I fell in love with this yellow door found in Carlton, nearby RMIT. I knew immediately that I had to include it on my page, the bright colour amidst the grey concrete and white building reminding me of finding happiness in unknown places. Thus, perfect for my page featuring uplifting quotes. I authored this photograph using my iPhone 8 rear facing camera, through the inbuilt camera application. I took roughly ten shots of this door from multiple angles but ultimately loved the way the door was framed in the chosen image. I used the well known photo editing app VSCO to edit this picture as this is the one I have had the most experience with. I enhanced the exposure, contrast, added a little saturation to make the yellow pop and cropped the image slightly. This time, unlike my video, I knew I didn’t want this image to be confined to the square Instagram shape. Hence, I made sure that when posting I clicked the icon that leaves the image in its expanded, true form. In terms of filters, I didn’t use the Instagram filter selection this time. This is because I always add the VSCO filter C1 to my photographs, including this one. I made sure I didn’t use the filter at it’s 100% capacity as sometimes it can appear to saturated and contrasty. There was no need for any flash as it was daytime and sunny outside. Again, this post is not intended to fit in with my previous post in order to create an aesthetic. In fact, the two posts together don’t work at all. But that is the beauty of Instagram; the freedom to create content that may not look great as a collective, but individually stand out.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

I published this image with the caption as following: ““We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” – Walt Disney.” I had a feeling this post was going to be received well as Walt Disney is a famous man to quote, hence, putting him in the tags and in the caption was obviously going to generate a little attention. Like my video post, I chose to place my hashtags in the comments section, allowing for a neat and tidy format. I chose more hashtags for this photo also, including ones such as #disney and #yellow which I knew would spark more interest. I forgot how powerful hashtags can truely be on Instagram. I remember using them when I was younger and loving how much attention they brought, but I no longer use them for my personal content. I actually didn’t think they worked as well as they used to in the past. However, this image ended up gaining some likes and and my profile a few followers! I published this image around 2pm. Considering the photo did better than my video, I am surprised how the timing didn’t doom my post to not do so well as it did with my previous post. However, this could be due to video’s not ever doing as well as images on this social network.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?

I, like with my video, distributed this image on Twitter and Tumblr. With the toggle options easily accessible before posting, this allowed for quick distributing. Although no engagements this time, the tweet did receive 18 impressions. This meant that no one would have clicked the link. On Tumblr, creating a link to an Instagram post means that clicking the image on the screen leads you straight to my Instagram page. I love this affordance as it can almost trick users to accessing your page when they may have just wanted a closer look. I also furthered the distribution once again by adding the location ‘geo-tag.’ This time the photo was taken in Carlton, hence leading to the photo tagged in the same place. It’s crazy how although I uploaded this photograph away from Carlton, Instagram still knew where I originally authored it. Carlton is a busy and popular suburb in the city, meaning this tag would have helped lead to traffic being conducted on my page.