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.
DOOR QUOTES // POST ONE
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Upon realising that our content was to reflect the idea of “doors,” I was inspired to not follow a certain theme or aesthetic, but be more creative with my captions. Quote accounts are one of the biggest type of accounts created on Instagram as they can inspire, motivate or simply relate to someone’s situation. There are many quotes on doors, hence, I wanted to incorporate quotes about doors. In terms of authoring this particular video, it came to me on a gloomy day. The city was grey and wet, and I believed the sliding door was perfect to feature, as I could open it with ease mid filming. I filmed the video on my iPhone 8, with the inbuilt camera function (facing away). Because video-editing app’s are quite rare to find (in regard to filtering videos), I did limited editing besides popping on the Instagram filter ‘Gingham.” I believed this filter added to the grey and sad feeling behind the video. I also chose to restrict my video to the confinements of the Instagram square, leaving the audio and also not choosing a cover. I kept the audio as one of my pet peeves on Instagram is when people mute their content. Audio can add so much to a video, even if it just muffled wind. Not choosing a cover photo was an editing mistake, however, the cover chosen on my feed is something I am not disappointed with. Quite frankly, though, I’m not pleased with this video. It appears rushed and you can see my mop in the background. However, I am not aiming to adhere to an aesthetic like many Instagram users try to do (myself included on my personal Instagram account). I instead want to create this “amateur” type look to my content. It’s not perfect; the posts won’t come together to look like a grand masterpiece. Instead, I want to examine how this amateur look is received. Are people on Instagram more excited by HD quality content? Or can a lousy video of a sliding door opening out a city view be enticing in this modern age of social media?
How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
Firstly, I published this video with the caption, ““I feel very adventurous. There are so many doors to be opened, and I’m not afraid to look behind them.” – Elizabeth Taylor.” I don’t want my quotes to match my content in any way, besides it clearly being about doors. I love the way the quotes look in my caption. I believe it entices viewers to not only view the content but read what’s below. I made the deliberate decision to put my hashtags in the comments rather than the caption, as I knew i wanted my caption to be all about the quote and not look messy. Hiding the hashtags in the comments created a cleaner look to the post. I only ended up choosing six hashtags for this post as in the moment, I couldn’t think of many. However, the video ended up generating attention regardless. I did record two versions of this video, however, the first one I was super shaky and unsteady. The second time around I paced myself so it wasn’t rushed and I could achieve a steady pan of my beautiful city view. I really like the auto-play function on Instagram as it aims at capturing users attention straight away, so I kept it on. It is important to mention that I posted this video at around 1pm. The video only received six likes, meaning this may not be a prime time to post.
How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?
I distributed my content to two social media platforms: Tumblr and Twitter. I have experience using both networks but never in regard to sharing content from Instagram. With Twitter, I made it so when I posted my video, I turned on the toggle that automatically shared my post to Twitter too. Yet with Tumblr, I was slow to setting up a new account. Thus, I used the link sharing option on Tumblr to share the already posted video. I love how on Twitter, you can see who has seen your post or interacted with it. There has been 23 impressions and 2 engagements with this tweet, which is surprising considering I didn’t put any effort into this tweet besides posting it. I decided on using these platforms and not Facebook as I knew the idea of quotes is huge on Tumblr and Twitter is an easy network to navigate and use. To further my distribution, I added a ‘geo-tag’, or ‘Location’ to the top of my post: Collingwood, Victoria, Australia. This allows my video to not only be seen through the likes of hashtags, but whenever someone searches Collingwood as a location, therefore contributing to it’s ultimate distribution. I found it funny how somehow my Auntie found my account and has since followed it (she followed before my first post). I have not linked this account to my personal one in any way (besides following it and visa versa), or used personal information like my phone number to add onto the account. Hence, she must have seen somehow that I had followed my own account and wanted to show support. Bless.
