An Amusing Look Back at My Old Instagram Posts

This week I watched a great vlog from James Nord, the founder of blogging outreach programme Fohr Card, in which he talked about whether bloggers should delete old Instagram posts.

His advice was No, you shouldn’t (in terms of it being unnecessary and, I can see, a waste of time for no actual gain). In other words, it won’t harm your brand to have not-great quality Instagram images from years ago because to be honest, who’s going to sit and scroll through several years’ worth of Instagram posts? Definitely not brands, and that’s the only reason why you may be worried about what might be seen on (or associated with) your account.

Obviously if you have posts that are either embarrassing, bad taste or politically incorrect then yes, take them down. But poorer quality than what you’re showing now… who cares?! Plus, it shows just how far you’ve come and how much your photography has improved. Leave them, I say.

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I THOUGHT I’D SHOW YOU SOME OF MY EARLY INSTAGRAM PHOTOS FOR A GIGGLE – AND TO PROVE THAT EVEN SOMEONE WITH A PHOTOGRAPHY DEGREE HAD A PRETTY POOR FEED IN THE EARLY DAYS.

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So in the spirit of sharing something every Friday for the #SaturdayShareLinkUp, I thought I’d scroll right back and show you some of my early Instagram photos for a giggle – and to prove that even someone with a photography degree had a pretty poor feed in the early days.

It was the days of heavy and unnatural filters, dark, saturated images, and borders… Remember all the borders? And fake sparkles and bokeh?!

This retrospective proves just how not-very-slick my Instagram account was in those days (a total mess, in fact), here are a few “then and nows” for your amusement… enjoy!

Looking back at 2013 (on the left) and comparing to this year (on the right) the difference couldn’t be more obvious. Back then I was using heavy filters, high saturation, fake bokeh and a decorative border… but then, weren’t we all? The recent barefaced image for a Nivea campaign has natural light and no retouching except for a small increase in brightness and contrast – that’s it.

Wow – what a mess of a picture! Again, super grainy (I’m so glad I stopped using my phone’s crappy camera), a thick border and high saturation, not to mention the messy room from my office days. Compare it to a shot from this summer which is light, bright and clean.

On the left: How to lose the subject of a picture (earrings) in an image… There’s everything but the kitchen sink in there. Border, bokeh, colour cast, filter, patterned background. On the right: Throw an accessory onto a pristine hotel bed in a room with great wallpaper – job done. The hat is still the star of the show (though that wallpaper is pretty amazing, there’s no denying that)!

Finally – what’s probably the craziest, most mind-bending selfie ever. WHAT is going on on the left?! Not only have I made my face yellow like a Simpson, but it’s high contrast and saturated beyond belief – then there’s the zoom effect around the edges. Thankfully now (right) I know to keep. It. Simple…!

Above: too many here to comment on – I’ll let you peruse them in your own time and gasp at the lack of consistency and the general mess. I obviously wasn’t thinking about my feed as a whole in those days – it was a case of anything goes.

But I’m glad I haven’t deleted any of them – it was fun to go back right to the beginning and have a look at how different it all was back then… Makes you more proud of what you produce now 🙂

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TEMPTED TO DELETE OLD INSTAGRAM POSTS? TELL ME IN THE COMMENTS OR TWEET ME @NOTLAMB!

So all that’s left to say is – I’ve shared my thoughts/stories/tuppence-worth this week, now it’s time to share yours… LET’S GET THIS [LINK UP] PARTY STARTED!

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