Over the last few months, I’ve been spending more time on Instagram than Facebook, which used to be the main social media platform that I hung out on.
My initial curiosity to understand what made some people so popular on this photo/video-sharing media unleashed an insatiable hunger to uncover stories from around the world. From those of ordinary people and communities in war-torn societies to culinary rituals and the impact of urbanisation on different corners of the world – there’s so much to be discovered.
I’ve often read that while Instagram has a huge character limit (2,200 versus 140 on Twitter), it is primarily a visual-led social media channel and succinct captions are preferred. I beg to differ.
Some people prefer to scan through their Instagram feed. I prefer to take my time to absorb the stories behind the frozen moments, the essays that give context to the images and the thoughtful recollections.
One of the reasons why I’ve not been active on my blog in the last months is because of Instagram. On average, I post about once every two or three days and I spend around 20 minutes to compose a photo caption. It’s harder to write something short and succinct than something long and rambling!
Am I overthinking things and giving excessive attention to social media? Perhaps. But if I were to publish anything, I either do it well and up to my standards or I don’t do it at all. And the way I want to do this is to share the hidden stories behind my photos.
With this, I leave you with some of my Instagram stories and I hope you’d enjoy them! Let me know what you think of them 🙂
Angelina Hue 
These are great and I really enjoy those narratives too, makes it less superficial as it sometimes can be!
Will find you there, greetings, Ron.
Thank you Ron and am happy that you enjoyed the narratives!
Very interesting !
Merci Guillaume!
Love the pictures and the stories about. Thanks.
robert
Ciao Robert, am pleased that you enjoyed them!
There are some beautiful photos here, Angelina! (I particularly liked the boxer with the boxes, and the textures of that tall block of flats). I’m not that much into Instagram, or Twitter, so chances are that, unless you’d posted them here, I’d have missed them… So please keep on posting on your WordPress blog, please!
Fabrizio
Ditto, but you certainly have a way with a photo as with words.
Thank you Alipal! 🙂
Hello Fabrizio, thank you and am happy that you enjoyed these pictures too. I hope to resume more regular posting on WordPress plus reading other people’s blogs (including yours)!
I’ve missed you here, Angelina. But thank you for opening my eyes to the possibilities of Instagram, a platform I’d dismissed as being too superficial. (Not that I consider myself deep, mind you. But I do value the written word as much as photography.) Beyond your compelling post, though, CONGRATULATIONS on this gorgeous set of images! You have a marvelous eye, and a wonderful sense for interesting compositions and beautiful light. Nicely done!
Hello Heather, it’s been a while indeed! Like you, I value the written word and photography equally. Sometimes a great image does not really need any accompanying text but I think the words always help to at least provide the context for the viewers to better understand what they’re looking at. Thank you and am happy you enjoyed the pictures!
I guess I go through phases with Instagram – sometimes I read all of the essays (and all of the hashtags!) and sometimes I figure the photo is enough words. But either way, I prefer Insta to Facebook (it feels too much like advertising!). Also, incredible photos! I love the composition and the contrast and… yes, beautiful 🙂