writer, photographer, web person from Washington, DC.
In honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day, here’s an Instagram shot from an Urban Pirates cruise that I took last weekend, part of an American University alumni event. It was a cheesy good time, as you can tell from this pic of one of the “wenches” aboard the cruise.
How do you get consumers to learn about new products and build engagement with your company?
Photography.
Lured by the promise of an open bar and the chance to wander the city taking pictures, I attended the GE Lights Photo Walk. Sponsored by GE and organized by iStrategyLabs, the idea was to have a couple drinks at a downtown bar and then take photos and videos of Washington’s monuments at night. Using Instagram and the video-sharing service Viddy, participants were to tag content with the hashtag #GELights. The event was limited to 250 participants and the prizes were two trips to London and a “re-lamping” of your home.
One missed opportunity: at Penn Social there was no information on GE Lights. Handouts, swag and some actual GE Lights to look at would’ve been a good idea.
After two hours of drinking, staff from iStrategyLabs gently herded the well-lubricated techies toward the door, so that they could get pictures of the city at night.
I headed toward the Navy Memorial. I didn’t want to get the traditional night shots of Washington landmarks. Since the contest was about lights, I wanted to get pictures of bright lights, with lots of lens flare, something I knew the iPhone and Instagram were well-adapted to do. I got this:
I like the flags whipping in the breeze and the fact that it takes a moment to realize that you’re looking at the mast of a ship.
I tagged my photo in Instagram with #gelights and headed home. It was really fascinating to watch photos from DC and around the world get uploaded to Instagram with the #gelights tag.
What’s next? The photo with the most “likes” on Instagram wins a trip to London.
Would you sit through a commercial on GE Lights? Not if you could help it.
But attending an event that is fun, social and with just a slight bit of marketing is a much easier commitment to make, especially if it involves playing with our favorite gadgets. An open bar is not required.
Instagram is a powerful way to connect with consumers, because it is participatory. Rather than passively watching a commercial, consumers are actively involved in creating an experience.
While GE has been a leader in using this social photo-sharing service, it’s not the only company creating some awesome Instagram marketing.
The era of the 60 second commercial is over. The future of marketing is prizes, experiences and audience participation.
As seen on DCist. I took this iPhone pic right at sunset, when the last light of the day illuminated the Jefferson Memorial. Notice the moon on the left. The photo was processed in the Sutro filter in Instagram.
Like it? Buy it on Instacanvas!
In this iPhone photo, morning commuters ride the escalator down into the Dupont Circle Metro. I used Slow Shutter for the long exposure and then modified it in Instagram.
This photo is available as a canvas print from Instacanvas.
The storm blew up out of nowhere. One moment, the night was calm. The next, it looked like a hurricane. Waiting until lightning illuminated the scene, I took this iPhone photo out my window. After being Instagrammed, it’s got an Impressionist feel to it.
If you like this photo, buy it on Instacanvas.
Instacanvas is is a marketplace allowing users to buy and sell Instagram photos as canvas art. This Southern California company has gotten tons of press and has been featured in TechCrunch, Forbes and elsewhere.
And I’ve joined in the fun, opening up an Instacanvas gallery at http://instacanv.as/joeflood
Now you can buy my Instagram shots of city life in Washington, DC. My interests include bikes, beer and soulful black and white. I definitely have a thing for black and white iPhone shots.
Included in the gallery are photos that have appeared in the InstantDC and Fotoweek gallery shows, as well as local blogs such as DCist, We Love DC and Prince of Petworth.
Canvas prints are as inexpensive as $39.95 and shipping is free. Here are some of my favorites:
Check out my complete gallery and get some inexpensive art for your bare walls!
With a steady hand and a static subject, the iPhone isn’t bad at night shots, especially if you use the black and white filter in Instagram.
The iPhone is more than a phone and much more than just a camera. It can do things that are impossible to do on a “real” camera, like effortlessly stitch together panoramas and instantly share pictures worldwide.
These creative possibilities were explored by Jack Davis in “iPhoneography: The New Frontier of Creative Photography,” a free seminar at Photoshop World in Washington, DC. Davis is an award-winning photographer and the author of the Photoshop Wow books. In an hour-long free talk, he shared the dizzying number of iPhone apps he uses. Here are his favorites:
Snapseed – Give your photos a grunge look, put them in interesting frames and make them look like old film. The iPad version of this app is gorgeous.
ProHDR – There are enough adjustment tools in this app to produce HDR that doesn’t look totally fake.
Photo fx (Tiffen) – For $2.99 you get a lot of the tools and adjustments of the desktop Tiffen program which costs hundreds of dollars.
PhotoSync – Wirelessly transfer photos between your computer, iPhone and iPad.
Photo Sender – This app allows more flexibility in sending images from your iPhone to your computer, email and social media, including the ability to send lots of images all at once.
FastCamera – Indulge your inner sports photographer and shoot hundreds of images a minute.
360 Panorama – I remember the old days (just a couple years ago) when shooting panoramas required a DSLR, a tripod and an expert knowledge of Photoshop. Instead, let this 99-cent app do it for you!
You Gotta See This! – Cheesy, but fun, this app lets you create a collage of images, as if you scattered a stack of Polaroids on a table and took a picture. Again, another complicated Photoshop task now done with a click.
King Camera – This app bills itself as a replacement for your big camera. We’ll see.
Big Lens – Another camera replacement, this app does nice depth of field shots.
SlowShutter – I love this app and have written about it before. It’s great for photos that show movement.
Instagram – You can’t talk about iPhone photo apps without mentioning this social media app.
Olloclip 3-in-1 Lens – This is actually a piece of hardware, a little lens to get fisheye, wide angle and macro shots.
This is just a sample of what Jack Davis uses. His iPhone and iPad were crowded with dozens of more apps. All these great and easy ways to create beautiful imagery demonstrate the fun of iPhoneography.
Photos can lie. This one certainly does. While it looks like a picture of a lonely and mysterious scene, the night was anything but. I stepped away from friends for a moment to snap this iPhone pic. To the right was a packed bar blaring pop music into the night.
It’s an Instagram pic, using the Inkwell filter and the super-sexy radial focus tool. The focus is on the figure in the background and the rest is blurred out a bit, which I think adds to the mystery. The photo was also featured on DCist.
It was a beautifully mild spring morning – a perfect day to bike to work. Here a bike commuter travels south on 14th Street toward Luther Place Memorial Church.
This is an iPhone pic, modified by Instagram. It also appeared in DCist: Out and About: Weekend Picks.