Saturday, December 29, 2012

INSIVITY (INSane INSpiration & creatIVITY)

I had pulled back a lot from social media aspect of my photography. The early days of groups on flickr and photo communities where great place to see the work of others and get inspired and they where dominated by SHARING, ideas, photographic themes and challenges. However the rise of Twitter (twitpics etc), Facebook Google+ and Instagram turned the on-line photostreams into a LOOK AT ME self indulgence between CELBRITY LOOK A LIKE (ok a lot of them may have been the celebrities without airbrushing) and COPYCAT images (not to mention those cat pictures). Creativity and originality were flooded away and on any given day most photos just looked the same. Not only did I stop commenting and contributing I stopped looking.

Now I do know that all the extra camera power in smart phones, cool apps and all those places to post should give the creative types more to work with and I really expected to see them flourish, not get overwhelmed. The rouble is finding them. In Misho Baranovic’s instagram workshop, he suggested changing those you follow, just one of two at a time, and look at those they follow till and fllows those with things you like, and so on as was a better strategy than just consuming what is served up. So I started my journey on flickr and google+ just choose one new follower/circle each week. In that period +colby brown one of the godfather of android/photography on google+ started the android photography community which immediately grabbed traction with those doing good work.  There are other communites on google+ and flickr is looking a little less tired.  So where to from now. insivit is hopefully a place that will attract and promote the creative, all artist do need inspiration without the copycat stampedes. It does include obvious sponsorship and special offers tailored around the work on display, but to me that is the right way to fund projects like this. To celebrate their opening, and get you to subscribe to their newsletter or promote them on social media they are giving away the nifty new wacom interactive pen displays.(I could  not see any small print that says open to US citizens only)

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