What intrigued me most about the tweet was the second part ”…look just the same, just as Facebook does with people’s lives.” I had been thinking much the same about Facebook. I know it isn’t completely true. It isn’t that Facebook makes everyone’s lives look identical, but the framing of it creates a kind of uniformity, a blandness. My news feed is a mix (high school friends, PBS, the Dali Lama, people I know professionally, Charlie the Bassett Hound) but each element in the feed is framed the same way.

What about the first part – that Instagram makes everyone’s memories look the same?

I question the idea that Instagram is about memories at all. But when I think about the photos I share, some might serve as replacements for memories of trivial things. Loaves of bread I have baked. Like most casual photography, it complements memory. And obviously that is the most common use for photography.

Does Instagram make images look the same?

Instagram carries a burden of clichés. The clichés are largely visual, but there are social and business factors involved as well.

Visually, there are two main components to Instagram. First, the square form factor of the image. I like it; and as a purely formal choice, it is a good one.

The second, optional component when posting a photograph in Instagram are the filters. They seem popular with other Instagram users, but I rarely use them. I probably have more interest in using the filters that change the framing of the image, or make a color photograph monochrome, but the color changes and fake film effects bore me. I am sure there are photos on Instagram that I like better because they were processed through a filter, but I KNOW I see mediocre photographs that are even more mediocre because they were filtered. These are qualities of the medium that dominate what the viewer sees, and like the way Facebook “frames” updates, it seems arbitrary. And uniform.

Beyond the formal, visual, there is an awful lot of photo sharing on Instagram that falls into the category of non-technical clichés. Partly the result of Instagram memes. Photos of the ground, with the photographer’s feet popping up from the bottom edge (#whereistand) for instance. Other clichés seem to be the result of the popularity cycles built-in to the Instagram system. There is a popular page, where photos that have been well liked are displayed, increasing their ability to be found and liked more. This seems logical. I don’t think it is good, if what you want is creative diversity, but I guess it serves another purpose.

I prefer to browse the “news” tab, looking for images that are liked by people I follow.  This is a great way to find interesting images, “curated” by people whose images were interesting to me.

Instagram is an example of a tool that excels at a narrow form of sharing. Something I have been thinking about lately, and hope to write about soon.

It was a beautiful Summer’s day at the beach in Northern California, late July.

If you are looking for a beach that isn’t quite as popular as the ones that are closer to San Francisco, travel South of Half Moon Bay a few miles – there are some small, characterful beaches that may suit your need for quiet. A nap on the sand can be perfect.

Bar sign on Mission Street, a long while ago...

Barstow train station

The train station in Barstow California is rather lonely, like most train stations in the US. It is, however, the home of the Route 66 Museum, so if you find yourself in Barstow with a little bit of time to spare, make the drive through town, over to the station, and take a look at some artifacts of the Great American Highway.

I like this because:

1. It’s a nice example of how form is emphasized when color is uniform

2. The robot has four eyes.

His photostream has more like this one.

Due to some last minute changes, we had to postpone our going-out-of-California vacation, replacing it with a stay-at-home vacation. Today was the free day (3rd Wednesday of the month) at the California Academy of Sciences, so we drove to Golden Gate Park to finally see the new building. There is a lot to like, certainly. Though it was filled to capacity, it was comfortable.

I took the photo above with my iPhone, using the Pano application for stitching together panoramic photos. I enjoy using Pano for building these quirky, bent-perspective montages. The ghosts of people add a nice touch too, I think. This links to the full size, 6929 pixels wide image.

A Saturday afternoon walk up a muddy and steep trail.

Still having fun with Pano. The perspective starts to get a bit quirky, but I like that.

Many (perhaps all, I haven’t checked) fire hydrants in Belmont have cool custom paint jobs. My neighborhood is blessed with Smokey.

Pano is an app for the iPhone; it makes it reasonably easy to shoot a sequence of photos for a panorama. The results are far from perfect, which makes using it all the more fun and charming.