Instagram

Before we start to talk about Instagram and how it all started, who started it, how it became popular, why is it still popular, who are the creative people who is using Instagram, let us go back in time to 1826, where is all begin.

History of Photography
November 16, 2012 - 6:40 pm (Piers Dillon Scott, CO-editor on The Sociable)
Piers Dillon Scott, CO-editor of The Sociable, share the history of photography using an info-graphic to present how photography came about and that what is has become over the years. Title of the article is
"The history of photography from the Daguerreotype to Instagram", 

What is Daguerreotype? 

Dictionary.com, define it as 

1.An obsolete photographic process, invented in 1839, in which a picture made on a silver 

surfacesensitized with iodine was developed by exposure to mercury vapor.

2. a picture made by this process.

3. to photograph by this process.

Basically what i means is that in the 1839, photograph which now we can snap and share instantly, was done in a way that involves complicated chemical and process to come out with a photograph a like silver surfacesensitized with iodine and then developed by exposing it to mercury vapor, then comes your photo. Everything is going to change, because now with Instagram everyone, regardless of professional or amateur, people can snap professional like photos and videos and share it to the world. More and more apps to help people become creative professionals by using these apps technology has introduced to.

Co-founder Kevin Systrom Introduces Video on Instagram—June 20th, 2013 from Instagram on Vimeo.
"One of the most amazing this about us humans is the ability to create tools to remember, and we've been doing this through out history, it started of with language, books eventually leads to photographs, to take a moment to record it forever in time, because we know life may be short or long, but we may never get that moment back", Kevin Systrom. So the to freeze time, so that people can view it later or in the future to remember that particular moment, to embrace what their going through or been through.Combining science and technology nowadays, Instagram has create something that everyone can use, to share their moments in their life's which they don't want to miss and to connect that with their own community. Instagram has also critically affect the people in the creative industry such as Singers and actors. Below are few examples of celebrities using Instagram to connect to their fans. Unlike other social network, like facebook Instagram provide people with a little more perspective to the world their living in, different people from different country coming together, connected though Instagram and sharing what's going on with their daily lifes. Instagram indeed has connected the world like no other, people now can know or see what's happening on the other side of the world, through individuals instead of media like television or radio, where media they somethings can be deceiving, but with Instagram, things are posted instantly to the web and share to the rest of the world. Not just that, Kevin Systrom also shares that, they has a number of 16 billion photo shared on Instagram, and 130 million people are using Instagram after the 2 and a half year since Instagram started, that a huge amount of number, with modern technology, with cameras integrated to smartphones and android used by modern days people, they tend to take more photos compared to the older generations. Not a Belieber but just wanna show how overwhelming the response was from Justin Bieber's fans, Justin who posted his first Instagram video got 1 million likes on Instagram. 

In the video, Kevin Systrom also introduce us to the new features of Instagram, which is Cinema, but before that they introduce us to Instagram Video, using the same features used in Instagram, now it has this new feature of recording 15 seconds of short clip which, Kevin quote" Not too short, not too long but just the right about of time for people to record a moment or in the video shows a short clip of different scenes of coffee making process to the finishing of the final choosing the Latte picture as the "Cover frame" from the recorded video frame. To give people the power to edit and to pick for themselves what they want to show to their friends about this particular video, to show the final finished produced, or the process as the "Cover frame", in a way this has enable people, normal individuals to have a taste of what is it like to shot a video, using tools like Instagram and to connect it to the world.

So what does Instagram do? 

From the book by Joseph Linaschke "Getting the Most from Instagram", we will critically analyst why and how Instagram became so popular. In the book, it mention of using the iPhone camera can bring people to have new perceptive on how they take pictures or things that is happening in their daily life's. The book also shows how people can start to take pictures like professionals by taking perspective shots instead of just shooting the object, just because we want to see the object or for the sake of shooting the object. There are 13 custom filters made for Instagram which is effects that people can apply after snapping a photo. For some people this has becomes a tool for them to journal their daily lives, and for professionals this tools has enable them to share a little bit more about themselves to the world, but still not effecting their ability to product professional works. 

Source link:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Daguerreotype?&o=100074&s=t
http://sociable.co/mobile/instagram-hits-150-million-uploads-in-less-than-one-year/
http://books.google.com.my/books?hl=en&lr=&id=zI3Km4v6kqQC&oi=fnd&pg=PT2&dq=instagram&ots=pVNgwJh-3q&sig=UqDr_ukejiEZXo6bH5WlJ4gcCf8&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=instagram&f=false
Image source:
http://sociable.co/meme/infographic-the-history-of-photography-from-the-daguerreotype-to-instagram/
http://mashable.com/2013/06/22/bieber-instagram-video/
http://www.popcrunch.com/category/selena-gomez/

Digital Camera, Now

19th March 2013, Stephen Dowling written an article on:

Radical Conran camera brings back element of surprise

Conran is a company containing experience designers creating a style of life that poeple will enjoy.

Conran's company philosophy refers that through improving the the quality of life by delivering products with good design, buildings and landscape with good function at the same time affordable to look pleasing to the eye.

Creating life that people would very much indulge in, giving them the right product and an environments that will assist them in realizing, and that is the Conran's philosophy.

With this philosophy, they have in mind they have a digital camera with a retro taste to it and the same time with the size of only a post-it-note, this definitely can be chosen as the Digital camera, Now. A compact yet design oriented camera that allows people to snap and still have that old school camera capturing image technique infused to this latest digital camera. Showing that professionals in creative industry appreciate the retro feeling and making it into the latest compact digital camera.

2013, Darren Russell, BBC News.

Media Culture: Intro to Digital Camera

My second post I'll be talking about where did Digital camera came about, so we know how hard it is to take photo and store photos all together back in those days.

(Picture below taken from http://www.camarassinfronteras.com/historia/kodak/george_eastman.jpg.)

George Eastman with a Brownie

The root of digital camera can be traced back when it was created several hundred years ago. The name Kodak was invented by George Eastman, because "K" was George's favorite letter and he wanted a name easy to pronounce for all countries, and  in year 1888 the name Kodak was born. Back then the KODAK camera was placed on the market with a slogan, "You press the button- we do the rest", hence the birth of digital camera. The idea back then was to create something compact and handy to carry, Kodak also invented the transparent film which made Thomas Edison's motion picture camera possible. A camera for the professional to capture a motion and stop motion picture, serving the purpose of being convenient to those who uses it, with an pre-installed film roll, user can create more memories on special occasions without the presents of a professional camera man to capture the picture for them, and instead doing it themselves. So I can say that before Facebook, Instagram make all this mainstream is was already there, used and created by professionals who comes from film and engineering background by people like George Eastman and Thomas Edison.

George Eastman with Thomas Edison

(Picture from http://scherle.com/2012/kodak-bankruptcy-the-end-of-a-century-of-innovation)

The Inventor of Digital camera (Video)

In this video, David Friedman interviews Steven Sasson shows his first digital camera and how it work. It is at 1975 that Steven Sasson came up with his small box size compact digital camera that can store 100 pictures inside the camera itself, in this video Steven share some insights of how the camera was made.

For this post here we can trace back the origin of digital camera how is was and in my next post I will be talking about digital camera now and its effect of professionals in the creative industry.

2013 Media Cultures

My first post :D

Okay, lets start by picking a topic.
The question that screamed at me while I was going through all the essay question was QUESTION No. 6, "Critically examine the popular usage of digital cameras, Photoshop, or Instagram, and its impact on professionals in the creative industry". 

What this question basically means is how digital cameras, Photoshop or the latest Instagram became so popular around the world, and how this have affected the professionals in the creative industry.

Why I feel the question was screaming to me was because personally I love good photographs. A good photo can tell a thousand words, and it inspires people. Thanks to photograph designers can create beautiful things inspired by those photos and good photos help designers to see the world in a more creative way.

That's all for my first post.