Back in 2019, my friend tried to do a challenge of posting something creative a week on Instagram for one year. My friend gave up after two weeks. Inspired by his failure, I decided to take on the challenge in 2021. There was anxiousness at a few points during the year when I thought I couldn’t make enough content for the whole year. All those worried thoughts were for nothing, as I reached the end of the challenge with flying colors. Here are my key takeaway lessons.
One second to grab your audiences attention
You have a very tiny window to grab someone’s attention. Every user is scrolling quickly on the home feed or having a brief glance at your profile. If your photo hasn’t already made a connection with the audience within one second, then you have lost them.
I learnt the best kind of photo that works well on Instagram has a good combination of composition and colours. Remember, your photograph is competing with millions of other photographs vying for the attention of thousands of users.
A great photo should not just grab the user’s attention, but also invite them to study the photo even more to see more details and absorb the story. The difference between a great photo and a snapshot is highlighted by this lesson.
There’s always at least one person you won’t connect with
All artists, no matter what form of art they practice in, will always want their work to be liked by as much people as possible. However it is inevitable that you will put out a clunker that doesn’t connect with audiences every now and again. It’s something all artists have to face at one point during their career.
I find there’s more to learn when you post a photo that doesn’t resonate with audiences. It forces me to think what were some of the negatives about the photograph and how we can improve it next time. The photo is the benchmark of how much better we need to be next time.
Always remember, producing clunkers will help you become a better photographer. So do not be afraid that a photograph you post will not be liked by anyone, post it. Facing the court of public opinion is part of the journey to being a better photographer.
This photograph of my nephew trying to ride a broom like a wizard only got like 15 likes. In hindsight, I think some of the reasons the photo didn’t connect included
- My nephew being overshadowed by the trees around him and is quite distracting
- The angle of the shot is just a snapshot and provides no uniqueness to it
- The lighting is quite bland and could use more warmth to it
Having this photo fail to resonate with audiences helped me understand what works and what doesn’t work in a photograph. Learning these lessons the hard way helps me develop my intuition in crafting and composing a photo that will resonate with users.
Impress Yourself First Before You Impress Others
We don’t get to have a lot of things to care about in life, so if you don’t care about a photograph you are posting on IG, then why should any one else. I always try to remember that people like your photographs because each photograph you post represents who you are as a person. Each photograph should be authentically you.
After you have completed the challenge, your IG wall will be your portfolio that you will be proud of. When someone is deciding to follow you or not, they are judging not based on one single photograph but ALL of your photos as a collection. So make sure you’re proud of each photograph, because your photographs represent who you are.
Discover your visual style
If you are just starting your photography journey and you are thinking that you don’t have any style, then I will guarantee that you will develop your style when you post a photograph on Instagram weekly for one year.
Personally, having a deadline helped mold my visual style. The repetitive nature of posting weekly will have a psychological effect in that you don’t want to be repeating the same thing every week. You will try and experiment with different items because posting a sunset photograph every week will get boring for yourself and your audience as well.
To get better at anything, you need to get the public perception of your work. Even if you don’t think you have anything worthy to post, post any photograph up. Whether you get lots of likes and comments, or you don’t get many likes, the feeling you get from either scenario will help you grow as a photographer.
After doing the challenge, I have worked out the style I like to take photos.
Here you can see on the left-hand side how I used to take photographs and you can see they are OK but could use some work. Compared to my current output and you can see there’s a huge increase in quality and storytelling. That is what one year of doing this challenge will do to your photography skills.
Will help you be more creative
When you have a quota to post photographs to post every week, you need to start getting your notepad out and start ideating some ideas of what photographs you can take.
Unless you’re happy to just post whatever snapshot you took the other day on to Instagram, all great photographs need to have some thought put into it.
I’ve realised pretty quickly on, the chances of you just randomly walking and finding a great shot to take is incredibly low. So I would start making a list of ideas for photographs, inspired by other creative arts. Any time I had a thought for a photograph, it would go on the list.
It may be hard to come up with ideas at the beginning, but once you get started, you have to trust me that you will generate so many ideas on your list you will have more than fifty two ideas for photos you want to take, so just pick the best ideas and start taking photographs.
Final Thoughts
I always believe that whatever career path you are in, having a strong creative side will give you the edge. It helps you think different, think outside the box and see things in ways you didn’t in your life. More opportunities will come your way, and your work will get stronger.
Fifty two weeks sounds like a long time to do a challenge, but trust me when I say the weeks will fly by. You’ll have fun doing this, and you will grow exponentially as a photographer and a creative person in general.
You can follow me on Instagram at @ash_skywalker10