I love how when I see a Kevin Twomey image on Instagram, I never know it is his. That is because he isn’t taking photographs of the things he does in his studio. Instead he is photographing exactly the opposite. And, being that he is a still life photographer, his world has opened up!
Enjoy a recent blog post he wrote confessing his latest obsession.
“If you have not yet succumbed to the crack-like lure of instagram, all I can say is, don’t start.
It began simply enough, with me capturing stills on my iPad. The iPad, as it turns out, is but a gateway drug: as a professional photographer, the limitations of its vastly inferior camera soon had me hijacking my wife’s iPhone to capture interesting images during our weekend hikes. First, it was with her permission, but after I vomitously filled up her phone with my addiction, she cut me off.
I wandered the streets, desperate to fill that 16Gb void in my soul, and soon found a smartphone dealer who would sell me an iPhone. As a still-life photographer, I had been so used to the 4×5, taking my time, carefully crafting my shots, that using something a fraction of its size and weight was absolutely liberating! I spent more and more hours under the influence of its euphoric filters, convinced that the next hit would yield that elusive high of PhotoShopped wonder. I found acceptance in the Instagram community.
Instagram takes care of me. It provides me with apps to nurture my creativity (first one is always free). It feeds my desire to observe and my obsessive need to shoot. After all, they are parented by Facebook, known for respecting -many- of the privacy filters they offer. Except on January 17th. Need I say more?
I can stop any time, though. I can control it. I’m not like those obsessive users driven to enter competitions, instacanvas and type-those-endless-keywords-on-a-scren-so-tiny-you-might-suck-it-up- your-nostrils-if-you-look-too-close.
It is just that it is my civic duty to mentor the social media generation, to impart professional wisdom gleaned from years of practice.
Or so I tell myself, as i watch my images flash by on my niece’s iPhone, shared and re-shared in a blindingly-fast display of teenage thumbwork.”
To view more of my instagram images please go to : kevintwomey.com/instagram
I totally feel this way, too, and am having the exact same experience! I love how instagram helps me to keep my eye open all the time no matter what I’m doing and allows me to show a different side of myself.
Thanks so much for reading the post and taking the time to reply. I am sure you and Kevin are not alone!