Instagram is a killer app for me, I wish I had started using it sooner and this is why:  

I have been a life-long photographer, starting using my father’s camera before I got my own.  I shot film for years but embraced and love digital and all of it’s flexibility.  In my film photography I was very focused on every shot,  not having any money taught me the craft in that way.

Then came digital with it’s point and spray approach to photography, Photoshop fixes everything became the norm and electrons are free until you have to store them permanently (and even then it’s super cheap).  

And then came Instagram and all of a sudden for some inexplicable reason I’m shooting like it’s film again.  Like every frame is an independent thought that needs to be captured perfectly.  The filters are there for sure, but they are window dressing after the fact.  I never consider that when I’m framing each shot.  My camera is always with me and always ready.  And in looking at the history of my posts, I see the history of images I wanted to remember displayed chronologically…  

Instagram has woken up the photographer in me and I’m using it like I did when I was a child, to capture and share images that appeal to me as I experience them.