Kyotographer’s Instagram Project

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I have been shying away from using Instagram for a few years. This has not been a popular stance since social media blew up worldwide, with Instagram leading at a rate surpassing a billion active users per month in June 2018.

There have been two major concerns keeping me from using the platform:

A lack of purpose.
The lack of purpose was combined with the unwillingness to engage just for the sake of being part of the network. The thought of wasting time with frivolous posts did not help either.
Photography license and copyright.
As a photographer, licensing and the use of copyright is a major problem with social media. It used to be Google Image with users stealing photographs and using them without properly crediting the artist. With cryptic and changing user agreements, big social networking sites do this with a different angle and on a massive scale.

After an initial failed attempt to post themed photos, I reassessed my process with Instagram’s original purpose in mind: spontaneous images, straight out of an iPhone.

The November edition of Kyoto Visitor’s Guide gave me the needed spark to start this new direction. Starting with less than 50 posts, let’s see where this journey will take me.

I started carrying our greeting cards in my bag. Whenever I see an interesting scene, I place a card, envelope, or calendar and take a square iPhone picture.

The calendar being roughly four times bigger than a postcard, framing and positioning is quite different. The following picture was in between a group setting up their Taiko drums.

The next photo earned a funny comment on Facebook: “Buddha is everywhere”.

Our calendar has a satin surface and finding an angle during the light-up at Kitanotenman-gu was challenging.

Also at Kitanotenman-gu, seasonal ceremonies allow for rare shots.

A Kyotographer embossed envelope in front of a traditional rain cover made out of bamboo to protect house fronts.

The same bamboo-made protection from a different angle.

The back side of our greeting cards. Taking interesting photos of the back side turned out to be much more intricate than expected.

I hope you enjoyed this short read. It was fun to write and I am looking forward to expanding this project in the future. Follow us on Instagram, we would love to see you there!

Please share this post via email or social media with the buttons below. — Thanks from Kaori and Moritz

A bonus story for making it this far 🙂 It is one of the hashtag inspired stories I include in the posts.

My hashtag-inspired story 🙂 Hey, I’m Moritz, photographer in #japan and founder of #kyotographer. #ilovekyoto a lot, with its innumerable temples and shrines. My #kyotolove is reflected by #candid #streetphotography with my #leica M or other #kyotophoto with my SL. This #instagood page features #shotoniphone #creative #arts #instaphoto of our #greedingcards, #postcard sets, and #calendar. These #ig_kyoto #instaphoto are taken #instadaily in #kyoto. Our #luxury products are a perfect #souvenir and make excellent #giftideas. We also produce ultra #limitededition and #limitededitionprints. Head over to www.kyotographer.com for the full Kyotographer experience.

#京都が好き　ですのでたまに　#そうだ京都行こう　と思います。#京都さんぽ　では最高の写真が撮れますね！#日本　に、　#京都　があってほんまよかったわ❣️Let’s #instajapan!