Should I return to Instagram?

I quit Instagram a few months back but lately I’ve been itching to get back in. For a hobbyist photographer like myself Instagram is a tremendous platform indeed to a connect with and draw inspiration from other photographers in the world. I really get a kick out of seeing people take amazing pictures and I use that as motivation to get off my ass. I'd thought I could live without this mechanism when I deleted the app but withdrawal symptoms are strong.  

And admittedly the sweet dopamine hit from photos of beautiful Instagram models isn’t the worst thing in the world. 

But every time I’m inclined to reactivate the account, Instagram gives fresh new reasons to deter me. In the never-ending bid to sell more advertisements, the app recently launched IGTV, allowing users to upload long-form videos up to one hour in length. For all practical purposes it’s a Youtube-like  ecosystem within Instagram; yet another feature I couldn't care less about much like the Snapchat-copying ‘Stories’. 

Whatever happened to the simple app of yesteryear where the only thing on the feed were squared photographs with filters applied? Instagram have morphed into a photo-centric version of Facebook, replete with ads and algorithms (rest in peace, chronological feed). I guess it makes sense: the founders made it out like bandits after selling Instagram for over a billion dollars so naturally Facebook is heavily incentivized to monetize the heck out of the app to recoup the investment. 

So now we’ve even got people launching a car magazine using Instagram as the main platform. The app isn’t purely about photographs anymore, and that is very sad. The more media appendages they add the more I don’t want to go back. Complexity killed the cat. 

Google preparing their annual week-long takeover of Moscone Center. 

Photoshop layers are fascinating

Photoshop layers are powerful tools, but some of you folks need to stop going overboard with that stuff. Much like the previous fad of HDR/tone-map everything (so glad that's over), utilizing layers to heavily manipulate an image is proliferating like crazy - especially in Internet automotive photography. Those shots end up looking more like purely digital creations rather than captures off an actual camera. 

I'm not against using layers entirely; they're lovely tools, after all. I just think a photographer should use layers in the correct manner. (There was a proper method of implementing the HDR technique, too, but that was largely ignored.)

For me, photographs are best made using a camera body with a quality sensor, excellent glass in front of it, and just slight corrections in post. It's all got to look realistic. Leave the abstract colorations and fantastical representations to instagram.