Instagram, the new billion dollar sinking ship?

Much tribulation over the new set of incoming terms and conditions from photo sharing website Instagram. Many friends posting [me included] their thoughts on the fiasco... I've been thinking about it over night and this is what I've come up with - for today.

I am a strong supporter of photographers rights, that said...

First and foremost - we have to remember that Instagram is a 'billion dollar business' for someone... Someone / a group of someone's paid a cack load of cash for the photo sharing website and we've been using it for free since October 2010.

Instagram need to have a revenue stream - they need to be making 'the big buck' to get those investors back their cash... So they need a basic money making model, right? Now you could say there are three basic models they could roll with...

  1. Make us pay to download Instagram from the various app stores. Still free.
  2. Stick annoying ads in our stream - which some services like Ink361 already do (and it's fine) Still Ad Free.
  3. Turn themselves into a massive stock library with no lines drawn between images taken by a full time professional or a 7 year old kid.... Yeah, there you go.

They chose option three (you can read the entire agreement here)

You can also read Kevin's note to y'all here... It went live a little bit ago..

Option three allows them to advertise with your images - cross promote with the cash splashing Facebook big daddy momma company... AND, the bit that most of my friends are screaming blue murder about, they're going to sell your precious Instagrams to a third party... Or, that's what it sounded like, right?

OK, so even if that IS what they're going to do, they're only going to take images that you've previously not made any money from and sell them to their benefit... Whilst that's not in keeping with the Photographer's Mojo, it serves a purpose....

Let's have a quick technical look at this... [very quick!]

This image which I like to call 'Beached' is a modest 85kb... ComScore says about 7.3 Million people use Instagram, daily... Let's be conservative and say a quarter of them upload a photo... 1,825,000 people... Let's be conservative and say the images are 50kb (I'm using an iPhone 5...) that's about 90gb per day.. not a load, but it all adds up.

630gb a week or about 32 Terrabytes a year... Not a whole lot... Then you have network / load balancing / accounts etc.... Not a hell of a lot of overhead there right now... A drop in the proverbial digital ocean compared with Facebook / Flickr etc... None of that matters.

The purpose is that they wanna get paid.

And, reality is they NEED to get paid.... I want to continue sharing my images on Instagram, and those for my client. Instagram have NOT laid crazy claim to your copyright, they only want to dip their tiny little Mr. burns like claws in to your previously un-monitised photo stream and buy a few cool beverages... Great...

How many photographers do you know that are HAPPY about working for free? None... You pay for your albums, your prints, your computers, your hard drives... Why should you post your work online, advertise yourself (or in my case, myself and two clients) and not front up some cash for it??

We might not like it, but stuff costs....

I'm going to keep my Instagram account and I'll advise my clients to do the same... If I see a photo of myself on a billboard in NYC with the caption "Get mental help today" then, well, I'll reconsider...

Simon's 'stuff of the year' Christmas fiasco!

Everyone else is doing it, I thought I'd write you up a quick post, letting you know what I've used this year and what worked well...

Here's a picture of the *real santa in a mountain cave in Cuba... True story!

I will say up front that the links are AMAZON affiliate links, and i'll tell you what I do with any Amazon affiliate cash ($14 in the last six months, I thank you!) ....I buy more disk space for my steadily growing habit image library... So, if you buy something through one of my links, you're entitled to a high res digital file of any image I've taken that a. won't get me locked up or b. won't get someone else locked up OR c. won't get me slapped by a bride I've photographed (unless she's uber hot... then I might still give you the file)

Right... Stuff! This year has been filled with random "stuff" and some of it has been awesome, some of it less awesome!

1. I think my favourite camera bag of the year (I work for thinkTank, but I use their stuff as a photographer) is the Retrospective 40 - I can pop my 13" MacBook Air in and my 5DMKIII with the grip on - a couple of lenses (including a 70-200 f/2.8) and loads of other stuff.

2. The Evo 2 tripod system from 3 Legged Thing has just hit the market, even here in Aus, and is simply brilliant - I've had 3 Legged Thing gear since the very first version of 'Brian' and I have to say that this Evo 2 gear is 'the mutts'

3. I've swapped to a little MacBook Air 13" (2012 model) for a lot of my 'on the go' social media work and when I'm not wanting to be tied to my desk with this, the 'big' computer.. SSD makes everything amazing - SO fast, small, battery life like a 65 year old with a can of viagra..

I got an iPhone 5, it's boring...

4. The Sony RX100 is not only the best compact camera I've used this year, it's the best compact camera I've ever had - it is simply awesome. My favourite feature, aside from really very nice raw image output, is the little flash - you can bend it backwards and fill your subject by bouncing light, rather than killing them with a laser beam.

5. Audio this year was brought to you by the RODE Podcaster. For a USB mic that most people use for simply talking into, the RODE is sweet enough to record your favourite hits, trust me.. I tried it... I take requests!

BUT, it's not all about expensive bits of camera and non-camera tech, oh no, the second five are dedicated to things you could simply click and buy RIGHT NOW without having to speak to your 'bank manager' first....

6. Nice Industries, the same people that brought you the wildly awesome 'Aviator Travel Jib' also produced a little wonder called the "Nice Clip" and it's super awesome.... You wait until you have seven cables you want to keep handy on the edge of your desk...

7. The best $35 you'll spend, a Lexar USB 3.0 CF / SD reader has made my 'ingest' soooo much faster, but only on my Mac Air as it's the only thing I have with USB 3.0... Next Amazon purchase is a G-Tech USB 3.0 external drive.... Oh yes....

8. Another recent love is the Capture Clip System from Peak Design - I use it on almost every shoot with my ProSpeed Belt - a sweet combo - saves shoulders, mental state, cameras etc.... try it, you might just wanna kiss me for the suggestion... ewww...

9. This year we got NASTY.... Nasty Clamps have change my life.... I can pretty much attach anything to anything else anywhere. For that, Nasty Clamps, I salute you.

10. ....speaking of rugged and portable, the drive of the year award goes to the ioSafe Rugged Portable... It's rugged and portable! I have a FW800 500gb version, and it's a toss up (only based on price) between the G-Tech and ioSafe for next drive to arrive.. The ioSafe is a great drive for those of you with just ONE external backup - it has lots of 'peace of mind' attached to it. Included recovery and the ability to withstand the crushing grip of Chuck Norris....

There you have it, 10 things you could blow some cash on... These are things I've actually used and STILL use - not some list of crap purely designed to make you click so I get PAID.... [Though, enough to buy a large clock with a gold chain to hang around my neck would be good, ta]