Last Updated on August 25, 2023
I think I need to start off here with yes, these are just awful photos, but bear with me here. It gets much prettier to look at =)
Instagram has been on my mind as of late. I joined WAAAAAY back in March 2011 and had a shtick. If you scroll all the way to the bottom of my feed, you can see it for yourself. Quiet embarrassing. My first comment is usually really obscure, and because my account was private and I only had like 12 followers it was really just something for myself. So what on earth was I commenting about? Well, I constantly have my headphones streaming music into my ears. It was the title of the song I was listening to. I told you it was weird and obscure. I was also BIG into filters. Filters that kinda make me cringe these days.
The comment here was “Excuses” a song by The Morning Benders
The comment here was “A-Punk” a song by Vampire Weekend
I can’t believe I’m revisiting these shots and sharing them with you! Man oh, man! I took them with the original 1st generation iPhone that had such a scratched-up camera lens. And then to add that scratchy texture on top of it and darken it, AND I added those awful frames. What on earth was I thinking? I soon got sick of the whole song title idea, so I changed it up. Besides my 12 followers slash friends were like WTH Kyla??? Since it was a private account, I just posted pictures of my everyday life, and it stayed this way for a really long time. I only used IG once in a blue moon.
At the beginning of 2013, I started to be a bit more creative with Instagram. I started following real Instagrammers and was more inspired by what I was seeing. Oh, and of course, more pictures of my feet were added. Because that’s what Instagram was for, duh! It was summertime and I was out and about in the city and wanted to show my friends what I was up to. Still had my account set to private, but just exploring Instagram a bit more. People like @bonnietsang @maxwanger @leahminium @bythebrush @johncoyne @mrpaddingtonbear were killing it! What they were doing with an iPhone blew my mind. I started to post more.
And then I started House Of Hipsters, and an obvious change took place here. This was the beginning of truly stylized shots. A lot of the photos were content shots for the blog (back when it was originally entitled “Design and Artsy Shit”, but I quickly changed it as to not offend half of my audience with swearing right from the get-go). I still kept my account private, and I never started a House Of Hipsters account which I still regret not doing. It’s very confusing to say, “Oh ya, my account is @kylad.” People cock their heads, raise an eyebrow and say huh? At this stage in the game, I just kinda see it as Lauren Hutton’s large gap in her front teeth. It’s my thing, not going to change it. In fact, I’m just going to refer to it as the Lauren Hutton Affair from now on.
I started to take photos, but they were different. I’ve read many articles arguing that Instagram is ruining photography. That anyone with an iPhone thinks they are a photographer. And that might be true. But I’m so thankful for IG. It pushed me to explore my creativity. How I saw the world and to look at the details. Socially show people the world in my eyes without feeling insecure or self-conscious about it.
My Facebook friends were quite supportive of the change, and then Laura discovered my Instagram feed and encouraged me to open my account to the public. She found my dormant blog URL and urged me to continue writing. I owe this girl greatly. House of Hipsters would still be sitting idle if it wasn’t for her. I was frustrated that only 5 people visited a week and 3 of the visits were from me.
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve really tried to up my game, and I think it shows? At least I hope it shows. Again, I have Laura to thank for this. (Her feed is gorgeous in case you haven’t seen it, go check her out.) We’ve talked a lot about Instagram Challenges and adding hashtags to widen my audience. Literally, just the last couple of weeks I’ve participated in these challenges, and I can’t get enough of them. They are so much fun! They make me think. They push me. I recently was featured on @littlegreenshed for #natureinthehome with this shot of my new brass planter and vase from Schoolhouse Electric. I did a little happy dance in my car at the train station that morning.
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