The Instagram Era

Well here it is! My Instagram virginity has been broken and this is the result. Now on the face of it, it is just a snap shot taken of a figurine sat in my window, however is this the beginning of something big, or am I adding to not only my own downfall, but the downfall of all professional photographers?
A few weeks ago I was disheartened when reading an article about the New York Times putting Instagram images on its front pages. I have been on a personal campaign for a while now stating that things like this could be the end of photography as we know it, as it opens the doors for anybody to be able to do it and lowers the earning power that professional photographers actually have. It's a tough enough business without things like this.
Recently however, my opinion has turned slightly. I decided to read a little more into this shoot and into other Iphoneographers around and discovered that there is still a lot of skill involved in getting these images. The ones of the New York Yankee Baseball players were actually taken in a toilet believe it or not! They are really well lit using professional lighting and really well posed, by a portrait expert. Compare these with your average toilet images you see on phones, granted usually taken by drunken people on a night out, but the quality is vastly different.
So what I guess I'm trying to say is, I still have hope that professional photographers like myself have a chance to do what we love and not have work stolen away by the smart phone photographers. Images still need good composition, lighting and to actually be good and that is where a working knowledge of photography and a talented eye is unsurpassed.
Keep an eye out for more Iphoneography from me in the future and please follow me on Instagram danielherrickpictures.

Here is a link to the New York Times Story http://petapixel.com/2013/04/02/ny-times-puts-instagram-image-on-the-front-page/0

If you have any Phone images that are up there with those taken on Digital SLR cameras, then please feel free to share them on here in the comments box, or follow me on Twitter @DanielHerrick like my page on Facebook - Daniel Herrick Pictures or +1 me on Google+ using the above button.