Social Photography

Yesterday I finished my edits for the paperback edition of Content Rules (coming out in the spring) and while I didn't have that many major additions, the one I knew in my heart I had to add was to the chapter on photography to add in what we called Social Photography.

The overall concept is that we all have a camera in our pocket when we leave the house with a smart phone.

As you can see in the photo, I use several different camera applications to take, post process and share when out and about. This instant sharing is where the power of social photography comes in to play and I firmly believe that it is changing the world of photography.

You only need to take one look at the growth of Instagram to see how popular this trend is. I remember when The Best Camera from Chase Jarvis was first released. I loved being able to share little snapshots with the world, but it was missing the community that Instagram gave me. I expect there to be a lot more apps for all platforms in the coming year. It is too popular not to happen. Plus, don't forget that every social network has the ability to upload and share photos while on the go.

At several recent events, I've giggled as I watched someone take a photo with a traditional camera and then take a photo with their phone of the preview on the back of the camera to share it online. How far are we away from more cameras having built in WiFi so that they can upload directly? I recently received (but haven't used yet) an EyeFi card that does this. What I'm really hoping for is that more traditional cameras will add in GPS to them. That is what I REALLY want.

But, the more the world of photography changes, the more many of us cling to the past.

The book in the photo is a collection of my photos that I took and posted to Instagram in 2011. Snapshots of my life that I wanted to have a hard copy of. Instead of ordering a bunch of individual prints (which I haven't actually seen available now that I think about it) I ordered a hard cover book from Blurb. I've had it in my hand only a couple of hours and already it is a cherished possession full of memories.

While I love moment sharing, I know that those moments pass far to quickly and I want to be able to share them with more people and thus need more ways to capture those moments in the long term. The printed book or the CanvasPop print I recently ordered are two great examples of this.

The world of photography is changing at a rapid pace right now and I'm excited to see where it goes next.