Instagram...The Photos or Not the Photos

Other than checking in on the stock market from my iPhone on Stocktwits, there is no app or service I use more than Instagram.

I never thought I could care about photos.

I am not sure that using Instagram means I care.

Nate Bolt has an interesting piece on the Instagram phenomenon over on TechCrunch, but it does not cover why I love the product. If it was truly easy to put Instagram into a box and analyze it on TechCrunch…

I rarely apply filters to photos or share to Facebook. I don’t use it to discover great photographers. I will one day care about their open API as I will want to do stuff with these photos I assume.

In the meantime, I just care about the easy sharing, engagement and the intimacy I get from using the product. I want the stuff I think about, capture and share to get engagement.

I care about the style of it all. I like the idea of writing something interesting to tag on the photo that makes someone’s day. I love laughing and scheming about a photo with my kids as I take it and write the headline for it. I would never do this about an idea I share on Stocktwits or a ‘Tweet’ on Twitter. Those are always going to be personal and private moments for me.

No matter how fast and cheap digital cameras have become, I never engaged in the revolution, other than spending money and storing the latest products in a cupboard ashamed that I never really cared about capturing anything.

Instagram is great for the iPhone and can’t be great for digital cameras short term.

Eastman Kodak $EK would have been wise to have bought this company when they could. Now, like Legg Mason’s Bill Miller – their latest, largest and wrongest investor – they are yesterday’s news.

Luckily for us, Eastman Kodak never bought Instagram. Try it out before they do sell it or get bought though.