A look back at my first year on Instagram!

I vowed I’d never join Instagram because for some reason I didn’t like it. I felt like I already had enough social media to deal with with, because  you know Facebook and Twitter alone can be time consuming. It’s something I also couldn’t do anyway because I didn’t own a cell phone or a mobile device. Well, that all changed a year ago yesterday when I bought an iPod Touch and shared my first photo on Instagram and started something I didn’t think I would enjoy as much as I do now.

My First Instagram Photo:

Since then I have shared 334 photos of many moments in my life this past year and of things that make me smile. I thought now would be a great time to go through all the photos I’ve taken in the last year and share some of my favorite photos with all of you. I’ve separated them to categories that I frequently took photos of and made small collages to showcase them. I didn’t plan to have categories, but after going through all of my pictures today I realized that most of my photos fall into certain categories.

Where it all started… New York City:

This is one of my favorite cities in the world. Something about being in NYC just makes my pulse race with so much life. I was in New York City for 10 days and when I am there I want to walk for days on end because at every turn something else is going on.

Black & White:

I love black & white photographs absolutely love them, but it’s always hard for me to turn one of my photos to black & white. I don’t know why I have trouble with it, but for some reason know when it’s just going to look better in black & white and do it.

Random:

What Instagram is for just random things going on in your life and capturing them. Here I remember going to watch Wicked with my sisters, playing La Chalupa with friends, my roommate George Colores, what was the start of painting my entire parents home, my magnet collection and showing a friend from Australia our Texas Blue Bonnets.

Food & Drinks:

Ummm y’all know I love to eat and drink so obviously I share photos of food & drinks.

Street Art:

Y’all know I love street art for many reasons. I loved finding it all over the world as I traveled (Athens, Amsterdam, Cairo, Mumbai, Ibiza). When I came home I didn’t think I would find as much street art as I’ve actually found. I also didn’t think I would find so many brilliant pieces of  street art either. I mean just look at them… so many amazing creations. Photographing street art is becoming one of my favorite things to photograph.

Photos of me:

As you will find out below I hate selfies and am kinda of happy that of all the photos I posted only 6 of them are of me (I lied 7 because one is of me with all my friends below). Two of them are when I became an uncle on two different occasions. I was so happy to be home for the birth of my new niece and nephew. One is of me when I was in Pre-K. Go ahead I know just adorable… awwwwww!!!

My home… Houston:

This is my Houston. This is the Houston I see. This is the Houston I love. Houston is the fourth largest city in the USA and often overlooked for many other popular destinations in the country. Even though that is the case Houston is amazing, unique and one of a kind.

My most popular shot:

My favorite 6 in no particular order:

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You can click on any of those images to go to Instagram and see the stories behind each of them. Sooo as you can see I’ve become a bit addicted to Instagram and am actually very OCD about it. I also have made 3 rules for myself to always follow.

1. Photo must be taken/edited with my iPod.
2. No frames on any photo.
3. No more than 1 selfie a month (even that is too many).

I know crazy, but they are some of my biggest pet peeves of Instagram. Yes, I actually hate when people share photos they shot with a professional camera on Instagram. I feel like it’s cheating and that all photos should be taken with the mobile device the app is on. I also will NOT use any of the frames. I feel like putting a frame around the photo takes away from the photo itself. You have limited space to display your shot so don’t waste some of the space on a frame. Above all though I hate selfies… I fucking HATE selfies. One every once in a while is okay, but posting one every day or every other day is just ridiculous.

I’ve grown to love Instagram so much and am always on the look out for something in my daily life to capture and share. I feel like Instagram gives us a tiny glimpse into the lives of others more so than any social media platform. It’s a frozen moment of how they see their lives and the world they live in whether it’s at home or on the road.

I didn’t travel with a mobile devices on my first trip around the world, but will do so this time around. I’m excited to see how this will effect my travels. It’s seriously amazing all the things that I can do on my iPod and how long I can go without needing my laptop. I am also so damn excited I will now be able to share photos of my travels on Instagram and have them seen by many more people. So yes the above was a wrap up of my first year on Instagram and I can only imagine what I will be able to capture once I’m on the road for my second trip around the world and my second year on Instagram.

If you follow me on Instagram thank you so much for doing so and would love to hear what y’all think of the images I share on there. If you do not follow me on Instagram you can do so by following me @BreakawayBackpacker. I’d also love to follow some of you so if you are on Instagram comment below with your thoughts and link to your Instagram profile for me to follow.

EEEEEEEeeeee I leave in exactly 3 weeks & like my last trip I’m sure my blog will be a few weeks behind, but my social media (Facebook, Twitter & Instagram) will be real time and more up to date.