Photo Friday: Saturating the city

Mother-In-Law Lounge

I love deeply-saturated colors. Particularly bright primary colors that practically jump off the computer screen and grab you by the throat.

I also tend to favor grit, grime, and grain in my photos.

Therein lies the beauty of Instagram — the app’s filters allow you to manipulate many of those parameters to your heart’s content.

Sometimes I’ll even process my cellphone shots through another photo app before importing them into Instagram, allowing for additional enhancement and manipulation.

I hadn’t really given much thought to the reasoning behind the whole process until I received the following comment:

“Why do you over-saturate all of your pictures? You’re making New Orleans seem dirtier than it already is.”

That got me thinking, and I realized it’s a question of perspective. In my other, quasi-real job as a freelance travel writer/photographer, I use a DSLR camera to illustrate my journeys. Through lighting, composition, and camera angle, I try to tell a story in the most creative way possible. Not quite documentary style, but it’s not Instagram, either.

Abandoned Theater

Whereas, with Instagram, the whole point (to me, anyway) is to manipulate your cellphone photos into something they’re not. At the risk of sounding pompous, it’s kind of an art form all its own, which is probably why the app has become so popular and addictive.

So bottom line: Yes, I over-saturate my Instagrams.

Sue me.

Check out Glen’s latest New Orleans Instagrams:

If you’d like to purchase any of Glen’s Instagram prints, they’re available at http://glen-abbott.instaprints.com.

Glen Abbott is a New Orleans-based freelance travel writer/photographer. Follow his blog at www.TravelinGringo.com, Twitter @twitter.com/travelingringo, and Instagram at http://instagram.com/travelingringo. Email Glen at glen@TravelinGringo.com.  

We’d love to see and publish your own New Orleans-centric Instagrams for our continuing series, “Picturing NOLA.” Email them to photos@nolavie.com.