Instagram

Get the free app for iPhone or Android

Welcome to the Instagram blog! See what's happening around the world, right now, through photo features, user spotlights, photo tips and news from Instagram HQ.

Photoset

instameet, world wide instameet,

Worldwide InstaMeets are Underway!

Want to get involved in your city’s InstaMeet? Several InstaMeets will be occurring through out the weekend. Visit [meetup.com/Instagram](http://www.meetup.com/Instagram/) to learn more!

Yesterday kicked off a weekend of InstaMeets taking place all around the world. In our home city, we had an awesome #InstaMeetSF adventure at Flora Grubb Gardens. Instagrammers also gathered together Thursday in Cape Town, Helsinki, Hamburg, Kathmandu, Dubai, Manila, Caracas, Gdansk and many, many more locations.

In honor of the Worldwide InstaMeet adventures that took place yesterday and those that will continue to take place throughout the weekend we’re putting the Weekend Hashtag Project on hold. Instead we’re asking those of you who have or will participate in an adventure to tag your BEST InstaMeet photograph with #WWIMadventure for a chance to be featured right here on Monday morning! Be sure to include the name of the city where your InstaMeet took place along with your city’s designated hashtag in your caption or as a comment on your photo. Happy adventuring, Instagrammers!

Video

instameet, tips, video,

Tips for a Great InstaMeet

In just a few short days (8 to be precise!), the 5th Worldwide Instameet will kick off around the globe. Over 350 communities of Instagrammers are planning to get together and go on an adventure. Be sure to get involved over at meetup.com/Instagram.

Organizing your first InstaMeet? Veteran Instagrammer @DocPop shares his tips on how to put together a flawless Instawalk in the video above.

Photoset

instameet, instagram news, tips,

InstaMeet Tips: Documenting Your Adventure

The weekend of July 26th is rapidly approaching, and with it Instagram’s 5th Worldwide InstaMeet. If you haven’t yet registered for the InstaMeet in your area, RSVP today at Meetup.com!

This InstaMeet, Instagrammers around the world are encouraged to go on an adventure together! One exciting aspect of going out on an adventure is collaborating with others to document an experience and location. You can do this easily with hashtags and location tags!

Hashtags

When you hastag your photos, you are contributing to a collection of images that you and other users can browse in the app and on the web.

When participating in your area’s InstaMeet, make sure to tag each photo with #InstaMeet as well as the unique hashtag for your city, like #InstaMeetSF. This way, it’s easy for you and your fellow Instagrammers to see all of the great photos you’ve taken.

Location Tags

Another great way to make sure your fellow Instagrammers can find your photos is to tag their location… especially if you’re meeting up somewhere special!

  

When you tag your image with your location, you contribute to an archive of pictures from that place. And once you tag your image, you can click on the location pin, and see all of the other pictures Instagram users tagged there!

For more great meetup ideas, check out this article from our last Worldwide InstaMeet on sticking with a theme. And brush up on your photo taking and editing skills by browsing our Help Center article on creating great photos.

Video

user feature, instameet, audio,

From Hong Kong to New York City for an InstaMeet

The next Worldwide InstaMeet is July 26! Check out meetup.com/instagram to find a meetup in your city.

Tyson (@twheat) is an expat in Hong Kong who has helped organize many of the fantastic meetups in his new city. Recently, he took a trip to New York City and met up with several NYC Instagrammers. Sit back and listen to Tyson’s story of what it was like to meet up with Instagrammers whose photos he’s been following for over a year!

Video

instameet,

Worldwide InstaMeet: Go on an adventure!

We’re very excited to announce that on Thursday the 26th of July you’ll have the chance to get together with other Instagrammers in your town by organizing your very own adventure for the fifth Worldwide InstaMeet!

Don’t worry — if Thursday doesn’t work for your local community, feel free to plan your InstaMeet any time over that weekend, July 27th through the 29th. We’ll be featuring some of our favorite images & group shots here on our blog the following Monday.

For more information visit http://www.meetup.com/Instagram and be sure to keep an eye on our InstaMeets page where we’ll be sharing tips and featuring recent InstaMeets to spark some creativity.

InstaCity: Adelaide, South Australia

instameet, instacity, user feature,

InstaCity is a blog series that introduces you to local Instagram groups around the world.

With the Worldwide InstaMeet approaching on 11 March, Adelaide InstaMeet organizer Kalista (@k_thx) offered to share some details about her city’s meetups that we hope help you organize your own!

City: Adelaide, South Australia.

First InstaMeet: February 3rd, 2012.

Next InstaMeet: 11 March 2012.

What we do: Our first meet was a casual coffee catch up, at E for Ethel. The owner, Amanda, is an Instagrammer herself and has been super supportive. We’ll definitely have more social events in the future as well as photowalks, scavenger hunts and themed meets (e.g. petstagram). It’s early days for us, but the support and enthusiasm we’ve received has been overwhelming!

Attendance: We had 16 people at our first meet and have 60+ members on our Facebook group, which is growing daily!

How we organize: Our Facebook group is our main mode of communication. It seems to have the most reach. We’re also starting to utilize Twitter (@instadelaide) as well as posts within Instagram itself obviously! We’ve been tagging our photos with #instagramadelaide and #instameetadelaide.

What makes Adelaide unique: Adelaide is a small city and quite cliquey, but I think we’re using this to our advantage. Adelaide is the type of place where everyone knows everyone so it’s been quite easy to spread the word and build interest. During the summer the city steps it up a notch with festival after festival, including the Adelaide Fringe Festival and Womadelaide, among others. The population of the city swells with all manner of comedians, dancers and carnies, and the city comes alive. We way be small but we have a vibrant and ever-growing arts community and have received lots of support from people like Adelaide Tweet who have helped promote us. I foresee great things for Adelaide’s Instagram community!

Photos from in and around Adelaide, South Australia

Photos by dodge76, katejm, retroajw, thisisepic, dicotyledon, gamtch, kirstenleeee, k_thx, & othersuchthings.

Want your city’s meetup group featured here? Write us at instameet [at] instagram.com.

InstaMeet Tips: Icebreakers

instameet,

With over 250 communities participating in the upcoming Worldwide InstaMeet, we wanted to give you some tips for connecting with the folks you meet at your city’s photowalk!

InstaMeets are a great way to get to know the people in your hometown using Instagram. To help you branch out and get the conversation flowing with your fellow Instagrammers, we’ve put together a few tips to keep in mind before, during, and after your photowalk.

Before

  • Bring nametags: Hand out nametags and ask everyone to write down their name & username. It helps connect faces to photos!
  • Use a hashtag: Ask everyone to tag their photos with the same hashtag so everyone can easily find each other’s photos on Instagram. We recommend making your tag unique by using the name of your city in your tag, such as #instawalksydney or #instawalktoronto.

During

Chances are you’ll have a lot in common with the people around you. Be sure to use the opportunity to get to know them! Here are some questions you might want to ask to get things started:

After

  • Follow your new friends! Be sure to check out the tag page for your city and follow the people you met on your photowalk.
  • Don’t wait for the next Worldwide InstaMeet! Instagrammers in cities around the world get together all the time to go on photowalks or just meet up in a bar. You can organize a big meetup in your city or just go out shooting with a few of the new friends you made any time of the year.

InstaMeet banner image provided by @lauralawson.

    Photo Tips: Stick with A Theme

    instagram, tips, instameet,

    With almost 200 communities participating in the upcoming Worldwide InstaMeetwe wanted to provide some photography tips to help you make your city’s photowalk unique!

    Subjects

    Select a subject that is easily discoverable on your photowalk’s route. Can you plan the walk so you pass only tall buildings? Are you able to find multiple windows with hand-painted letters? Perhaps there’s a lot of street art in your city! Pre-planning your walk, picking up on common subjects, then providing that subject as a theme will challenge photowalk participants to see subjects that may otherwise go unnoticed!

    Filters

    Utilize only one filter on every shared photograph. While this can be a huge challenge, having a visually cohesive theme will result in a beautiful hashtag pool for your city’s photowalk, as well as your personal photo feed. Try asking participants to utilize only the new Sierra filter with a border, then share any obstacles you come across as a result while you walk along!

    Props

    Photograph the same prop interacting with multiple scenes. Ask participants to bring similarly themed props to the photowalk, like vinyl toys or fake moustaches, and provide them with unique situations that they should photograph their props in. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to see a photowalk hashtag filled with mini toy dinosaurs taking over a city?! The only way to answer that question is with an all caps “YES!”.

    These ideas aren’t just great for creating a fun and interesting photowalk - they can also be applied to your own photography! Challenge yourself to stick to one (or several) of these themes for an entire month. Not only will your Instagram profile look beautiful, but you’ll likely learn a thing or two about photography in the process!

    InstaMeet banner image provided by @lauralawson.

    Worldwide InstaMeet: 11 March 2012

    instameet,

    Are you ready for the 4th Worldwide InstaMeet?! We’re very excited to announce that on Sunday, March 11th, you’ll have the chance to get together with other Instagrammers in your town by organizing your very own meetup!

    This time around, we’re asking everyone to go on a photowalk together. In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing tips for your upcoming photowalk, as well as featuring recent InstaMeets in order to spark some creativity & encourage you to join in by organizing or participating in an InstaMeet in your hometown.

    How to Participate

    1. Go to meetup.com/instagram and find a meetup going on in your city, then click “Count me in.” If you don’t see an upcoming event in your hometown, start one!
    2. Help spread the word on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and wherever else you can! See our InstaMeets page for more tips!
    3. Join up with other Instagrammers on your city’s meetup day, get inspired and make new friends!

    The photos above were taken at recent InstaMeet photowalks! The photo on the left was taken by @instagramnyc on the #warbywalk, and the photo on the right was taken by @cinemaone during #instahuntsf.

    Recap: October’s Worldwide InstaMeet

    instameet, user feature,

    Thanks to everyone around the world who participated in our third Worldwide InstaMeet! Instagrammers from Los Angeles to London and from Toronto to Melbourne organized meetups and got a chance to meet fellow Instagrammers in their area. We had a blast meeting members of the Instagram community at the San Francisco meetup and are already looking forward to the next Worldwide InstaMeet. In the meantime, we encourage you to organize your own get-togethers, photowalks, and talks — take a look at the InstaMeets page for tips on getting started!

    San Francisco InstaMeet

    Portland InstaMeet

    Los Angeles InstaMeet

    Austin InstaMeet

    Houston InstaMeet

    Dallas InstaMeet

    InstaCake in Toronto

    Burlington InstaMeet

    Melbourne InstaMeet

    New York City InstaMeet

    Brasilia InstaMeet

    Mexico City InstaMeet

    Singapore InstaMeet

    Paris InstaMeet

    Photos by pozer, grether, ehren, whiskeyred, takeorey, kylesteed, aratisharma, nravlin, stevenpam, aliveinnyc, rafaelohana, loiicg, pinoysg, missstefny_ih.