DeviantArt > Instagram

So the last time I wrote about Instagram was when I first signed up with them about 9 months ago. At the time, I thought it was absurd and laughable that they forcibly cropped every picture into a square, no matter of it's original dimensions.

But now that they've seen the error of their ways and have joined the rest of us in the 21st century by finally allowing for 16:9 widescreen photos, I might give it another whirl.

Although do they allow for original resolution or do they crush everything down to a certain size or dpi? Maybe I'll find some FAQs or just do a test.

Edit 1: Why can't I upload pictures directly from my laptop? Why do I have to first email the photo to myself, pull up the email on my phone, save the photo to my phone and then upload it via the app? Instagram, why are you making this a pain in the ass? Ya, I know of the workarounds. BlueStacks is always the first thing mentioned, but reading the comments about BlueStacks, it seems that it's either equally a pain in the ass to use, or it's not even functional, or riddled with viruses. Other options don't fare any better.

Edit 2: OK, so even though Instagram says it accepts widescreen now, I see that all preview/thumbnails are still displayed as square and are only widescreen when you click on them. So it's either totally half-assed of them or completely disingenuous when they say that Instagram is now widescreen capable. I suppose technically that's true, but they're really making an effort to make it difficult* for us users to view widescreen pictures as they were originally shot. And, by the way, they're totally small- about 600 x 325. My giant-sized 5200 x 3450 photos smashed down to 600 x 325. That's deplorable.

*Ya, I know, how is one mouse click 'making it difficult'? Well of course, no it's not. It's just that it shouldn't have to be that way. There should be something in settings where we users can default it to view all pictures in their original ratio, thumbnail size or largest size or anything in between.

Edit 3: And now I see that Instagram pictures can't be downloaded, either in small size or as shot? What is this shit? We all know the shift-command-4 trick. Why are you making this more difficult than it has to be?

Seriously, I'd be better off signing up with Deviant Art. Because of all the complaints I spelled out above, Deviant Art has answered every one of them. Deviant Art displays the thumbnails of the pictures in their original dimensions, the pictures can be viewed large size in their original dimensions, and can be downloaded in their original dimensions (although there are customizable settings on Deviant Art if for some reason I want to prohibit downloading of any specific photo(s)), in their original size too, even if the picture is 5184 x 3456, which is what I've set my Canon to shoot. And I can upload pictures directly from my laptop. And users of the site can comment on my photos, can follow me so as to get notifications when I upload new photos, and can share my photos with their followers. 

In fact, I just went ahead and did it. Until Instagram pulls their head out (and I won't hold my breath), I'll be posting pictures to Deviant Art here- http://humorlessproductions.deviantart.com/gallery/

All my Humorless Productions photos will go there, and probably some (old and new) random shots that don't have anything to do with anything.

Message for Instagram: Get your shit together. Work this stuff out and maybe I'll consider using your site.

Is Instagram as lame as it seems?

So I started an Instagram. Dunno what I'm gonna do with it. Started it just to figure out how it works, what the hype is, if it has any advantages or usefulness…

And after being on it for one day, I'm finding so many shortcomings that I wonder if I'll even bother posting more than the one test foto that's already there.

1. I find it laughable and embarrassing that Instagram doesn't support 16:9 widescreen fotos. What do they gain by forcing everything into square images? Every foto and video that I take is in big ol' widescreen (or bigger = panorama). It seems that the primary recommendation as a work-around is to use a free app called Squareready, where you can make sure your fotos aren't cropped and post them to Instagram in their original widescreen (or any other) aspect ratio. That's what I did, and it worked fine.

Also, is there a way to view pictures posted to Instagram in their original dimensions? I have just a regular 15" laptop, but if I click on a foto which is originally 4000x2248 (as pretty much all my fotos are, unless it's a frame grab from one of my videos, in which case it's still 1920x1080), I expect it to fill pretty much my entire screen. Can't seem to find a way to do that, which is a significant mark against it. If nothing else, is there a way to download fotos in their original size (as you can in FB)?

2. Why do they make it such a pain in the ass to post fotos taken by some camera other than my phone? Why can't I upload fotos directly from my computer? I have an iphone 4, and if you don't know, the camera on that phone is garbage. (Never mind that I'm wi-fi only, so the vast majority of the time, the phone isn't even connected to the internet anyway.) So I'll never post any fotos that I take with that camera. Anything that I post will have been shot on my Canon handheld and transferred to my computer and processed in DxO Optics. So after that I'll need to transfer the foto to my phone first in order to post it to Instagram? Do they not have a desktop version?

3. Is there anything I can accomplish with Instagram that I can't with FB or Ello? Does Instagram do anything better than FB or Ello? Does Intsagram have foto albums or groupings the way FB and Flickr do?

4. As you can see from some of my blog posts, I don't hesitate to write exhaustive, sometimes overly-long posts (like this one!). Which is kinda weird, because personally, I'm very much an introvert and really barely talk at all. But this is one of the reasons I dumped my Twitter, with their famous 140 character limit. And now I see that Instagram has a slightly more generous 300 character limit. At least FB got a clue some years ago and upped their limit from 256 to the current 63,206 characters per post limit. I grew tired of posting something to Twitter and only being able to write 'go to my blog to get the complete details for this' with the direct link. And I'm not gonna bother posting anything to Instagram if I'm forced to do the same thing. Sometimes my blog posts are very short and to the point. But there are other times when I like to explain stuff and those explanations will undoubtedly exceed 300 characters by a significant number.

Then again, Instagram posts differ from regular Wordpress Tumblr Blogspot posts, yes? Instagram isn't a blog, per se. It's just a repository for fotos. That's fine, but why would I bother with Instagram if FB and Ello (and Wordpress and Tumblr and Blogspot) do the same thing, but better?

So follow me on Instagram or not. Still don't know whether I'll be bothered to post to it or not.

In the meantime, here's a picture of a wasp-