Outbound Collective logo

Instagram Tips

Some tips from top outdoor photographers on how to effectively post and curate your Instagram feed

By: Aurora Photos + Save to a List

Instagram continues to grow as a marketing tool and a way to tell your brand’s story. It’s much easier to keep an up to date Instagram account than it is to update your website with new work, whether you’re a photographer or a brand. We asked some of our photographers who either have large followings or are being recognized as Instagrammers to watch for some tips:

Rachid Dahnoun, @rachidphoto

Be Engaged. Most people who don’t do well on social networks forget that it isn’t all about you; you need to interact with other people on the network by liking, commenting and following other accounts.  Building relationships with other users will really help boost your own account’s engagement.

Be Consistent. Posting once a week isn’t going to cut it.  Nor is posting a beautiful landscape one day and a furry kitten the next.  Consistency across the board is key.  You want to be posting at least 5 days a week (7 is ideal).  That said, you don’t want to over-post either.  If you overload your followers with 4 posts in an hour they are likely to dump you.  For content, you want to stay true to yourself and your brand.  When someone looks at your feed the work should look and feel cohesive, just like a portfolio.

Jess McGlothin, @jess_mcglothlin_media 

Look Outside Your Immediate Target Audience. I specialize in fly-fishing and outdoor adventure travel, but I’ve seen an increase in fitness and general travel followers when I tailor a post to less-technical viewers. A fun one-liner with a post about my favorite sandals for airplane rides? That’s guaranteed to land a few new followers outside my normal “dude with a beard and a fly rod” genre.

Tell Stories. An image is worth a thousand words, as they say. When someone is flipping through their feed, I want the image to make them stop and look deeper. It’s a tenet of strong photography, and it’s important here too. Instagram is a great tool of escapism… enable that a bit; let people into the story. They’ll respond.

Let People in to Your World. Adding a ten-second video into your feed once in a while allows viewers to feel like they’re behind the scenes. In the past few months I shot iPhone videos of helicopters landing on rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, people passing through the Lima airport at 1AM and a team bumping along a backcountry road in the Amazon jungle while dodging bamboo overgrowth. Video is a fantastic tool to relate to your audience… show that it’s not all fun and glory and good times! Sometimes the job is sleeping on airport floors, dealing with infected wounds and burning time on long car rides. Let’s not be afraid to talk about that!

Andrew Peacock, @footloosefotography

Be True to Yourself. It’s important that I am excited about posting and it helps if I keep things fresh and post very recent work rather than spend time ‘mining’ my archive looking for something to post just because I feel pressure to do so! I think of my Instagram feed as a portfolio for my adventure travel photography, so I only post high quality images and I keep it ‘real’ in terms of any post processing, to ensure my feed is an accurate reflection of the style of work I deliver to clients.

Find Partners. I’m very lucky to be able to travel widely, so I make sure to post images across a range of subjects and locations to appeal to those looking for adventure travel inspiration on Instagram. Occasionally  I’ll also share my work on a feed with a larger audience. By establishing personal connections with relevant people at companies with huge Instagram followings – Lonely Planet, for instance – I’ve gained an avenue to share my work with a broader audience.

Paul Zizka, @paulzizkaphoto

#Trending! Posting images relevant to current natural events seems to give my post an extra boost in interaction. Whether it’s season specific, ie. snowy scene during the Winter months, or an Aurora post during or after a solar storm, finding images that people can relate to as something they’re experiencing or thinking about is a strategy that pays off for me.

Sean Davey, @sean_davey

Ask Questions. I post a a mix of images as they happen, along with classic surf images from my days as a magazine photographer, to keep the content interesting and different as much as I can. I try to engage my audience as much as possible. Ask them a question about the picture, or in my case, I ask them to name the photo and reward the winner with a few 8×10’s.  I see that as part of my advertising budget, so to speak.

David Hanson, @davidhanson3

Share Personal Work. For over a dozen years I’ve collected portraits and interviews of people I meet, most complete strangers. With over 400, I turned to Instagram to post one per day for 2017. It’s a fun way to stay both consistent and unpredictable. I was a writer before I was a photographer so I like digging beyond the pic. And part of me hopes to learn some secret to life from the people.

Kay Vilchis Zapata, @kayuvilchis

Join the Celebration. I like to upload photos on days that are celebrating something, like for example National Dolphin Day. I think that by celebrating something everyone talks about that topic and in the same way you can make your audience aware of conserving those important elements and taking more care of the planet.

We want to acknowledge and thank the past, present, and future generations of all Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples whose ancestral lands we travel, explore, and play on. Always practice Leave No Trace ethics on your adventures and follow local regulations. Please explore responsibly!

Do you love the outdoors?

Yep, us too. That's why we send you the best local adventures, stories, and expert advice, right to your inbox.

Related

Outdoor-Inspired Cocktails for Every Season

Noël Russell

A golden happy hour on the California coast

Hannah Sibley

Make these camp cocktails on your next adventure

Ellen Clark

A 3-day road trip adventure in Western Rocky Mountain National Park

Nallely Bean

Cooking with Coleman: Camp stove tacos with Paulina Dao and the City Project

The Outbound Collective