For The Love Of Instagram

I'm definitely a fan of  Instagram. 

I scroll for inspiration, for connection, for pleasure.

I love it most for the simple beauty of the images and for inspiration on how to look through the lens (of my camera and my heart). I like that Instagram can serve different needs - that I can follow and unfollow as my tastes and interests evolve. I follow some memory keepers, but a lot of who I follow are photographers or thinkers or writers or artists who bring good feelings into my day. When scrolling through my feed I want to smile, laugh, be made to think (might be the way the shot was taken and it might be the story included in the comments), or have my heart-warmed. 

It's defintiely become more commercial over the years and I've contributed to that as I share business-stuff/memory keeping projects and products on my personal account  @aliedwards and via the @aliedwardsdesgininc account. And the reason why it's become more commercial is because people are there - scrolling and reading and commenting and interacting with one another. 

Today I want to spread some good stuff. For the last week I've been jotting down the people/businesses that are currently brining me the most joy and inspiration in my Instagram feed. If it had to narrow it down to nine (excluding family and close friends) these would be the ones I'd keep (at least this week):

1. @chrisburkard | Chris Burkard | Surfing, outdoor and lifestyle photography. Pictures that blow my mind almost every single time and inspire me to get outside. 
2. @humansofny | Humans Of New York | Storytelling at it's finest. Basically a guy (Brandon Stanton) who goes around New York and takes photos of people and documents part of their story via a quote from the person he's photographing. Raw, heartbreaking, inspiring. 
3. @travelandleisure | Travel & Leisure Magazine | Travel photography - the places I've been and the places I want to go. 
4. @afarmedia | Afar Magazine | More travel photography. Never enough. This is a great magazine as well. 
5. @floretflower | Floret Flowers | I read about this company in Martha Stewart's magazine and immediately started following her on Instagram. They are a small flower company based in Washington state that grows the most beautiful varieties of some of my favorite flowers including dahlias and sweet peas. 
6. @dallasclayton | Dallas Clayton | Some of you guys might remember that I wrote about this guy last year after hearing him speak Alt Summit. He's an illustrator and an attitude changer. 
7. @nytimes | The New York Times | Their tagline on this account is "Telling stories in photos and stories about photos." Not hard to guess why I like and follow this one. 
8. @taylorswift | Taylor Swift | Because why the heck not. Because I'm a fan. She makes me happy and we might just have plans to see her in concert later this summer. 
9. @lovesarahschneider | Sarah Schneider | No idea how I came across Sarah but I like her feed - lovely light-filled images, insanely beautiful house (wait till you see the fireplace in the backyard), big heart, great style.

I'd love to check out your favorites too! Remember that taking the time to document that stuff you are into right now is part of our story. What I love and am into today might be different next week. Capture life my friends - it's so worth it. 

Hope you have a great week!

New Story Subscription Special: Sign up for a Story Kit™, Story Stamp™ or Digital Story Kit™ before July 14th and receive my tried & true storytelling workshop Storyology for free: http://aliedwards.com/themes/go

In the self-paced Storyology workshop, I'll lead you through an in-depth exploration of some of my favorite techniques for telling the stories of life. This lecture-based creative session (2 hour presentation + handout), with time built-in for story brainstorming, is an awesome place to begin or refresh your desire to focus on the stories. You'll complete the workshop with a practical, go-to list of techniques to use each time you set out to document a memory or a moment of you life and be inspired to tell your stories fearlessly.

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