Belle Instagram Inspiration + New Photo Prompts!

(Photos taken for Blacksburge Belle Instagram Challenge posted under #LaurensBellePhotos)

When April issued this instagram challenge I knew it was exactly what I needed. During the month of April I participated in April's daily photo prompts and did a modified week-long version of the My Selfie Scrapbook challenge (more on the project I made for this to come). Through these two challenges I have learned a few things about myself and my photography skills. First, I take the best photos when I have prompts. They keep me accountable, give me a plan and make me actually think about and set up shots. Second, I really struggle with long-term challenges. Most of these photo-a-day challenges are monthly or year-long and when I miss a day I feel defeated and struggle to pick back up. But I completed April's entire month-long challenge without missing a single day. When the selfie challenge came out I decided to do just a week-long rendition of it to see how it went and it went awesome.  I learned so much through these two challenges, had a great time and grew my instagram following a ton! It was amazing and hard.

(Photos taken from the My Selfie Scrapbook Challenge)

Taking what I have learned from these two challenges I want to share with you what I learned in hopes that it will help you with your photography and instragraming and I am going to tell you what I am going to do to harness and use this knowledge.These tips from April are spot on and I highly recommend you looking through them. I agree whole heartedly with all 10 of her tips for Instagram. But I want to highlight a few things I learned to be true for myself this past month:1. Post Consistently. Play around with when you post and see when the most people are the most active. For me I post first thing in the morning and in the late evening, it fits the time zones my followers and I overlap in best. But post consistently, try to post at least 2 times a day. People will only remember and know you if you show up.2. Find an editing style and stick to it. This one is hard for me, but I feel like I'm finally getting down a filter/editing routine that works. I love Kelly Purkey's photos, but when I look at my feed with her photo edits, it is just too dark for my preferences and my craft photos. I worked this past month to consistently use PicTapGo and use the Lights on, Crispity, Shadows and Auto Color filters (depending on how much light a photo needs, etc). My photos look consistent, can be recognized by others this way and I started to get multiple compliments on them, proving that people were noticing.3. Stay on topic. This one is hard. I describe my brand or my blog as Adventure, Crafting, and Storytelling. So anything that falls into these categories fit. I noticed this past month that the more obscure, personal things I share, the less likes and comments I get. But the more crafting and adventuring photos I share get more traffic. So clearly people are following me for craft ideas and travel/adventure photos.4. Edit ruthlessly. In conjunction with the last point, edit what you share ruthlessly. My facebook is completely private. Friends and family only. So when something really dumb or funny or totally personal that only our moms would care about happens, I share it there. On facebook I don't care if photos are edited or have terrible light. I can share silly buzzfeed articles or repost jokes and things and not worry about if it is on topic for my followers. So have a separation of those things to help you know where and what to post. Also, edit your photos ruthlessly. Sometimes I make something amazing that I know my followers will love it, but if the lighting is bad, I just have to wait and retake the photo later. I don't post it 'just because'. This one is hard, but if you try to post your best photos and share things that are on topic, you will see exponential growth.5. Planning ahead. Like I said earlier, I try to post a photo first thing in the morning and last thing at night. I am still in bed and rushing around to try to get to work in the AM and it is dark and I am watching The Following in bed with my husband in the PM. Therefore I plan my photos ahead (not like crazy ahead), but whenever I am working on a project I will snap a few photos, edit them and wait to post for one of my AM/PM slots. This was I always have a few photos ready to go and am consistently thinking about taking new photos to share but am not on a timeline with pressure.6. Know your limits. This is a big one. If you don't care about growing your instagram following to support your brand, then don't worry about it! Post all the cat joke photos you want! Seriously, that's ok. Also, if you cannot fathom posting two to three times a day on a schedule, don't. Just try to post once a day. And most of all, don't make committment you can't follow through on. If you are terrible at keeping up with photo-a-days, don't! Maybe pick a handful of the prompts you like and do those five over the course of a month. Or maybe you take them and don't share them, they are just for you. That's ok too. I try my best not to announce that "I WILL BE DOING THIS XXXX EVERYDAY" and then two days later quit. That's hawkward. Or maybe you need that announcement to hold you accountable. Either way know what works for you and screw everyone else's stupid plans.7. Engage, but don't get lost. I love instagram comments. They are so much easier to see than blog comments and most of the time are really encouraging and helpful. Even though instagram is a highly visual form of social media people still chat...alot! in the comments. So don't just throw up a photo and go. Ask a question like 'Black and white is my go to color scheme for creating projects. What's yours?" (accompanied by a photo of your favorite B/W supplies) or "how do I clean my stamps?!" (accompanied by a photo of a really pretty recent stamping project). See what I did there?! And leave comments and ask questions on other people's photos that you like or have similar interests as you. Make friends! Who knows what can happen! But don't get lost in some girl drama or leaving snarky comments or looking so much you never actually post anything of your own. And definitely don't get lost in meanness. Seriously, you write a mean for no reason comment, I will delete it. There is no need for that. Delete it and move on. Don't get lost, Engage.8. Choose prompts that interest you. The reason I chose to really stick with April's prompts were the fact that they were written for small craft business owners. Almost 90% of the prompts were directly related to or could be interpreted for crafting. They were a few that were a little out there and I really had to stretch or just did what it said (ie 'morning shot', I took a shot of what Korea looks like in the AM instead of say a craft project in morning light, etc). The point is to choose prompts that are in line with your brand and that get you excited, but also challenge you. I was so proud of myself when I thought of using the thick textured corner shot of my full art journal as the 'texture' prompt. See what I did there? On brand, but challenged me! When the selfie scrapbook challenge came out, I was excited because everyone was excited, but I have no interest in doing six weeks worth of selfies. So I modified it. For one week I took a unique photo of Terrell and I. It challenged me, gave me a goal, had a strict time table and I came out with some beautiful shots I would have never taken otherwise.Speaking of prompts that are of specific interest to you....I have taken all that I have learned from these two fun challenges and realized the things that I really value in photo prompts. Brevity and focus. Therefore, I am creating my own photo challenge! On the second week of each month, for one week only, I will share 7 photo prompts. I would love for you to play along. You can use the hashtag and/or make your own. You can use the prompts and share on instagram or not. You can do the prompts whenever you like, they will not be dated, but they will be posted on the second week of each month. I already have quite a few scheduled in the calendar, so you can count on them to keep coming!Each week will have a theme and be focused on one realm. I tried to make them be pretty obviously craft focused, but still broad enough that you can expand them outside the craft world if you want. The challenge is called Creative Captures and you can use the hashtag #creativecaptures to share and see how other people are interpreting the prompts (which is one of my favorite parts of doing these things!).For the first week we will be Capturing the Rainbow! Ever since Elsie rainbowed her instagram feed I have been dying to do some color hunting myself. This is a great prompt to start off with as it has SO many interpretations. You can capture a mural in each color or rainbow organize your craft supplies. You can dress in each days color or you can watch for pops of color in the world around you. The possibilities are endless!! Here are some great hashtags that I love that focus on color: #colorcolourlovers #colorhunting #ABMlifeiscolorfulSo, there are next weeks photo prompts. I wanted you to have them in advance so you can begin snapping photos and saving them up for their correct day. (remember planning?!) You are welcome to save this photo and share it however you would like. We are simply going to take a photo in good old ROY G BIV color order and share them next week starting on Monday May 11th under the hastag #creativecaptures. I really hope you will join me! Please share your favorite photo prompt challenges you have done or share what type of challenge that works best for you in the comments.