Obsession

Ok so I told you I was obsessed right? So finally I have taken the time to sift through my favorites... to bring you this post. I'm not proud of it but I do have over 400 photos of the Empire State Building. Most of these are repeats to make sure that I got the shot I needed and I've just not taken the time to edit them. I don't know what it is. I think perhaps it reminds me of where I am. The streets of New York can at times feel like the streets of any metropolis such as London. It's the landmarks that make it different. When you look up, the architecture is different and helps to set the tone for the city. I guess the biggest mark of living in New York for me is the Empire State Building. Being only a couple of blocks from it means that I notice it all the time, and it's become my thing now. Like a special inside joke "what colour will it be today?". The need to walk Paco at night makes looking out for the changes possible. I usually grab a quick snap of them like these:

But I also really enjoy taking artistic photos of it. These are by far my favourite attempts so far. 

BestShots

Flying the Flag: I've had a great idea for a new feature. I loose some of my favorite shots on Instagram and always have to alter them to fit the site's format. So I'll start showcasing them here, while explaining how I created them. First up this amazing shot of the Flatiron building taken on the iPhone's native camera and edited using Instagram with the Rise filter.

Elite photography

While Instagram is mainly known as a social networking site (especially after being acquired by Facebook) it did seem that it originally tried to set itself up as being mainly about photography. In fact there is a strong photography community on there. However most recently it seems to veer more towards the Twitter and Facebook style of networking. It has even got its own little backlash from some in the photography community. A group of people got so tired of pictures of One Direction reaching the popular page that they set up their own photography social networking site called Instafocus. Although ironically this is just a somewhat elitist photography group where you have to be invited in or selected by the creators. And wouldn't you know it that it still comes down to a popularity contest with those with high numbers of followers being the ones selected rather than those who are genuinely taking fantastic photos.

Anyway, rant over and I have been trying to use Instagram for more artistic purposes. While I love being able to snap a quick picture and send it to friends showing what I'm up to (I'm also a huge fan of #todayimwearing), I also love trying really hard to get pictures that are better thought out and more creative. Here's a recap of my best photos so far.

Where to?

If you don't know already, Hipster Dufus is a rather jammy dodger. He not only managed to get this new job in Moscow, he also managed to get our first 3 year posting to start 1 month later. So now we have four months until our new lives and I've already started thinking about how to keep in contact with people. I'm taking it back to basics, can you remember the last time you got a postcard? Emails are great but surely postcards are more personal?

Where do you think we're going? I'm not going to tell you yet, I'll be documenting the process and dropping hints along the way. Here we go!

Real Diplomatic Baggage

So it took a while, it seemed like it was really far away but finally the time has come for Hipster Dufus to leave on his first posting abroad. I wrote about it here, so I won't repeat myself. The boxes have been packed, it wasn't much as he's only gone for a short time. This is what he's taking with him. The bags looked so lonely, or rather reminded me that I would be lonely. However this time there is light at the end of the tunnel. More on that really soon!

Holiday Insta(lments)... Beside the seaside

While we wait for the impending departure of Hipster Dufus on his first posting, we took a trip to the coast to spend some quality alone time together. Here are my Intagram pictures from the Whitstable.

Portugalia

I'm back in the UK having survived our "holiday" to Portugal. We drove there via Spain taking the ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao, this way Paco was able to join us. The family has a place in a little village called Condeixa a Velha where the house quite like the inhabitants of the village have seen better days... Let's just say that the designated allowance of electricity for the village meant that we were only able to have two appliances switched on at any given time. 

The internet was definitely not even an option. When we passed an area with wifi, I'm ashamed to say that we all behaved like teenagers glued to our electronic devices as though there was no world around us. Instagram was my friend, giving me my much needed dose of the outside world. So here is my holiday via Instagram.