Lately one of my most frequently asked questions on Instagram is what I'm using to edit my stories and what I'm using to shoot with. As stories are more casual I shoot all mine on my phone; even my hair tutorials and slow-motion runs are shot on my phone (an Iphone 6) using the built-in slow-motion option. One tip for slow-mos, either for running shots or serene butterflies, is to shoot the video in a the slow-motion mode whether the one standard on your phone or via an app; if you add the slow-motion affect in later to a video shot in a regular mode you will lose quality and it won't be as smooth. People thinking some of those videos or photographs are shot on a more serious camera though is just proof what a bit of quick editing can do. So many apps these days are just as effective as the platforms you'd traditionally use to edit on your computer, but take half the time to achieve the same effects.
Unfold App: This is one of my most used apps on my phone and the one I think gets me the most questions! Unfold lets you add unique borders to your photographs which makes for eye-catching stories. It also has options for collaging several photographs together in interesting ways which is quite handy as so few editing apps allow you to collage photographs. My favorite frames right now are the ones that give an affect of folded paper or torn edges, but there's also simpler frames with clean lines if you prefer a simpler look. Another popular style that have is a retro film-inspired frame that makes your pictures look like old photobooth or film pictures. The app is free but some of the effects/frames do cost money.
Filmm App for videos: The same team behind the AColorStory app launched Filmm app earlier this year and it is a gem. Most video editing apps only have a few options, but Filmm works similar to photo editing apps by offering loads of filter packs by theme, many with a retro or vintage editing effect. Each pack comes with a few color editing filters and extra effects like grain or sunflare. My favorites are the '8mm' pack and the 'oui' pack which I use quite often to give my IG story videos a bit of extra pizazz. It also allows you to do more basic edits like making something brighter/darker, adding saturation, etc, so it really covers the gamut of what you might need to edit videos. It's one of my favorite new apps and really fits a need I had previously in editing--when I shot video before it was hard to make it feel and look like the rest of my pictures, but this does that. It's also so easy to just brighten or add a bit of warmth to videos that end up looking far too blue because they're shot indoors with poor lighting. The app is free and offers in-app purchases for further filters and effects.
Lightroom mobile: I still prefer editing my main photographs for my Instagram on my computer rather than my phone, but the Lightroom editing app is a great tool that bridges the gap between the two that I can use in a pinch or while traveling. I can even import my presets (the ones I sell) into the app to make for speedier edits (even the free version of this app lets you import presets). Being able to use my presets on my phone is so handy for consistency in my edits across all platforms and helps me maintain my editing style when I don't have access to my computer or want my stories--which I always shoot on my phone--to look like my main photographs, which are shot on my camera. The above pictures are all edited with different presets from my Bloom Pack.
AColorStory: I don't use AColorStory now as much as I used to since you can only use filters or presets already in the app to edit with, but it's still a very handy tool for the speediest of edits. For example, if I take several pictures in a day I can batch edit them in AColorStory which saves so much time when previously I would have had to edit each one individually. And while you can't bring outside filters into AColorStory you can "build" your own within the app by saving your editing steps. Basically at the end of an edit you have the option of saving all your editing steps, then the next time you bring a picture into the app to edit you can apply those saved steps as a personally designed filter. It also can help you plan your feed if you want a more cohesive look (read my blog post here about creating a cohesive IG) with their handy grid tool.

Pictures of flowers are some of my favorites no matter the season, but especially as we head into early spring I'm craving all of the growing and blooming things! If it isn't quite looking like spring in your region yet, then these Instagrammers will help put you in the spring mood. Yasminemei is a lovely florist based in California and I really love the unique mix of colors and textures in her bouquets. Rebekah Bethany isn't an exclusive flower 'grammer, but clearly like myself has an eye for pretty blossoms. I especially love her photographs that combine books, tea, and fresh blooms. One of the prettiest accounts I've found recently though has to be Ann Wood's; she creates the most magical paper flowers that almost seem prettier than the real thing. For soothing photographs of flowers mooncanyon is my absolute favorite. Each of her photographs looks more like a painting and she makes even the humble pansy look mesmerizing.

yasminemei rebekah bethany woodluckermooncanyon

So if you don’t know what I mean by “the algorithm” then this post probably won’t be super relatable to you (or maybe it will! who knows?!). But for those familiar with Instagram, the *new* algorithm is something that comes up again and again as a point of frustration. In short, awhile back Instagram changed the feed from chronological to algorithm based and since then many users have found their posts receive less likes and attention, and even reach less of the people actually following them. The last point is probably the largest point of contention and area of frustration—that people who decided to follow you on their own now don’t even see your posts. Honestly I don’t have the answers; I can’t promise tips that will help you improve your engagement or get more followers, but maybe these suggestions can at least improve your overall experience.
1. Highlight someone else. When you’re feeling especially frustrated by your lack of reach, your lack of engagement: shout-out your favorite accounts in your Instagram stories. Don’t write the people ahead of time, don’t ask for anything in exchange, just share. Share a few favorite pictures from the last week or accounts that consistently inspire you, instead just share. Pass the inspiration on and be an encouragement to someone else probably struggling with the same feelings you have. Especially focus on a small accounts who might really benefit or appreciate the mention. Be the light to someone else who might be feeling the same things you are feeling.
2. Get involved in a new, small hashtag. You can start your own hashtag or merely find a new, preferably small one to follow and love. Try to be active in that hashtag—find some new accounts to follow and like. Make some new friends. Within a smaller, newer hashtag you can really connect with people and build a tight knit community. Sometimes you feel lost in the crowd on Instagram and hashtags can help you find your community.
3. Set challenges for yourself you can achieve with no one else’s help. This was a big thing to me when I started blogging—I didn’t have friends who were interested and I had to learn how to take my own pictures because there was no one around to help. In the end though it made my creativity dependent only on me—if I was willing, I would find a way to do it. Similarly, set challenges for yourself that you can achieve that aren’t dependent on other people liking or commenting on your content. Maybe you want to post more often, or challenge yourself to try a new creative idea once a week (or once a month! make it something you can achieve). Figure out a way to set goals for yourself that don’t depend on anyone else and then feel the success of achieving those goals. Repeat, repeat, repeat!
4. Listen to Me and Orla’s podcast Hashtag Authentic. I suppose I ought to call her Sara Tasker, but I think of people as their usernames so she’s always Me and Orla in my mind. Names aside, I feel like I recommend her podcast to people at least once a week. It’s for all sorts of creatives and honestly, from her soothing voice, to her realistic tips, it’s just an absolute treat. It’s not just for “Instagrammers” or bloggers or any set thing at all, it's for everyone who is or wants to be creative. The podcast has the best, practical advice and honestly, makes you feel good when you listen to it.
5. Take a break. I love the Internet and I’m slightly addicted to my phone, so I’m not about a “phone detox” or whatever you might call it. But it’s sort of like that classic idea of whether you should stay home waiting for the guy to call, or go out and have something to tell him when he does call. If we spend too long on the Internet or apps we don’t have as much to add to the story—the material that adds to those corners comes from the outside world. So even if it’s just setting a few hours a day aside, it can really enrich the content you share. Don't forget to step away from it all and do something creative or fun that isn't for "the 'gram."

As I said earlier, these tips won't necessarily help improve your statistics or "fight" the algorithm, but they can improve your overall experience on the app and your day. Getting sincere thanks from someone who appreciated your mention can be so much more powerful than a new faceless extra follows or empty likes. There's more than one way to measure success and it's up to you to decide how you measure your experience and success.

I have certain questions about blogging and photography that come up again and again. One of those is "how do you always match your outfits to your location???" Another question feels like a variant of that one, "which comes first, the outfit or the location?" Honestly, the answer isn't straight forward one or the other, but rather a combination of the two. The best way to answer is to explain how I plan my "shoots" which will also give you direction if you're looking to improve your coordination in shoots. The main elements to me are: thinking seasonally, exploring often, and being willing to adapt to change.
Thinking Seasonally: One of the biggest ways I plan my photographs is by focusing on the seasons and what affect they have on the landscape around me. As I live in the countryside and most of my pictures are taken within a few minutes of my house I've got to know this region very well and am hyper aware of the subtle changes by season. It's not simply spring, summer, fall, winter; it's the first snowdrops of spring, the wild daffodils in April, the bluebell woods, the apple blossoms in May, and so on. These seasonal scenes help direct some of my photo shoots and determine what I will wear. As we head towards April I started to think about what blue dresses I have in my closet that might match the bluebells or wonder if a romantic white dress might capture that scene better. I know every  May I want to get at least one picture on my in law's farm with the apple blossoms and every September I will want to take a lot of pictures with the apple and plum trees, so I can make wardrobe choices based on that information. I can even pitch the idea of an apple photoshoot to a brand and see if they're interested in partnering. Creative order: location, then outfit.
Capturing an idea: Other times it isn't about a seasonal thing, but rather a mental image I want to bring to reality. With the first image in this post we wanted to shoot something Outlander inspired. I have been reading and watching Outlander for years, but only introduced the show to Thomas while we were in Scotland as a bit of a lark. I never expected him to actually like the show--but he did! He wanted to do an Outlander inspired photograph with some of the standing stones in Ireland and we threw ideas back and forth about what our picture would look like. We finally settled on the idea of two versions of the same person while leaving it a bit open to interpretation (it is before and after, is it a nerd and a book character, a princess and school girl?). I chose outfits that would coordinate in color with each other and the setting while still giving very distinct and different vibes and we went out and shot it. So here the creative order was: idea, then location, then outfit. Even that doesn't always work according to plan if you don't know the location intimately! Case in point: picture above, we wanted to shoot a princess-y look at Scrabo Tower and I thought the yellow dress would be a good look because Scrabo is surrounded by gorse which usually has warm yellow flowers. Of course, we forgot because there isn't a lot of gorse right where we live that the flowers weren't in season, so instead of getting a yellow dress in a sea of yellow flowers I was surrounded by prickly green bushes and no flower in sight! We still took the pictures because we were already there, but the images weren't what we had in mind.
Knowing my surroundings: While there are some big seasonal changes that I will try to plan outfits to match, there's also times when I receive an outfit from a brand or buy a new dress that I didn't buy with a location in mind. Now it is a matter of trying to figure out where to shoot the look. For example I recently collaborated with Good After Nine to feature their new owl rings. The owls gave me early autumn vibes, but it's still very green around me so I tried to think about what locations would give me the right "feeling" I wanted to complement the rings. Knowing my area quite well I had a few options and decided to go for a local corn field because I hadn't taken pictures there before. In my free time I often walk around my area and always take mental notes of areas that look nice. It was one evening on a walk that we saw the beautiful evening light coming through the leaves on the path in the picture above; seeing that I knew it would look nice with a green dress I wanted to shoot and we decided to come back out at the same time the next night to try to capture that light. If we hadn't gone on that walk I probably would have shot the dress at a different location. Even areas you know well are worth exploring often to look for subtle changes or to appreciate them in different light conditions. Creative process: outfit first and then find location to match based on mental notes and exploration.
Going with the flow: So sometimes it's location first, then outfit, other times it's outfit first, then location, and then there are times when things don't go according to plan! For the picture above I got ready for my photoshoot with that outfit, I had a location in mind and headed out of my house, but on the way to my chosen location I stumbled across these sunflowers that had sprung up practically overnight! Thomas took a few quick test shots in the sunflowers and I decided that even though it wasn't what I planned and I wasn't sure what a fox (print) had to do with sunflowers--it was too pretty to go elsewhere for pictures! So this wasn't a planned "matching/coordinated" shoot, but one that happened rather spur of the moment. Similarly, when we travel I can't anticipate what locations we will visit exactly or change my outfit on the spur of the moment to match a location, instead you just have to go with the flow and hope it works! The below picture was taken at a castle in Scotland, I would've worn a long romantic dress if I had known we would be taking a few pictures outside of it, but instead I'm in a tee shirt in a denim pinafore. The shot still works because tonally the colors matched the outfit and I tried to find a pose where the outfit wasn't a focal point (and tried to mostly hide behind the tall grass and my hair!). Don't be so set on an idea or location that you can't work with the settings you find. Get creative because you can't always be perfectly prepared and you don't want to miss out on a great location.

Long gone are the innocent days of blogging and Instagramming when you stuck up a post at 2am featuring whatever was in front of you or on your mind. Now it seems that posting good content on the 'gram isn't enough, said content must also look good collectively. There is a reason for this--people looking to discover someone new to follow stumble across one picture, if they like it enough they will click over to your profile and see the rest of your content presented as a whole. If the content looks very random or wildly varying in quality, they might not follow. However, if you chase one picture to a beautiful feed that is pleasing to the eye and seems full of intriguing content, you probably hit that follow button pretty quickly. Truth be told though, I feel quite strange writing this post about curating a cohesive feed because I don't think my feed is very cohesive especially in spring or summer (I like to think of it as coordinated)! I'm probably going to feel like a phony writing most of my blogging tips in this new series! However, I get asked these questions fairly often and I'm happy to share what works for me and what I've learned over the years.
Develop a specific color scheme. The biggest way to unite your feed is through color; some people stick to a very strict color scheme that gives all of their photographs a distinct feel. When I think of someone with a distinct color story, alexandriaslens comes to mind. All of her photographs have a similar moody meets dreamy lighting and editing. Another thing I really appreciate about her feed and editing is that she does include lots of color; her posts feel united through a moody blue, but she also features pops of red and yellow. They key isn't always to get so focused on a set color scheme that you can't feature other colors, but rather to have a unifying style of editing that makes all of your photographs look like they belong together--like pages in a story. It definitely helps if you can stick to a strict color scheme in your wardrobe or photographs, but I think it's better to be able to play with color and still have a sense of cohesiveness without overly restricting yourself. If you want a unifying color scheme think about what color you want to emphasize and focus on in your photographs and desaturating or using other colors minimally.
Cohesiveness is more than just color editing. A voice is ultimately what gives your Instagram a cohesive feel. It's how you tell a story and that comes from more than just what filters you like or how you edit, that also comes from the content you shoot. If you look at alexandriaslens's photographs, they feature: a centered, single subject in a clean, natural setting (with moody skies). Vastly different is tifforelie; her photographs also often feature a single, centered subject but the photographs are busy and the subject is much smaller in the scene. Whether she shoots in a city or in the wilderness, these are unifying elements along with color--her photographs tend to have a lot going on and a lot of things in focus. I really admire her ability to shoot in vastly different landscapes but still have an identifying feel to her photographs that you recognize her work no matter where or what she shoots. Part of being cohesive is having a style of photography and voice. Are your pictures consistently busy with small subjects, or simpler with bigger areas of focusing, or even a mix of both? Do you like being able to see everything in a shot, or to have the focus more fixed so the background is blurred and secondary? Figuring out your answers to those questions will help you create content that feels like it belongs together and has your distinct stamp to it.
Plan in advance and look at your feed as a whole before you post. Ultimately whatever your strategy to keeping your content cohesive one thing that is really going to help you know whether a new photo works with your previous posts is being able to see your grid before you post. There are a few apps that will allow you to do this (you can do it AColorStory and VSCOcam), personally I use Preview. What I like about Preview is it syncs with my Instagram feed so I don't have to input pictures when I forget to plan in advance and can arrange and rearrange new unposted photos to my heart's content. Above is a screenshot of my current feed as seen through Preview; photos with the IG logo in the bottom corner are posts live on my feed and the first two photos are what I am planning on sharing next (with the first one covered by a flower box because *spoilers*). Again in the spirit of honesty, I usually only have 1-3 photos in advance at a time--I'm not a big planner when it comes to content! Anyway, I think seeing the feed in advance is the biggest "trick" to having a cohesive feed--by planning your feed and seeing what works and doesn't work before you post you really have a chance to keep your content concentrated or even help you transition between color schemes or seasons. I like to use the planning to balance photos, to keep me from posting too many photos from the same distance or with the same pose back-to-back. Instead I can see when things feel too repetitive and try to break them up so there's a sense of balance to the feed overall.
Try to transition and balance your content, instead of boxing yourself in. I sort of touch on this in the last point, but another way to be cohesive, or coordinated in the way I am, is not by adhering to a strict way of editing or specific color story, but trying to balance and transition your content. While I love cohesive themes personally I'm very inspired by nature with my photographs and that changes so much seasonally that my content can not look the same in winter as in spring (unless I seriously want to drown out that spring green, which I don't because I look forward so much to the new growth and color that comes in that season!). Even within seasons I love to explore different regions and a wildflower field will have very different colors to a manor house garden or an isolated castle. I also can't stop myself from wearing all of the colors--my closet is pretty much a rainbow. And sometimes I like photographs where I'm small in the image and it's more about the location and other times I post really tight photographs of my face! Instead of trying to force my photographs and outfits to fit a mold that feels awkward, I try to find unifying elements and to transition between posts, just as seasons themselves steadily transition. I make my editing slightly lighter and lighter as I head towards spring, slowly re-introducing green into the feed until it takes over! If I shoot a post mid-season that doesn't seem to "fit" with everything else, I try to find photographs with similar elements to "lead" into the new post so it won't stick out like a sore thumb. Above is my feed in a time where it's not perfectly cohesive or matched, but I like to think it still feels balanced.
Good content will always trump matching content. Ultimately though as much as a cohesive feed looks cool, the focus should be on stand-alone posts. Posting something just to transition or match seems like a waste if it doesn't tell a story or give anyone anything worthwhile to engage with. And if you have a great photo or moment you want to share, don't let the lack of matching your current content stop you from posting it!