I’m one of those people that responds to visuals. When I lead a Bible study I often bring props or use a visually driven analogy. When my husband is trying to teach me something computer or financial related, I need to see it all in front of me. Hearing isn’t always enough for me.

It’s the same for my writing. Our living room is full of amateur nature photos I’ve captured through the years. My favorites are Adirondack Mountain scenes because that is where my contemporary romance is set. There’s something about the pine trees, water, and peaks that not only take my breath away, but inspire my writing.

This is why I enjoy Instagram. I briefly mentioned this aspect of social media last year and now that I joined, I can say I’m a fan. They recently took some heat for proposed changes that appeared to take away photo owner rights, but the executives listened and are open to work with their members. You take pictures on your smartphone, click to share on Instagram, crop, and have fun applying filters before sharing. Like Facebook, Instagram has followers, and like Twitter, Instagram is #hashtag driven.

Because of hashtags, there is opportunity for non followers to find your pictures. I enjoy sharing sunsets and have new followers or general likes because I used the tag, #sunset.  On the flip side, since I love sunsets, and finding them on Instagram is easy, and a great pick me up. Searching for mountains or Adirondacks gives me ample visuals to help me focus on my writing.

Yesterday Instagram made profiles available on desktop. Click on my profile page (or anyone’s) and you see a slideshow on top featuring my pictures. It’s easy to navigate and fun to look at pictures from people I’m following that are bigger on my computer screen. And inspiring? Although I haven’t figured out how to do a random search on desktop, I don’t really need to. The people I’m following have enough visuals in my feed to inspire me and my writing all day.

This picture of my mom’s porch at Christmas is one I couldn’t wait to put on Instagram.

Are you on Instagram? Do you follow a certain theme, like sunsets, or follow certain people, like celebrities? If you’re thinking about joining, one hashtag tip–#tbt is Throw Back Thursday. Post a picture from your past and give it the #tbt hashtag. Make sure you find me and my nature and family shots–you can find me as JulieArduini.