The Instagram Interviews: Karan Bhatia
One of Karan’s many beautiful photos. For more, check out his Instagram.
1. What piqued your interest in photography, and how long after that did you join Instagram?
I have long been an avid rock climber. Climbing takes me around to quite a few places and I decided to buy a camera to try and capture a couple memories while on climbing trips. I never intended to get into photography…I just wanted snapshots of things happening and views, to remember the climbs by. I soon learned that there was much more the camera could do and immediately fell in love with the process behind photography. I joined Instagram about 9 months later.
2. How has your account grown since you first started on Instagram?
When I first started, it was mostly just friends and family following me. It was rare to get more then 10 likes on a photo. I kept posting once a day, every morning, and slowly just started noticing people following me. I eventually started picking up on the community behind Instagram and became more involved and outgoing, as far as looking for other Instagrammers around the globe and meeting them whenever I could.
3. How would you compare your usage of Instagram to other social media outlets? Which ones do you spend the most time on, and which ones seem to generate the most exposure?
I definitely spend the most time on Instagram. I have a Tumblr and Twitter that I rarely use and a Facebook which I use far less, since Instagram. I would say 95% of my time spent on social media is spent on Instagram. As far as generating exposure, I can’t think of a better outlet. I know a lot of people who’ve built entire careers around Instagram and their photos.
4. Speaking of different marketing approaches, what advice would you give to a photographer looking to market themself on Instagram?
If you’re trying to market yourself on Instagram, the most important thing to do is engage with the community. Find locals and others and engage with them. A lot of my best friends were made through this app. The community recognizes people active in it and is welcoming. Integrating in the network that this app has created is a great way to build a reputation. It’s also obviously important to have stand out work.
5. If you could choose just one thing that has made the most impact on your work as a photographer, what would it be?
Rock climbing has definitely had the biggest impact on my photography. It opened me up to a world of landscapes and that spilled right over into my photography. Landscape is my favorite subject to shoot and that has everything to do with me already having spent a lot of time outdoors before hand.
6. Anything else you’d like to add?
Photography is a constant learning process. You never finish learning to shoot. There is always room to grow and improve. Embrace that and don’t be discouraged if your work isn’t where you want it to be. Use it as motivation to get better and never stop trying to get better