Things I Learned While Bookstagramming

I started a book Instagram this summer. I’ve had a personal Instagram for about three years now and I’m really enjoying all the aesthetically pleasing pictures of books and coffee cups on it, so I decided to join the party :). I’m really enjoying it so far, and it has also proven to be a really good opportunity to use the fancy camera I bought recently.

I figured I would write a little post on my experiences up till now and then maybe an update later. If you have anything to add, or anything to advise/teach me, please please comment below :).

So I started out making random photos of books like these:

Some worked better than others, but overall I am quite happy with them. I discovered that the ones I like the most aren’t necessarily the ones people will like the most, but oh well – I decided quite quickly not to mind that too much.

It’s a bit of a hassle to upload camera pictures: I transfer them to my computer first, crop them and maybe change the light in Photofiltre and then sync them with my phone via iTunes to be able to upload them. I used to think that pictures you uploaded had to be taken that day, but lots of people don’t. They even add little chats about their day that are completely unrelated to the photo itself! I’ve started to copy this practice and it’s been quite nice. I take about 10 pictures at once and then upload them throughout the week.

While I was on holiday in Germany I did a little log of German translations of English classics I spotted:

Look at that gorgeous Pride and Prejudice!

After I got back and took pictures with my camera again I decided I wanted more of a specific theme or aesthetic for my feed. I tried a few things, but ultimately settled for the wooden table in our living room in Groningen:

I simply adore the pattern and colouring of these pictures, but unfortunately I had to leave this table behind when I moved to Brussels. It is massive and *small detail* doesn’t belong to me. I’m still working on finding a nice place & look for my book photos. At the moment I’m taking most of them on my windowsill or bed:

The windowsill pictures have to be taken at exactly the right moment in the day, because they need the daylight but get overlit quite easily. They are also a bit darker and maybe not as cosy as the other ones, but oh well. It’s really nice to experiment with different angles and settings, so I might find something else before long. After that I should probably stick with my look, as that was the whole point of having one aesthetic to begin with :P.

In case you’re interested – come find my feed so we can be Insta-buddies :).

Comment question: Do you think a feed should have a theme and one consistent look/aesthetic?

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I’m working on an update about the five books I was reading at the same time (read: I’ve already written it but want to take the pictures in the daylight) and I’m thinking about doing something more on Brussels or my internship at a publishers – would you be interested in that?

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