RUSHINGOUTDOORS: I AM GOING TO DOWNPLAY MY INSTAGRAM PRESSENCE AND MOVE EMPHASIS TO RUSHINGOUTDOORS.NET AND RUSHINGOUTDOORS SUBSTACK

I started and began posting to my RushingOutdoors Instagram account April 4, 2018. I did this for the simple reason it was considered the best platform for photographers to share their work with other photographers and non-photographers interested in wildlife and bird natural history. Even though Instagram did not render a high-quality image and had a number of constraints such as square aspect ratio. What it did have was a huge number of connected accounts and therefore potentially large number of followers with whom to share my conservation stories. From my bio:

I watch the natural outdoors of my youth disappearing. I record its remaining everyday beauty to make a case for personal conservation actions.

During the pandemic Instagram’s presence grew in the birding and bird photography communities as a large number of people discovered the mental health benefits of being in nature. But something else was changing. TikTok’s subscriber’s exploded as an even larger number of people turned to short form videos as entertainment (escapism). TikTok’s algorithm rewarded Stories ‘creators’.

Instagram moved quickly to stop the market share loss with almost continuous updates to their algorithm. All with the intent to reward ‘creators’ and ‘influencers’ who know how to ‘stop the death scroll’.

I saw the changes on my own feed in two ways. I seldom see in posts of the photographers I choose to follow. I do see hundreds of ‘Suggested For You’ accounts. At the same time, my analytics showed me that fewer and fewer of my Followers were seeing my posts.

So I’m going to revitalized RushingOutdoors.net. Two things I’ve done is add a widget to my BLOG & RUSHINGOUTDOORS ON INSTAGRAM page. This will be updated with the Instagram posts I continue to make (I remain committed to linking to loyal Followers and NGOs I support. You don’t have to have an Instagram account to view the posts.

I have also added a Page linked to my Substack posts. Or better yet, go there and get a free subscription: https://steverushing844230.substack.com/

I also intend publishing more long-form Blog posts. My plan is for a series that takes on Conventional Wisdom Zombies – rules of photography that have been around for years and perpetrated on many forums. And, ruin many photographs.

But we all know the saying about ‘good intentions’ 🙂

Steve