The Real Meaning Behind Instagram Hashtags

Published: October 10, 2018
Another light-hearted look at the real meaning behind the hashtags you see scattered throughout your timeline.

#bnw_captures - took a photo that sucked, converted it to black and white in the vain hope that it might improve it - it did not

#nofilter - Maybe not applied in Instagram, but almost certainly processed to fuck and back in Photoshop. This tag is generally only used after a painful process of self-realisation in which the Instagrammer discovers that every single one of their 9,000 over-saturated eye-bleeding nightmare-like photographs is vile.

#travelstoke - unemployed hipsters photographing their feet in picturesque locations from a mattress in the back of a 20 year old Transit van.

#wanderlust - as per travelstoke only without the van

#natgeo - lol

#modelsofinstagram - Tiffany, 19 years old, failed hair-dresser, currently showcasing her spray-tan and bolt-on tits in the hope of becoming an 'influencer'

#sensual_ladies - As above only in a plus size

#dronestagram - bomb shot of a beach that could be anywhere on the planet (except maybe Woking) processed using a high contrast Lightroom preset

#ishootfilm - I'm edgy and desperately trying to differentiate myself from the million other photographers told by friends and family that they ought to 'go pro' because they're 'really good'

#fashionphotographer - Brian (22) photographing his girlfriend Nadine (20 - sucking on a lollypop) on city roof-tops and train stations

#boudoirphotography - Mature woman who has applied make-up with a trowel wearing ill-advised crotchless knickers posing on a brass bedstead with scarfs tied lightly around her wrists while her husband nurses a painful erection from the shadows behind the photographer

#uas - drone flier with a licence who stopped calling his/her drone a drone the day he/she passed a two day test in a sports field and was charged several thousand dollars for the honour

#picoftheday - just padding out to my 30th hashtag

#goldenratio - never, ever the golden ratio

#streetart - photograph taken of something artistic by someone who isn't

#moodygrams - light rain and a street lamp

#justgoshoot - quantity over quality

#photography - I've given up the will to live

#fineartphotographer - Wanker with delusions of grandure

#foodgram - Eggs benedict on sourdough that went cold while the photographer tested all 900 filter permutations in Snapseed

#concertphotographer - Postage stamp sized stage about a kilometre away from the photographer

#urbanphotography - piss-stinking alleyway filtered with crushed blacks

#explorer - gap year snapshots of monkeys in Thailand

#dronebois - drone shot taken in contravention of at least three national airspace laws

#astrography - bloke shining an LED torch up into the sky

#global_hotshotz - every photo ever posted on Instagram must have this tag, but nobody knows why

#jaw_dropping_shotz - 100% saturation and clarity

#wildlifephotography - zoo animals photographed with a long lens in order to look like they were in the Serengeti and not London

#madwhips - Suburu with a body kit, side skirts and an exhaust system

#leadinglines - a railway track

#abstract - blurred

#instagood - categorically shite

#selfshot - duckface narcissist

For the last 16 years I’ve been photographing, blogging (and more recently vlogging) about everything I find, see and enjoy here in South Coast, New South Wales. This is my blogging site focused on my hobby (and part-time job) of photography. Please enjoy my little writing and my photography and I’d love to hear your feedback.
© 2021 Andy Hutchinson
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