After talking with some of my friends, I realized a bookstagram blog post all about my adventures with it might be useful – and I’ll start from the very beginning. My journey started last July, when I suddenly got an urge for a new creative outlet, and to start collecting books again.
My very first few posts looked like this:
Grave Mercy was the first photo I ever took, and it was taken on my desk at work. I was excited, there was a thrill to posting it, and the rush of it was intense. I LOVED the idea of talking about books I’d been reading. The second photo was on my bed, for a book I was excited to read.
They’re not great. But I was just starting out. I was figuring out what worked for me, and what didn’t in terms of hashtags and captions as well. All of it takes time to learn. I had no idea what to do. I was flinging things around and hoping something would stick. I hadn’t quite gotten to the bookstagram aesthetic desire yet.
Once I was comfortable with how to post things, I started expanding a bit more. A lot of what I did was experimental. This is where I about clued into aesthetic accounts but was still doing my own thing. Sometimes I miss these days, just where I took things depending on my mood.
It’s older, but the picture with my kindle remains one of my favorite pictures. It’s so simple, but I love the colors and composition of it. (also, that succulent? is dead. very dead. I have issues keeping plants alive.)
I also featured a series I really loved — again, I was trying out a different background. There was no cohesiveness to it. And yet, I was doing what I loved.
My next step was a bit more experimentation with props. We had a lot of fake flowers, so I started with those. My mother willingly gave me all her old craft supplies for my new adventure. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate her support and delight over each new milestone or new thing I try.
Totally different, but both used flowers. I tried one on a wood background (which I still love!) and one on my desk. (Yes, my desk is purple) Nice, but nothing special honestly. Framing was another issue. Both are centered (like a lot of my photos are) but you can see stems everywhere on them.
My next move was to use more props. As much as possible! At this point I had a great desire to just throw everything I could find into the photo.
Thus, you got things like the above. I don’t mind it, but I feel like there are a lot of items without being cohesive. There are some amazing aesthetic accounts with tons of props that look amazing.
I then went simpler for some photos…
I used an old item, which was my red cloak. And just had three things in the photo total: the cloak, the book and the black velvet background.
From there I got a little better at figuring out things. I wanted to try some different things. I decided I did want to try aesthetic.
I went with hand on book, then all out with flower petals, and learned how to put book covers onto kindles (I mean, I know how to graphic edit, but didn’t think about doing it to kindle books until about then). The second photo was the end of October, so I was still figuring out myself. This was also when I clued into the fact that I maybe needed to think about book budgeting at some point…
I then switched back to the hardwood floor look along with some others.
Right around December I started catching onto theming my bookstagram fully. It resulted in December + January and a more cohesive theme. It was simple, but it helped me figure out what I wanted to do.
This is also where I started to use pinecones more. As we edged into February I went with a consistent look for all my photos using similar items in them all. These were busier, but I felt more cohesive than my earlier busy ones.
I will admit I got bored of it pretty quick. I went through this phase of using lots of pinecones, petals and flowers for a few months. It was nice, but I didn’t love it. For me, they were too similar. I love change and different views, so this wasn’t working for me personally. I like it when other people do it, just not me!
Then, once more…you get a bit of a filter on the first, and the second actually has one too, but it didn’t show up as much. Very different styles, but all sticking with pinecones.
From there I made my way into a new filter.
It’s brighter and has more natural tones to it so I don’t deplete the gorgeous covers. Finally, my most recent iteration is the same filter as above, but instead of using just white backing, I changed it to wood again. (Although I do have shelves and other things mixed in as well)
So, here are my newest additions:
I’m loving the new wood and the filter. I also have pictures of my shelves, so all in all it fits what I want.
The biggest thing I miss about my earliest days is all the fun I had trying new things, and just enjoying taking photos. I got to the point where I was so obsessed with it, that I started to hate it. Now that I’ve backed off and am taking photos I like, or photos that are spontaneous, I’ve started to enjoy myself again.
There is no shame in not having a cohesive theme or whatever seems important. The biggest thing is having fun and sharing your love of books with others. I lost sight of that, but now that is is back, I really, truly, love what I’m doing.
Do you have questions? Suggestions? Comments? Want to talk IG?