FocusOn Instagramers 1.34: @Croyable
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Each week, Instagramers.com discovers new people. People addicted to Instagram, revealing their lives, passions, tips in Instagram. This week, we dedicate our weekly interview to a great guy called @Croyable. I met him few months agothrough a contest we organized with our Instagramers Suisse team and i kept his name in mind till today. @Croyable is probably one of the most important Igers in this small but very active country in Instagram called The Netherlands.
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My name is Eelco Roos.
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I am 37 and live in The Netherlands, blessed with a beautiful and loving girlfriend Pauline (@kaasmetjam in Instagram) and 2 great kids, the eldest is Mees who is 6 years old, and Linus, our 4 year old. They are a constant inspiration, and stimulate me to chase my dreams.
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I have been working in the IT industry for over 10 years now, currently in Amsterdam at Big Blue IBM, it’s not exactly what I had dreamed of as a kid, but the work I am doing gives me just enough satisfaction to stay happy.
Instagram and the feedback I get from other users has given me the confidence to try and do something with my ‘talent’.
I am looking into possibilities and opportunities to start a more creative way of living for myself. I really need inspiring people around me, I’m happy I have got these people at home, and I am fortunate enough to have creative and inspiring friends, from musicians to graphic designers, painters and artists, but I would also like to work in an environment with people that challenge me on an artistic level, and I don’t see that happening anytime soon at Big Blue.
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Besides my passion for photography, Music is my another inspiration.
Really all kinds of music, from old soul and funk, electronic to singer songwriter kind of music. When it moves me, body and soul, it’s good! Preferably Vinyl by the way, I’ve got a big collection of Vinyl albums, and the sound of the needle hitting the record is still one of the nicest sounds ever. I also love going to ‘small’ festivals with my girlfriend and friends, programmed with ‘up and coming’ bands and artists, because I just love the thought of ‘discovering’ new music.
As stated before, some of my friends are musicians, so if they need a video or album cover, I always get the first call. This is something I really love doing in my spare time, getting creative with friends, plotting a script for a video, setting up for an album cover shoot. They basically give me ‘carte blanche’ and that’s a great way to work. People trusting that what ever you will do, will turn out nice. It really is a dream to get the opportunity to make a video or album cover for a band I really admire, who knows what the future might bring, never stop dreaming and dream big is one of my motto’s!
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Thank you Eelco for graciously accepting to answer our weekly interview! (You can see all his gallery in Instagram here.)
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When did you first join IG?
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I Joined IG in June of 2011. At first I thought, why bother, I never took a decent picture with my 3GS. But then I started looking at other people’s feeds and discovered some truly amazing artists, taking incredible pictures. From that point on I felt challenged to reach that standard as well.
I started downloading different apps, and trying them out for hours and hours. I started with some real basic tools like PhotoToaster and Camera+.
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Why are you so addicted to IG? And how would you define your style?
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The community is really what makes IG as addictive as it is for me. The feedback you get, the possibility to travel across the world in a single swipe is amazing. Seeing the world from different perspectives and trough different cultural eyes is so incredibly inspiring. Getting feedback from photographers you really admire is something nothing else can bring, sure i like it when a colleague says he likes my pictures, but to hear this from very talented photographers is really something else.
I’m having a hard time defining my style because I think I am only just yet figuring out what works best for me. When I started 6 months back, I tried out all different types of photography possible with the iPhone, when I tried B&W I missed color, when I used HDR I felt like I was cheating. But this is all really the technical side of it.
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I think overall my style is pretty natural editing wise, Nature is my muse, some users pointed out that isolation is a reoccurring theme, looking back at my pictures, they have a point, if there are people in my pictures, they are frequently alone in a natural setting. I love taking solo walks and going out with my family, enjoying nature in all it’s forms, no matter the weather, although fog always adds that something you can’t really define to a picture, so fog is probably my favourite weather type.
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Were you already fond of photography before you started instagramming?
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Yes, I have been taking pictures for 20 years or more now, I started with a Nikon FG analog camera when I was around 16. I carried around this little notebook and pencil, and wrote down the exact settings for all 24 pictures I took on a roll, so when the photo’s where developed, I could see what settings worked, and what I could have done better. Now in the Digital age, this is all saved in the EXIF data of the picture for you, which is far more efficient, but I got to say that sometimes I miss my little notebook… The lastest camera I bought is the Canon 7D, I switched from Nikon to Canon just for the 60 frames per second option the 7D gives you when filming in HD. The slomo’s are so nice!!
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My girlfriend can’t make sense of me taking pictures with my iPhone, when I have got this big 7D around my neck, “iPhone only” people on Instagram will probably understand. Lol.
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For you, which are the 3 best photo apps?
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Filterstorm because of the freedom it gives me, for example; I like to create my own vignettes, and this app is really the tool to do this with. The masking and speed it does it with is unparalleled. Camera+ for taking pictures, you can control both focus and light metering, and this is a big plus for me!
For some pictures I take 2 shots, one for the background and one for the foreground, I basically paint with light that way in Filterstorm, because I don’t really like what HDR on an iPhone does to my pictures, especially the ‘halo’ effect (and yes, it still feels like cheating a bit. Lol. CrossProcess is really great for nature pictures. But again, everything gets a final edit in Filterstorm.
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How much time do you spend on IG on an average day? And what do you do?
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Right now I would say about 1 or 2 hours a day, but in the beginning it was taking over my life!
Not everybody was happy with that, so I made a conscious decision to stop answering all comments, and use that time to look at the pictures of the people I follow, and my followers. I do try to answer questions people ask about editing techniques and such.
I try to look at it from my own perspective at the beginning of using Instagram, I was happier when someone took the time to visit my feed, then to get a response after I had left a comment; “thank you @croyable”, which of course was also nice, but I liked it even better when they visited my feed, and maybe even started to follow me!
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Which is your favourite picture?
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That’s such a hard question Phil, but at the end of the year, I did a repost of one of my earliest ‘levee/dyke’ pictures. This picture was taken right after my friend @journeyofnow suggested a nice Hipstamatic combination for my style. I think this shot really nailed the qualities of Hipstamatic, and it turned out like an iconic picture for The Netherlands in my opinion. It underlines the comments from other users about the isolation in my pictures, a lonely figure in a natural setting. There is an old song in The Netherlands ‘how strong is the lonesome cyclist’ which inspired me to start taking these levee/dyke pictures, and it has become somewhat of a signature style for me.
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What was your first reaction when you had your first Pop? And do you still like the picture?
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I was thrilled that I made it! I made a screenshot of the popularpage, en “whats app’ed” it to some of my friends, who really couldn’t relate, but I had to share it with someone! Afterwards I commented about it under the picture, and I got some nice reactions from other users. It was a picture of the windmill at the end of my street, I still like it, although I would have edited it differently now.
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Are your “non Instagramming” friends and family members bothered by your IG addiction?
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They were, especially my girlfriend and kids, it came to a point where me and my girlfriend had a long talk about it, and we found some middle ground. Looking back at it, it actually is shocking how deep you can get sucked in to this instagram thing! But, apart form being on Instagram, editing and taking pictures is still taking up a big chunk of my spare time, but the exposition in New York and winning the Ford EU Entry challenge made up for some lost time, I am taking my girlfriend to Switzerland in April, we will be skiing and be VIPs at the Caprices festival all weekend. The opportunities it is bringing me, made them understand and respect the time I am investing into this thing I love to do.
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Is there a link between your personal Instagramers Life and activities and your job?
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No, there really is no link, the only thing I can think of with work is the following, since i’m active on Instagram, I take daily detours to work, so I drive through the inner country of The Netherlands, instead of using the highways, that way I come across little hidden treasures of beauty, and a lot of cows, lol. It has made me more appreciative of my beautiful country.
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Can you tell us about local Instagramers activities, instawalk, instameet? What have been your experience til now?
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@mariannehope invited me to join the @igersholland team a few months back, and we are in the middle of some talks about setting up meets and walks. We attended the InstaWalk the Amsterdam group set up, and we arranged our first IGersHolland Walk in November, it was nice to get together with the team and shoot some pictures, for 2012 me and @sfennema are preparing a Nature Walk, but we will wait for the sun to come back out, so this will probably be in the spring or summer. Some other events are in the planning phase.
We also have very lively city groups, which are all arranging InstaWalks, these walks are promoted through our @igersholland feed and we try to attend as many as possible.
I don’t think Instagram in The Netherlands is as big as in Spain and Italy for example, but it’s slowly developing into a solid community.
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A funny anecdote in your short Instagram life?
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Ha, the first story that comes to mind is this; a few weeks back I was taking one of my detours to work, and I stopped at this pasture with grazing cows, I left the car on the middle of the road andsnapped a few shots, 2 minutes later I got back in my car and drove off. A few miles onwards I noticed I was being followed by a police motorcycle, he signaled me to the side of the road, asked me for my papers, and was wondering what I was doing at the pasture.
I tried to explain that i just took some pictures with my phone, and not to plot a terrorist attack against cows. I really got the full checkup of my papers, he radio-ed the station and all, and I actually had to show him the pictures! After a about 2 minutes of ‘interrogation’ he gave me back my papers, and wished me a nice day. Pfew. (did you hear about those missing cows though? LOL)
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A trick you would recommend?
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Ehmmm… no real tricks, but I noticed that not all users with iOS5 are aware of the camera launch button on the start screen, tap the home button twice when locked, and you get the camera icon! Works really fast when you need your camera right away!
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Something you would say to a new user?
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On Instagram, follow people who inspire you, and not just because they might follow you back, just be active and creative with comments, this will get you noticed. The rest will follow! On a creative level:
A Jim Jarmusch Quote:
“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery – celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.”
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A user you would recommend?
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One user, that’s just impossible!
I am not going to mention the obvious great artists with loads of followers, but just some people who’s work I admire, and I think deserve more followers:
@chrisozer This man shows a part of Brooklyn you won’t even know exists, at least, when I think of Brooklyn I see streets and stoops, really exceptional pictures! @Janske One of my all-time favorites on IG, you can see that she put’s a lot of thought into every picture, beautiful scenes, and exquisite edits, she has actually taught me a few very important things about color.
@Barrut .He is a true master of composition and shadows, all in B&W, he shares my love for #hombrecitos (this tag created by @kainxs means “little men figures” in spanish) and does it so well!
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Thanks Eelco! Very glad to share your thoughts here! You can see his Gallery in Instagram here.
@philgonzalez
