Make sure you follow us on Instagram!
Our Username is galvestoncom
Galveston.com & Company is pleased to announce a great new user-generated feature to its flagship website. The new feature utilizes Instagram, a "fun and quirky way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures." A free photography app available for both iPhone and Android devices, Instagram allows you to snap a photo with your mobile phone, then choose a filter to transform the image into a memory to keep around forever. According to Instagram's website, the company imagines a world "more connected through photos."
How the feature works is fairly simple. Say a visitor to the Island takes a photo of Galveston's Seawall with Instagram. Using a keyword hashtag to label the photo - in this case, #GalvestonSeawall - the image is then automatically included in the Seawall Instagram section on both Galveston.com and Galveston.com mobile. Thru the use of RSS ("Really Simple Syndication") feeds, Galveston.com is easily able to include a number of continuously-updated photos based on a variety of tourism-related topics, including beaches, The Strand, annual events like Mardi Gras, attractions like the Pleasure Pier, and more.
Here's our step-by-step tutorial!
1. Launch App
2. Snap Photo
Instagram is a free app currently available for both iPhones and Android devices. Once installed, simply click the Instagram icon to launch.
This is the main screen. To snap a photo, simply frame your subject in the screen, and click the camera icon.
3. Apply Desired Filter
4. Share Photo
From this screen, there are a number of different filters you can choose to apply to your photo. After testing each, we selected the "Kelvin" filter to this image.
Playing around with the icons around the screen, you'll discover you can "rag" the edges of the photo, "blur" sections of the photo, change light settings and more.
Don't like the photo you snapped? Click the "Red X" to delete and begin again. Satisfied with your image? Click the "Green Check Mark."
This is the Sharing Screen. In the top box, you can use this space to add your comments that will accompany the photo. You can also, as we've done here, include hashtags with your image.
Each category in our Instagram section is user-driven by hashtags. And if your Instagram profile is set to public, you can add tags to your photos that will make them visible on public tag pages here on Galveston.com.
In the photo above, we included 2 hashtags, which we feature on Galveston.com: #Galveston (which is used to populate our General Galveston Scenes page); and #GalvestonStrand (which is used to populate our Strand page.)
Galveston.com offers a variety of hastags you can use to ensure your images appear live on our website:
#Galveston: General Galveston scenes
#Galveston Ferry: photos taken on board any of the Bolivar ferries
From this page, you can also choose to share the image with other applications, including Facebook and Twitter. Once finished, click the green "Share" button. Bam! You're now way cool!
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