9 Mind Blowing Instagram Photographers

As you might have surmised by now, I am absolutely addicted to Instagram. It may be the greatest piece of software ever developed! It certainly is the best mobile app that has been developed. You can be captivated by both professional and amateur photographers on Instagram. Some of the snap to make a name for themselves, other post to promote the sale of their photos and still others post for completely different altruistic reasons.

I completely disagree with the arguments that IG is ruining photography, quite the contrary I think it is democratizing photography so anyone can gain a following for their art. What's more, an immense creativity wave has been unleashed because of the combination of "always having a smartphone camera" and the many digital effects software and apps available for photography. It's a new game and if the old guard photographers do not get on board they will be left behind!

I hope to completely transform you into an IG junkie with this brief tour through some of the most brilliant minds on IG. If you have absolutely no idea what Instagram, then you have come to the right place because I am going to blow your mind and demonstrate why you have to have this app. I will add more mind blowing Instagram users as I find them. Let me know if you know of any others.

For newbies, Instagram is a mobile application that you download (for free) to your Apple or Android smartphone or tablets. IG is only available on mobile devices, several websites have sprouted so that you can view IG accounts on the web (from an old fashioned computer). In order to make it easy for you to see more of the shots of each of the Instagram users that I have highlighted, I have linked to Webstagram, Statigram or IG itself. You do not need an IG account to view the links but you should create one, or login if you already have an account, because then you can follow the Instagram photographers right on webstagram.

You can also Follow us on Instagram

If photography is not really your thing, you might have more fun following Musicians on Instagram, such as Snoop Dogg, Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift. I have also created a specialized lists of NBA Players on Instagram.

Image provided with permission from Ali Jardine. You can follow her on IG @__alijardine__. Link provided below. Image is not for re-distribution and all rights reserved by Ali Jardine. You can purchase one of her shots at Ali Jardine on Canvaspop.

All rights reserved. Copyright 2012 Tonto Murray on Hubpages

Ali Jardine is a well followed iPhoneographer on Instagram and she is also one of the most prolific producers with over 2,400 photos posted. Her shots are a blend of natural photos caught with her unique eye and thought provoking shots created with editing software. You can buy certain of Ali's works through canvaspop. The selection available to buy changes frequently.

@alijardine

2,300 photos 500,000 followers

Images provided with permission from Ali Jardine. These are not for re-distribution and all rights reserved by Ali Jardine.

So far only a few souls on Instagram have heard of Johnny Lace but I am confident that is going to change. This young photographer from Las Vegas has a keen eye for the unusual. He also uses effects to cut multiple photographs together into stunning photos. I have shown two of my personal favorites here but you can see his entire collection on his tumbler page.

@JohnnyLace

430 photos 16,400 followers

Images provided with permission from Johnny Lace Photography. These are not for re-distribution and all rights reserved by JohnnyLacePhotography.

A professional photographer specializing in weddings, engagements and action sport photography, Zak uses Instagram to share his unique eye for photography of the Southwestern US. You can check out his full Instagram portfolio at Instacanv.as.

@zakshelhamer

970 photos 160,000 followers

Images provided with permission from Zak Shelhamer. These are not for re-distribution and all rights reserved by Zak Shelhamer

Dustin Vaughn-Luma is a web designer that may just be a better photographer. Unfortunately, web designing must take a lot of his time because we do not get near as many photos as we would like. Still though he has posted over 320 shots and many of them are excellent.

@dvl

480 photos 129,000 followers

Images provided with permission from Dustin Vaughn-Luma. These are not for re-distribution and all rights reserved by Dustin Vaughn-Luma.

Eelco Roos (croyable) is an iPhoneographer from the Netherlands, meaning that he only uses his iPhone for all photos. And yet he is able to capture brilliant photos with such a simple tool. He won an iPhone Photography Award in the beginning of 2012 in the Childrens and Seasons category. He uses children in a lot of his shots but there is nothing pedestrian about these shots. He captures motion excellently and has a great eye for unusual backdrops. You can see all of Eelco's work on his photography blog.

@croyable

890 photos 440,000 followers

Images provided with permission from Eelco Roos. These are not for re-distribution and all rights reserved by Eelco Roos.

The brilliant minds behind charitywater have leveraged the Instagram platform like no one else I have seen. First, they created an amazing charity that is bringing potable drinking water to the large swaths of Africa that don't have it. Second, they realized the power of stunning photography on Instagram to get their word out. The end result is a viral charity with an ability to change millions of lives.

@charitywater

1,000 photos 225,000 followers

Images provided with permission from charitywater.org, Donate to CW here. These are not for re-distribution and all rights reserved by charitywater.org

mr007 has been on instagram for a while and is building up a devoted following. He is very adroit at blending the lines of architecture with the contrast between light and dark in his photography. You will find stunning shots of famous buildings such as this shot of the Eiffel Tower as well as interesting framing of the everyday mundane. Amazingly, all of mr007's photos are taken with an iPhone. While that might limit many photographers, it clearly has not limited mr007.

While his main account uses color, he has a second account @bwagent where he only shoots in black and white.

@mr007

1,000 photos 330,000 followers

Images are from mr007's Instagram feed. These are not for re-distribution and all rights reserved by mr007.

If you are a star geek like me, some of these shots that NASA provides will just blow you away. Some of them are inward looking satellite images of earth, such as volcanoes and hurricanes, and others are outward looking into deep space. You can get your full geek on at the NASA Goddard website. According to NASA this is a photo of two star clusters that are in the process of merging. Of course, unlike Earth mergers this is a merger that could take hundreds of thousands of years.

@nasagoddard

700 photos 660,000 followers

Images are from the NASA Goddard Instagram Feed. NASA photos are considered to be in the public domain so no watermark was added and they can be freely downloaded.