I love Instagram. It’s a free app that enhances photos you take with your iPhone. It’s a fun way to share your photos. That’s it.
Some people are arguing that this little app turns ordinary pictures into “works of art.” And that it cheats people into thinking you are a great photographer. Specifically, that it is a threat to photojournalism.
That’s like saying because you publish a blog, you are a great writer, and possibly a threat to trained journalists.
There’s some well-written, thoughtful blogs out there, and there’s also some really crappy ones.
It takes a lot more than just a filter and selective focusing to be a “photographer.” There’s composition, lighting, perspective, emotion, and a whole slew of other things I don’t even know about.
If you take a bad picture, but apply some cool filter that enhances the color, and then selectively use the focus blurring tool, you know what you have? Yup, it’s still a bad picture.
Great photographers take an ordinary situation and turn it into a wonderful image. Great photographers offer perspectives that others wouldn’t even dream about. Great photographer’s photos make you think. Great photographers tell a story in pictures.
Great photographers don’t need a filter.
One Kansas Girl 
Thank you so much.