Mytro, executive chef at Flour, uses Instagram as a way to market the restaurant (although a picture of his dog, Sophia Biscotti, recently ended up on his feed). "I take pictures of a lot of our specials because they are an area for us as chefs to be really creative," says Mytro, who captured Flour owner and chef Paul Minnillo assembling a tasty-looking lasagna above. "[We] try to use different ingredients and try to think outside the box, so I take a lot of those photos for that reason."
Being a professional photographer doesn't shape Webb's Instagram use. In fact, she likes to keep the two worlds separate. "I don't show anything I take professionally, because I feel like it's is more of a forum for what's going on in your life." Webb halted her run one day to take this photo of the Ohio City Farm Stand. "I love the color of the stand, and it just spoke to me. Part of being a photographer is knowing when you see something you want to stop, even if it's in the middle of a run."
Clark likes to mix things up with her photos, so a surreal shot of a parking lot puddle appears alongside one of her pet skunk, Milo. "I think [Instagram] was meant to capture spur-of-the-moment action shots,"says Clark, who asked a friend to snap the above photo of her at Public Square. "I was standing there looking at the lights and just got the urge for my friend to take a picture of me where I was standing," she says. "I liked the way the lights looked on my glove."
Murray captures people and moments around the city and aspires for each shot to be more than mere scenery. "I like capturing the skyline, and anyone can do that," he says. "But it's really fun when you can capture a photo that relates to other people." Murray's photos often make the viewer want to know more, be it an image of his dog at Market Square Park or men gathered at an RTA stop. "It's neat when you can take a photo that tells a story and has a meaning or creates a feeling."
Living in Ohio City, Pelc often treks across the Detroit-Superior Bridge when heading downtown, but he hadn't often seen what he captured here. "I was walking back from West Ninth [Street] after meeting some out-of-town friends before the Steelers/Browns game, and I was going across the bridge and looked to my right. ... This is one of the only times that I've seen a tanker on the river. The colors of the tanker and the sky and the birds that were following just really convened around it, and I thought it was rather interesting."
After finding himself unemployed last spring, Gercak got serious about photography and started snapping pics of first responders, many of which he posts to Instagram. This one is from the Cleveland Fire Department Training Academy's MetroHealth Doctor Day, where the hospital's new residents get a chance to experience what firefighters go through. "I was standing right by the window and just shot right in," Gercak says of this photo of a female MetroHealth resident. "I got it just as the smoke parted. ... It kind of has her framed just there in the center."
This picture of the band Hawkeye was from a Warehouse District photo shoot and posted to Instagram with an X-Pro II filter (a slow exposure created the light trails). Lead singer Erika Lauren says the band wanted a fun, party atmosphere that reflected their high energy music. "We just said turn on the party lights that you normally have in the bar, and the guy that took the picture just tried to capture the action of the lights dancing on the walls and just incorporating us in that. ... We literally just went there, drank some beers, had some vodka and had a good time."
The chef behind Greenhouse Tavern and Noodlecat posts photos that offer a glimpse into his life and the restaurant business, including this no-nonsense white board titled "Kitchen Law." "It came about probably 10 weeks into Noodlecat," Sawyer recalls. "I was working the line, and I just saw a bunch of things I didn't totally agree with. I was like, you know ... I should probably write a couple things [down]. And then I was like, I should write a couple more things. And then it ended up being a set of rules that we still follow to this day."
Lindsey took her professional camera equipment to the Cleveland Museum of Art the day she snapped this photo but ended up capturing the intriguing black and white picture on her iPhone. "I was kind of looking for the art within the art," she says. "I was looking for patterns within the light and the shadow and just the patterns that the art itself was creating. When I took that particular photo, I was really interested in how the sculpture kind of framed my son looking at that painting in the background in that moment." Lindsey's feed is filled with black and white photos as well as ones that utilize infrared (which she uses in her work as a photographer), giving the images a monochromatic feel. "Shadow really interests me. A lot of times I'll notice shadows before I actually notice the whole picture in front of me." Lindsey started using Instagram about a year ago and looked at it as just a photo-editing app before discovering the thriving community tied to it. "It intrigued me that I could see a glimpse of someone's everyday life on the other side of the world," she says. "It was fascinating to me. I began to realize that what I take for granted around me might actually be interesting to someone else. So I began to really look at the world around me and kind of see the beauty in it in a way that I hadn't before."
Walter likes focusing on details that might be lost to a normal picture, such as the scratches in the stage at Madonna's November concert downtown (which were brought out by the filter). She also loves the ability to share her images. "I'm in Canton. There are a lot of things going on in Cleveland, ... but I've got a lot of friends who don't travel as much," says Walter, who is planning a move to the Warehouse District. Her photo feed is filled with Cleveland buildings, concerts and food. "[It's a way] to show them, 'Hey look, I was this close to [Michael Symon], and he's a nice guy, and he's not scowling because I took his picture.' That's cool for the share factor."
Barcellona is a photography graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art, but all of her Instagram photos are taken with her iPhone and shared promptly. "When I post on Instagram, it's immediately after that event has occurred," she says. "It's all about that specific moment for me." After perusing Barcellona's feed — a hodgepodge of well composed slice-of-life shots — we had just one question: Who's the enigmatic guy with the mustache in a number of the photos (wearing a T-shirt with a huge owl on it, staring into the camera while eating dinner on the couch). "It's my boyfriend," Barcellona says. "He's such a big part of my life, and I think he's a pretty good subject."
