In the final part of our Canon Series interview with successful blogger and photographer, Anna-Belle Durrant of She Said, we discuss the role of social media in successful photography, while she also provides some awesome Instagram tips.  

TechSmart: Do you think that it’s possible for pro photographers to flourish if they do not have some kind of social media presence?

Anne-Belle Durrant: I don't think social media is the only measurement of success, people just see it that way because it's in the public eye. Some of South Africa's best photographers don't even have an active Instagram profile, yet they are successful. My journey just happened to be through social media and in the public eye, make no mistake though I still have to work for my work if you know what I mean.

So I'm going to be posting a few pictures from a recent shoot I did...expect a departure from my usual whites and brights in my feed!  It's scary doing something out of your comfort zone but so often it pays off. The whole concept behind the shoot was 70s and very gender neutral...with loads of ferns because ferns rock. Props to @sheenabagshawe for being a shit hot stylist and coming up with the direction and @jordanmajor for being a shit hot model.

A photo posted by Anna-Belle (@shesaidsa) on

Jul 6, 2016 at 8:56am PDT

TS: With 16.4k followers, it seems like you have you have Instagram down. How about a couple of Instagram tips for the rest of us?

1. Try create a look and feel to your feed, when someone looks at a picture of yours they should easily be able to identify it as yours.

2. Post regularly, try keep people interested in your work.

3. Tell stories, the best performing posts are always the ones that tell the best stories!

4. Don't post too many photos all in a row, you don't want to spam people!

5. Be patient, your account won't just blossom overnight, take your time with it and the effort will pay off!

If you haven't done so already, read part 1 and part 2 of our interview with Anne-Belle, while finding more of her work here:

She Said website
Instagram
Twitter
Pinterest

Top image of Anna-Belle taken by @nicoleoh_. 

A photo posted by Anna-Belle (@shesaidsa) on

Sep 23, 2015 at 1:38pm PDT

A photo posted by Anna-Belle (@shesaidsa) on

Aug 4, 2015 at 10:50pm PDT

A photo posted by Anna-Belle (@shesaidsa) on

Feb 7, 2015 at 9:30am PST