Photos by The Wayfarers, Noelle Johnson, Darren Roberts, Mark Pacura, and Michelle Lyerly (from left to right)

Searching for some new inspiration to add to your Instagram feed? Look no further! This month’s Instagram round-up features adventure-seeking wedding photographers from all over the world. We hope you’ll check them out and give them a follow!

Mark Pacura – @markpacuraphoto

Mark: Instagram is the most important social media channel for me, and I think it should be the place where every new photographer should focus most of their attention. It looks great, it’s easy to use, it’s perfect for inspiration, and, now with Insta Stories, it’s even more appealing to the younger audience. I look at is as an extension to my website, but add a bit of personal content to the normal wedding related posts. By personal, I mean images of places I visit, and some up-to-date info where I am at the moment. I think it’s a really good practice to make a bit more effort with the description of the posts, and not just leave it as “a wedding of X & Y.”

I’d say the three most important things with IG strategy for business are consistency, posting daily, and being active on other accounts. The human factor is the key, so I try to answer back to most of the comments (if possible) and like and comment on the images of other users that I really like. I also re-post about 70% of my IG post to my Facebook page, which some of my friends might find a bit annoying, but at the end of the day I’m a business and need to use every opportunity to make noise around my work.

Michelle Lyerly – @michellelyerly

Michelle: I love using Instagram as a marketing tool, as well as a place where I showcase my favorite work, share a few tidbits about my family/personal life and connect with other creatives and photographers. I have made some great connections with other photographers that turned into real life relationships, and that is amazing to me. I am also able to reach potential clients on the other side of the country and research places I want to travel and shoot. I never thought when I first started using it that eventually over half of my inquiries for elopement/weddings would come from Instagram. But it really is such a powerful tool. My biggest piece of advice would be to stay true to yourself and your business and take breaks from it when you need. I post work that makes me happy, try not to take it too seriously and trust that the right client is seeing it and connecting with me in a small way.

Darren Roberts – @darren_roberts_

Darren: I’ve always used IG to share my personal and wedding based adventures. As a result I’ve attracted couples that have the same sense of adventure and are willing to go off the beaten path for their images. I’ve learned that IG can be a great place to test the waters on new ways of shooting, editing, etc. You can share the image and quickly see what kind of response it gets. I’ve also learned it’s important not to share everything I shoot, but just show the imagery and locations that really resonate with the direction I want my work to go.

As for Instagram Stories, I’ve found this to be a great place to share some of the behind-the-scenes to the making of the images. Sometimes this includes simple little pictures or videos of the helicopter rides or the hiking to and from locations. It’s just another great way for me to share content that attracts the couples I enjoy working with.

Noelle Johnson – @noellejohnsun

The Wayfarers – @the_wayfarers

Brea Marie & Alexander: We use Instagram regularly as a way to showcase our portfolio, but it’s done very carefully and with respect to the way our work looks altogether as a whole. This isn’t necessarily a groundbreaking way to go about using it, but few really end up being consistent in this way. We’ve found that we’ve encountered fast growth through practical interaction, real relationships, tagging others, and hashtags. Finding the right pools of images to attach your images to has been very effective in getting our work in front of other humans who appreciate what we do.

The advice we have to give is to never post anything that 1. You don’t entirely believe in and 2. Doesn’t speak to your entire body of work. It’s easy to bash consistency as being “the same,” but at the end of the day, it’s easy to spot the best work out there as being associated with the individual/s behind it. Posting in a distinct way is huge, and it’s different for everyone. As time goes on, engaging content is being rewarded with more exposure, so it’s challenging us to innovate and create new things that haven’t been done before. This, in turn, puts more passion behind what we post – and it’s our hope that it shows in some way!

Kylie Morgan – @kylie_morgan_

Kylie: Instagram has become not only a great marketing and advertising tool when it comes to my photography business, because it is a photograph-based media, but also a fun way to meet and get to know new people + other creatives who I admire so much. I’ve always found it interesting and kind of funny how much time and effort is spent posting pictures on Instagram, commenting on others, responding to comments on my own, etc., but then I take a second to realize how much it’s actually helped my business grow as well as my ability to meet and talk with people that I otherwise may have never had the chance to. It has become a huge communication base. There are so many talented people all over the world that I’ve only come across via Instagram whom I’ve had the chance to talk to and get to know— whether that be photographing them or learning from them, which has only made me love my job that much more and aspire to be better. After all, I find that to be the best part of my job — getting to meet new people and to hear and capture their stories.

All of these things are positive effects that come from Instagram, but I’ve also noticed that sometimes I’ll get down on myself when I see someone else’s work thriving so well and I’m always wishing mine would thrive just as much. However, it all comes down to not comparing yourself to those around you — because, no matter what, you are thriving in what you do a little bit each and every day and that tends to be forgotten. My advice to other creatives out there trying to build their business: instead of getting down, take in everybody else’s work and posts as a positive motivator, to help yourself grow, to get out there and put forth 110% into what you’re wanting to accomplish, to communicate, and be your best self at what you’re going after. Take the time to respond to comments on your photos, to let people know when you love their work, and use Instagram to connect with others and meet new people, make everlasting friendships, as well as to show the true moments YOU love most, and from there it will all start to grow.

Thank you to our featured Instagrammers for sharing their work and insight with us this month. Know of any Instagram accounts that you think we should feature in a future edition of Instagrammers to Follow? Drop us a line below!