We've witnessed the rise of the Instagram influencer, monetization, and much more powerful image filters as cellphone cameras and processing power have improved year on year.

The Facebook-owned Instagram figured out much more effective algorithmic ways to keep users engaged than simply sharing beautiful images. Instagram has changed focus since it started. Now, you certainly don't need to take beautiful or highly technical images to be popular on Instagram. Instagram also introduced the masses to photo filters these filters just served the purpose of making up for the low quality of cellphone cameras back then. Instagram was built on the sharing of images, nothing else. This video from Micael Widell discusses a few major photography community sites and how they just aren't effective as a photography community in the way that many photographers would like. Sadly, Flickr hasn't been getting the attention it needed to stay popular, daily users are down, and the community just isn't as active as it once was.

Then, there was the enjoyment looking at other submissions from all over the world and their interpretations, giving and receiving constructive feedback on the images before the next subject was announced and we did it all over again. I enjoyed a particular weekly challenge that involved submitting one image of a specific subject each week, as this forced me to go out and be creative with a subject that I might not have chosen myself. Who else remembers posting photo sets to Flickr, joining groups, entering weekly image challenges? It was great for me at the time to have a direct line of contact with other photographers.

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