How not to be an Instagram travel cliche

(9 creative ideas for your next post)

Two months ago I posted a blog about Butt-stagrams and the cliches that people will resort to in their pursuit of Instagram fame. I have given it some more thought, and I decided that instead of criticising people for their lack of creativity, I should give people ideas on how to take more unique photos on their travels. I’m pretty sure some of these may become cliches soon, so take and post these pictures now.

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Related Post: The Butt-stagram: 

Because you haven't been there until you've obscured the view with your rear

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1. Instead of 'butt-stagrams' the 'nutscape' is the next big thing: 

It’s time for us to stop objectifying women and give men a chance. Instead of photographing their butts though, certain men have chosen to (partially) display another part of their anatomy in an array of diverse locations. If you are like me and are a lady (or you identify with some other gender that does not physiologically have the necessary bits) you can always use almonds. I did. 

A butt-stagram

A nutscape

2. This can also add a whole new dimension to your inspirational travel quotes: 

3. Instead of being so overwhelmed by the magnificence of the location you find yourself in that you have to raise your arms, try being underwhelmed instead: 

No:

Yes:

St. Petersburg, Russia

Roatan, Honduras 

Geiranger, Norway

4. Instead of making the photo about you, make it about your location by drawing attention to what’s around you:

There are many ways to do this. For starters, you can take inspiration from art and become a human statue. We used to play a game in improv class where someone would pretend to be a statue and adopt a specific position. The rest of us would respond to their stance and join the sculpture. There is no reason you can’t play this game with actual statues. 

You can do this by copying them:

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Tallinn, Estonia

Helsinki, Finland

Rostock, Germany

Or reacting to them:

St. Petersburg, Russia

Copenhagen, Denmark

Stockholm, Sweden

Johannesburg, South Africa

Rostock, Germany

You can make it a group activity:

Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen, Denmark

Dublin, Ireland

And, you can even incorporate travel toys:

Venice, Italy

Cape Town, South Africa

St. Petersburg, Russia

Halifax, Canada

5. Forced perspective is almost always a hit (except if you are holding your finger to the top point of buildings... 

Paris, France

...or holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa:

Pisa, Italy

Here are some more creative ideas:

The Azores, Portugal

St. Petersburg, Russia

La Baie, Canada 
(This one got me a lot of followers)

Miami, USA

Spires, columns and obelisks of any sort can always be used as unicorn horns. (I can’t believe this hasn’t caught on yet!)

San Juan, Puerto Rico  -  Miami, USA  -  Havana, Cuba

6. Instead of trying to look natural, just own your awkwardness: 

Nassau, Bahamas

7. If that isn’t awkward enough, you can reinvent the ‘leading your boyfriend around the world’ pose,  to become the ‘leading your imaginary boyfriend around the world’ pose:

Hartbeespoort, South Africa

8. Face-planting is so the new jumping:

Chacchoben, Mexico

Unfortunately, if you thought getting everyone to jump at the same time and taking the picture at exactly the right millisecond was hard, this is even harder to convincingly pull-off. 

Brandon's Beach, Barbados

Berlin, Germany

9. And finally, if you want to be really unique, you could just not post a pic of yourself (or your travel mascot) with the national landmark that was just severely damaged by a fire:

Notre-Dame, Paris 

Paris's 'other' church

If you have implemented any of these ideas into your Instagrams or photos, we'd love to see the results. Feel free to post them below.

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