First, @cdevroe removes comments from his blog. Now, he’s uploading DSLR photographs to Instagram. Talk about hipster…

— Derek Steen (@djsteen) March 23, 2012

I realize he was poking fun. But I wanted to address this topic anyway so I thought I might as well reply to him here.

Oh, and if I Twitter would allow Google to properly index my tweets I’d be able to call up a tweet from at least a year ago wherein I called people out for cheating on Instagram by uploading photos that were not taken with an iPhone. I’ll be installing Tweet Nest later to see if I can rectify this issue.

So, yes, at one point I was angry with Instagram users for sharing their DSLR photos on the app. But something has changed lately and I knew it was coming.

Two days ago Instagram and Hipstimatic (another camera app for iPhone) let it leak through FastCompany that Hipstimatic photos were going to be sharable on the Instagram network. Here is what their CEO Kevin Systrom was quoted as saying.

“It’s a step in the direction that we’re testing out. We’ve been very careful about making sure that Instagram photos are about what’s happening right now in your life, and we want to allow for more of those photos to end up on Instagram regardless of where they’re taken.”

They’d like Instagram photos to be about what’s happening right now in your life. Certainly the name lends to this sort of network – and I’d hate to draw the correlation to Twitter’s own motto – but suffice to say – they are beginning to view themselves more as a network of people sharing photos than they do as a camera application.

So, while before I thought it was going against the creator’s grain to share just any old photo via Instagram, I now think this will be their direct intent. Sure, my last few bird photos on Instagram were not about what’s happening right now because I took those photos over the course of the last two weeks – but I’m willing to bend the rules a little from time-to-time.

I’m cdevroe on Instagram by the way.

Click on the images to zoom. For much, much larger versions click here, and here.

I’ve been remiss to update everyone on our current bird feeder situation. Since Eliza purchased the $1 bird feeder we’ve upgraded our offerings to our feathered friends many fold. First, we put out a bird-bath type feeder that, rather than filling it with water, we fill with sunflower seeds. This takes care of the needs of larger birds that like to eat off of an exposed, tray based feeder – like Blue Jays. Second, we have a small ‘gazebo’ shaped feeder for smaller birds like finches, chickadees, etc.

Recently at a yard sale we picked up a larger version of the gazebo shaped feeder and have since mounted it to our glass doors to the deck. This isn’t getting nearly as many visitors as the smaller one (though that seems to be changing), but we have plans to slowly bring the birds closer and closer to the doors for better shots.

Not two days ago we picked up a hummingbird feeder. Eliza had spotted a few hummingbirds buzzing around our flowers and, after I saw one hovering over our red flowers, I thought it a good idea to pick up a feeder. We’ll update the progress with this in the near future.

So, how many birds are we getting? A lot. I fill the smaller feeder once every three or four days and I fill the bird-bath feeder every single morning with sunflower seeds. Morning doves, Blue Jays, and a few other birds that I have yet to identify accurately visit this feeder regularly. We’ve had chickadees, nut hatches, finches, tufted tit-mouse, cardinals (though not many lately), hummingbirds, and several other species so far. Our little fly-thru bird restaurant is becoming quite the hang out.

Today, as you can see from the photos above, I managed to stand near the door long enough that they let me open it, and open the screen door, to get unobstructed photos of them while they ate. Taking photos of creatures that fly and skip about rather quickly isn’t easy – but above are two of the better shots I managed to capture.

Looking forward to many, many more visitors.