Recently, alumnus and former Outlook photo editor Jason Mai, a freshman at UC Berkeley, was invited by Instagram to become a suggested user. Instagram selects users whose photographs they feel are “some of the most beautiful photos and videos on Instagram,” and suggests these accounts to its users. Features staffer Murray Sandmeyer conducted an interview with Mai this month. You can check out his photography at instagram.com/milkstachio.
Outlook: Way back in the beginning, why did you decide to create an Instagram?
Jason: I wanted to create an Instagram to connect with my friends, I guess. A bunch of other people had [accounts] and they were taking photos of what they were doing and stuff like that. I think my friends created my account for me, actually. They took my phone and made the account.
What are some of your favorite things to take pictures of?
I like to incorporate people in photos. When I’m going on adventures I always like to take photos of the people that I’m going with in the setting that we’re going to.
How do you choose which locations to photograph at?
A lot of the places I photograph are at local areas. I like to explore a lot of parks, nature, and sometimes urban settings as well. A lot of the people that I follow on Instagram are local at Berkeley, actually. I get my experience mostly from the people that I follow, so if they’re at local places I’ve never been to or even in San Francisco, I’ll go as well.
What is the most memorable story behind one of your Instagram photos?
For one of my photos, it was getting really hot for a week in Berkeley a couple of months ago, and the school flooded. There was a giant river that streamed from the top of the campus to the bottom. Usually, there’s nothing really there, but there was a lot of water. So I decided to climb above this dam structure that was blocking it, and I took a photo looking down. It was a photo of my feet. It’s not the best picture, but it’s an interesting story.
Do you have a favorite picture that you posted on Instagram?
Yes, I do. My favorite would be this photo I took on my trip to Seattle. I was in a ferry crossing from one side of the channel to the other, and I took a photo of a couple by the edge of the ship looking out into the distance, sailing away. It turned out amazing.
What apps or equipment do you use to edit and take pictures?
I mainly use VSCO Cam to edit for the lighting and the colors, and Filterstorm to comb things out and do more of the technical stuff like clone stamping, levels, curves, all the more powerful tools that you could find on your computer and hardware like that.
I saw on your Instagram you had a time lapse video of the Campanile clock tower. Tell me about how you captured that.
I recently started to do more time lapse projects because I came across this app called Lapse It. Basically, there aren’t a lot of controls; it lets you set the basic stuff like intervals, timing, focus, and exposure. It mainly allows you to take a time lapse video and render it for you on your phone. Yeah, it’s pretty easy to learn how to use it. I’ve become more interested in video content as well because it’s fairly easy, it’s fun, and you can make some really cool videos.
Are you involved in any photo/design organizations?
Yes, I’m a part of Innovative Design at Berkeley and we just do a ton of professional work for local organizations. We teach photography, do professional portraits, and stuff like that.
What should your photo captions be? Do you want them to be clever?
I’m really bad at that actually. If a photo is a portrait of a friend or someone I recently met, I try to make the caption an introduction or story in order to tell my followers who they are, what they do, etcetera. Usually, I want my followers to check them out because I think the person I’m with is cool. But sometimes, for photos of landscapes, I’ll say why I went out that day or what I accomplished. I just try to capture the story behind it.
What have you learned throughout this whole process and what are you looking to improve at?
I’ve learned to look for things to take photographs of. There’s a lot of different perspectives that people don’t normally think about. I’ve learned to see things in many different ways. I’m trying to improve at incorporating more photos of different lighting. I want to learn how to see the light capture [the subject], and make it look cool.
In the future, where are you looking to take your photography?
Ideally, I think it would be fun to work at Instagram in design. That would be really nice, but I think I’m going to keep my photography as a hobby right now. I’m doing it for fun. It would be cool to get a job, but I’m not planning on actively advertising my account just to do that.
What inspires you?
The people I follow on Instagram and the photos that I see and just the things in the world around me inspire me. I try to look out for even the beauty in the mundane things like my campus; I’m always looking for interesting things to take photos of.
