> If I seriously wanted to learn about photography, I wouldn't look at instagram (over-saturation, higher contrast... in other words, a lack of subtlety). That sounds much more akin to backdrops for hipster startup home pages and blogs.

I won't argue that there's a lack of subtlety in Instagram, but I wish you wouldn't brush it off so contemptuously. I don't consider myself much of a photographer, mainly due to lack of practice/desire to practice. But I like Instagram because I can take a picture of something my friends will find funny, a car that another friend will find interesting, or something I can tell a story about. I find that my Instagrams end up being higher quality pictures, more consistenly, than pictures I take just for the sake of taking a picture. So for me Instagram isn't just pictures, it's pictures that I can tell a story about, when I whip my phone out at a party. A different art form altogether.