How Much Did Thrillist Staffers Used to Suck at Instagram? A Lot.

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DAN GENTILE/THRILLIST (EDITED)
DAN GENTILE/THRILLIST (EDITED)

As professional food writers/editors/photographers/eaters, it's no surprise the Thrillist staff loves Instagram. Hell, the platform was practically designed for sharing perfectly square photos of tasty comestibles -- which, as I've said before, is completely acceptable behavior -- and we eat a lot of tasty comestibles. It's also no surprise that most of us have gotten at least decent at popping 'grams by now (including, of course, on the official Thrillist Instagram, which you should absolutely follow right now.)

But it wasn't always that way. After idly scrolling through some truly heinous early feeds, I've taken it upon myself to catalog the staff's most egregious early-on Instagram attempts. Laugh with me at the awkward, over-filtered, weirdly framed garbage we used to chuck up, then head over to your own feed. If your early photos were especially blasphemous, tag @thrillist in the comments and use the hashtag #IUsedToSuck to be featured in my next public Insta-shaming.

And now, on to our own very embarrassing squares!

Our New York editor is actually one of the finest food photographers in the whole damn city. I get fatter just looking at his present-day Insta feed. But this is an overexposed, poorly thought-through wicker-woven bucket of suck. For shame.

For those who spend their autumn Sundays drinking suck-buckets full of green tea, Sebastian Janikowski is a prolific NFL kicker for the Oakland Raiders who got arrested for GHB. A bunch. Why our editorial director thought his jersey deserved this super-distressed frame -- or to be photographed at all, for that matter -- is itself a very distressing question to ponder.

Disclosure: this is me. And this photo is utter trash. What was I thinking?! Whatever that filter was (my guess is HDR, from this third-party editing app I was using a lot back then), it makes human skin look downright radioactive. These feet are glowing. Which brings me to my next point: why was I taking photos of another dude's feet? What the hell are all these stupid hashtags? We may never know. Know this: I'm embarrassed.

Oh. Oh my. What even... why... damn. The Insta struggle was very real for our man in Texas.

People often deride Instagram as "too artsy," but our managing editor really jumped the shark here. Bro, do you even Renaissance?

I don't know what this says, but Thrillist's SEO editor does. She lived in France, you guys. Ever heard of it? It's not a big deal or anything. Also, this photo is straight butt from an aesthetic standpoint. Straight. Butt.

Ahahahahah our LA editor tumbled into the well-worn trap of photographing a concert, as though anyone can tell what's going on in the middle of this chaotic orgy of gel lighting and flesh silhouettes. What an IDIOT!

This looks like a GoldenEye level located the mineral refinery of a post-Soviet Bloc country like Bulgaria that the game's producers ended up cutting because it too closely resembled a dumpster fire. So, no, Sean. This is not a good Instagram.

Alright so it turns out that photo editor Drew was actually pretty solid at the 'gram from the very get-go. But these lily pads really could have used better lighting -- they're totally washed out! Demerit.

Gross. Grosssssssssssssssss.

Woof.

Dave Infante is a senior writer for Thrillist. Follow @dinfontay on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.