In spite of their in-your-face mediocrity, Carly Schell of Indianapolis enthusiastically posts photos of the sky nearly every day via social media.
Her upbeat captions betray a misguided appreciation of her own skills. “Spring sunrises!” read an Instagram caption this week. “It’s infuriating,” says Instagram co-founder, Kevin Systrom. “She’s really not as good as she thinks.”
Sky photos are Schell’s signature move, and she’s garnered consistently positive feedback from tens of loyal followers and friends despite how undeniably un-special the pictures are.
“I can’t believe no one’s told her yet,” says one friend. “I figured one of her actual friends would have done it by now, or at least sent her a message by not liking her photos.”
Equipped with just her passion for iPhone photography and the overconfidence of someone who has no training whatsoever, Carly recently enrolled in a digital photography course. She brought in her “most liked” sky photos. Said Carly’s instructor Dolores Young, “Carly would often present her #nofilter photos. As a purist, I would normally support this. But for the love of all that is good in this world, she’s not good enough for no filter. It’s all just fucking skies.” She added, “Put a friggen filter on that garbage.”
Despite failing the photography course, Carly is undeterred. “People comment every day on my work, so I think it’s pretty clear that they’re all waiting for what I’m going to capture next. Oh! Look at the moon! I gotta get this shot, excuse me!”
Carly’s moon photo got nine likes and she is considering uploading a similar shot from the same night “just in case.”
