Interview with Brie+Reuben from @vancitywild

Brie +Reuben are two adventure enthusiasts from Vancouver, BC who love the outdoors. On Instagram they are known as @vancitywild.

They love anything outdoors from climbing mountain tops to swimming in glacier lakes and sharing their experiences with other adventure seekers on Instagram. Here is a behind the scenes interview with Brie + Reuben where we discuss social media, photography and more.

What motivated you to start @VancityWild?

We live in Vancouver, BC and as avid outdoor enthusiasts we were struggling to find current and inspiring photography on the sites that provide local trail information. What a great opportunity, we thought, to bring awareness and help to inspire others to get outside and explore, while providing current and accessible content. VancityWild has grown to be both an Instagram account and a website, and who knows where it will go from here!

Is social media and blogging something you both pursue full time?

We both have part time jobs in tech outside of VancityWild, but it is definitely a major priority for both of us!

Your Instagram account @VancityWild has a big following of 79K people. What has been the biggest success factor in growing your account?

We like to call them the 3 C’s: Consistent, Curated, and Creative.

It’s important to stay consistent and post new and exciting content every day in order to stay relevant. Instagram is an ever changing, fast paced environment, and it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. Furthermore, maintaining consistent quality in the type of photos taken and your editing style will ensure that your audience gets a real sense for your style.

Photographers and Instagrammers often produce excellent content, but if your feed isn’t well curated, it can look messy and disorganized. Instagram accounts that are visually pleasing with well curated content are likely to be more successful, and Instagrammers who know their audience tend to have the most impressive accounts!

Last but not least, the last ‘C’, Creative. Since we started VancityWild, the number of outdoor/adventure photography sites and Instagram accounts has grown exponentially. It’s important to stand out in the crowd when lots of people are posting content from the same place. Being creative with your choice of photo, whether it be the angle in which it was taken, the subject in the photo, or how it was edited, will make all the difference.

Your share a lot of beautiful photos on your account. How do you keep up with constantly creating such great content?

It helps that we both love to explore. In 2016 we shot around 40,000 images for VancityWild during our adventures. Of course not all of these are post worthy images, but we try and head outside on a weekly basis. Discovering new places has become a priority in our lives. Adventure first, edit later!

Do you mind sharing what camera and editing apps you use for your Instagram photos?

We shoot with a few cameras: Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 6D, and our iPhone 7 Plus.

We edit using Lightroom and often add finishing touches right in the Instagram app.

What has been one of your favorite places to visit and why?

We can’t pick just one, so we would have to say Hawaii, (no specific island, they’re all amazing), and Yosemite National Park. We have family who live in Honolulu so we have tour guides to show us all the best places. We try and head out there at least twice a year to enjoy some much needed sunshine! It has the perfect mix of adventure, good food, and scenic beaches – insane waterfalls, lush rainforests, and epic hikes can be found on any island. On the other hand, Yosemite National Park is an adventure-seeker’s mecca. Around every turn is a mesmerizing view, with its iconic peaks and vistas and peaceful meadows. The best sunset we saw all year would have to be from Taft Point, overlooking El Capitan and Yosemite Valley.

What is next for Brie + Reuben and @vancitywild?

More adventures! We can’t get enough. In 2017, we hope to continue to work on our website and provide more trail content for our readers, while also putting more of a focus on our blog. We want to share inspiration for travel beyond British Columbia, so you might just see us continue to explore outside of our beautiful province.