Behind the #gram: Leonard Giam of @leotomatic

When we met local Instagrammer Leonard Giam, we were hardly surprised to see him donning a light blue T-shirt for our interview.

After all, Leonard, also known as @leotomatic on Instagram, is well-known for maintaining a consistent blue theme for all his photos.

“I wanted to find something to represent me,” said the 34-year-old.

“Since blue is my favourite colour, I decided to make it my identity.”

His love for blue doesn’t just stop at Instagram. He didn’t even realise it until one of his friends asked him why everything he owned seemed to be blue!

“[A lot of] my clothing, my wallet and many other things are blue”, he added with a laugh.

For Leonard, his Instagram popularity came as a surprise.

He gained exposure by being featured twice by Instagram two years ago. He was in Taiwan for a photo walk when he noticed a stream of notifications appearing in his profile.

Leonard, who now has 63,900 Instagram followers, said: “Instagram used to have a ‘suggested user’ function, where you will see my account once you follow someone. I was just lucky to be suggested by the previous suggested user.”

During our interview, Leonard also shared joyfully about his next Taiwan trip, where he will be meeting up with some friends he made via Instagram.

In fact, most of his friends are Instagrammers since he moved into the Instagram community two years ago.

“Though [my friends and I] all like photography, we are a bunch of people with different hobbies. We like different things, but at the end of the day, we are still in one community, inspiring and learning from each other,” said Leonard, who counts karaoke as one of his hobbies.

While we were scrolling his feed, we were curious about the lack of food photos in Leonard’s aesthetically pleasing feed. Why is that so?

The food he eats is limited by his egg and peanut allergy. “Besides, it’s a little scary to have blue colour on food,” he laughed.

To create the blue photos on his feed, Leonard uses photo editing app VSCO for all his pictures, which are snapped with his trusty mobile phone. Working as a senior digital artist at Mediacorp has helped him develop an eye for aesthetics too.

“A professional camera would be too heavy for me. I just like to take [my phone] out and snap!” said Leonard, who does not have a background in photography.

Leonard’s favourite tip for taking better photos?

“Try to look [at things] from a different perspective. If you walk around the same object and look at it from different angles, they will turn out different.”

Now that he has attracted a following online, does Leonard feel pressured to take better photos?

“There are some photos I really like and I wonder why they don’t get many responses,” he said.

However, Leonard prefer to stay true to his own style.

“I think it’s good to just share what you really like rather than to post something that people like. Just be yourself.”

I mean, why be blue over what other people have to say?

This is part four of Behind the #gram, a new series on Instagram influencers. In this series:

1. Ng Li Tying of The Spatula and The Pen

2. Stanley Tan of Windflower Florist

3. Yafiq and Yais Yusman