Ryan Brien, @ryanbrien on Instagram, started a hashtag project that challenges our users to think outside of their comfort zone. With over 200 hashtags in under 2 weeks, the #mextures_challengeaccepted hashtag has inspired quite a few people. We had a great conversation with Ryan and asked him to expound more on how he came to start this project. Photo Credit: @immersivelove

One day, I was editing a photo in the new Mextures 2 and caught myself automatically skipping over a lot of layers and going straight to my favorites just to churn out a quick post. I decided to try something new and create an edit using only Mextures features that I had never used before. Here's my image below:

Photo Credit: @ryanbrien

This got me thinking that there are probably a lot of people that do the exact same thing and go straight to what they're comfortable with. That's what led me to creating #mextures_challengeaccepted (yes, it's a "How I Met Your Mother" reference). There's limitless possibilities in Mextures and creativity often works best when we get pushed out of our comfort zones. It can be easy to get in a creative rut and I thought this challenge was the perfect way to spur on other Mextures users to have fun, explore new features within the app and challenge their friends to do the same.

Photo Credit: @joncourville

It's been a fun challenge and has helped me realize that everyone wants to be creative but sometimes they just need a little push. I've been amazed at the response from Instagrammers accepting the challenge from all around the world. There's been a vast range of submissions: from first time Mextures users, to photographers creating beyond premade formulas, to artists manipulating features to create daily works of art through Mextures.

A huge thanks to Mextures for the great app and for helping people find and express their creativity.

Photo Credit: @picsfromagirl

Photo Credit: @shvshnkrn

Photo Credit: @iamjp