Crowdsourcing: the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers. - Merriam-Webster.com.

That's the perfect description of the Virginia State Parks Instagram feed because nearly all of our posts are reposts from other Instagrammers. 

We have some of our park visitors share amazing photo captures that reflect the scenic beauty of our parks. This one from Pocahontas was posted by @twilkes86. 

I am sensitive to a photographer's copyright so I only share these screen prints of the posts on the desktop version of Instagram. Usually I wish I had them to use to promote our parks in other mediums but am happy that people can find them on our Instagram account.

Our employees share some of their shots like this one from Sky Meadows by @zoesumrall. You can even see my typo when I added the "repost" tag.

And as much as I love the scenic beauty shots, I also like the glimpses into the guest experiences that they share on Instagram. So maybe it is a form of voyeurism but it can give you lots of ideas on all of the fun things you can do in Virginia State Parks.

This photo from @steelstringplyr taken at Westmoreland State Park is one of those lifetime memories shots that provide an infinite amount of personal job satisfaction. I am often intrigued by the Instagammer's handles. Did @steelstringplyr take his guitar with him on his park visit?

Talk about memories, this photo of newlyweds in a candid moment at Claytor Lake State Park by @ccgreene7 is definitely in a photo album somewhere but engraved on their hearts forever. Best of luck to the newlyweds on their deployment to South Korea!

Want to be part of the "crowd" in "crowdsource" on Virginia State Park's Instagram?" Be sure to tag your photos on Instagram with #vastateparks. That's the one I reliably use to repost from so please avoid other tags like with the state name spelled out so I don't miss your post. Do I repost everything? No but I do repost a lot.

Please also mention which park the photo is from. I can't tell you how many times I have posts with many lines of tags and no mention of where the photo was taken. I only repost pictures from our Virginia State Parks. So, if I can't tell for sure, I don't repost. And while I hate to be a killjoy, I also will not share photos and videos that reflect rule violations (e.g. dogs off leash) no matter how adorable. 

Thank you to our nearly 9,000 followers on Instagram and to the folks who share their experiences in our Virginia State Parks with the Instagram world.