Photog Has Giants Instagram Spread in SI

The only thing hotter than Melky Cabrera's bat these days is the iPhone-photo service Instagram. And some photogs -- including Brad Mangin of the Bay Area -- have actually been using Instagram to take pictures of Melky's bat.

And it's landed him a spot in the upcoming Sports Illustrated. The first few pages of the weekly magazine usually feature splashy photos; this week, as first reported by Mashable and later confirmed by Mangin himself, they'll feature Mangin's Instagram pics, most of which are of Giants players.

"This week’s Leading Off reflects the ‘socialization’ of photojournalism,” McDonell told Mashable. “Great pictures, with intimate access to the MLB, shared with Instagram.”

After Mashable leaked the news, Mangin took to his own website to discuss the making of the SI photo feature. Mangin uses his iPhone 4S and a slew of apps -- Instagram, Dynamic Light, Snapseed (like Photoshop for Apple products), Camera+, and Photoshelter -- in order to create pictures like the ones of Melky (left) and Tim Lincecum (right).

Of course, Instagram isn't something new to the Giants -- the team has a hub (as does MLB.com) for posting pictures via the social photo site. And it's what you'd expect from the technology-forward baseball team.

Still, Mangin's story is cool, and reading his entire post on how this came to happen is well worth your time. As is picking up the latest copy of SI, if you want to see Internet-style, old-school, Giants-heavy photographs splashed onto the pages of America's most traditional sports magazine.

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