What REALLY Goes On #behindthegram

It's been a while since Essena O'Neill disrupted the Internet and came out with her whole "social media isn't real" campaign, but it still has a huge influence and is still getting a ton of publicity today. I've heard mixed opinions, from "she's absolutely right" to "Instagram is a portfolio to showcase the work that you choose to display and there's nothing wrong with that." I can honestly agree with both of these perspectives, so here's my opinion: Instagram is a great way to showcase your work, but the pictures you display aren't always natural and sometimes require extreme editing, creativity, and hard work." 

I can speak from experience. I almost ALWAYS edit my pictures (more to come on that later!) and it usually takes a lot of patience to get one that's good enough. I'm constantly running out of storage space because I take so many pictures, and when I take a picture for Instagram there's usually about two hundred different angles involved. With that in mind, here are some completely true stories of how I've taken some of my Instagram pictures! (Follow me here)

I got these boots for Christmas, and I was completely and utterly obsessed (well, I still am)... so naturally, I had to post something on Instagram, right? I asked my sister if she would so kindly take a quick picture of me - it would take two minutes, tops. She grudgingly agreed, and took three or four pictures but the lighting wasn't right, and then she was too close, and it was blurry, and you get the idea. About thirty minutes and one hundred pictures later, I finally had one that would be good enough for Instagram. My sister was nearly to tears, but this is my most liked picture to date, so it's worth it, right? (No. It's not. Definitely not. Whenever I ask her to take pictures I always feel bad for making her cry.)
Also, if you look closely at the top of the picture, you may see some slight discoloration in the wall. Look in the top right. You see that because this picture is completely and totally edited... and I whitened the wall.

Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to hold a Kendra Scott bag at the right angle so it doesn't bunch up and you can read the letters? And do you know how frustrating it is to get the said bag at the perfect angle, but then have the lighting be horrible thanks to the background lights? Well, spoiler alert: It's extremely hard, and extremely frustrating.

I went to get the mail a couple days before Thanksgiving, and as I walked outside I spotted this gorgeous tree down the street. I grabbed my camera and sprinted down the street - in my pajamas - to snap this, because there's nothing more beautiful in the fall than leaves. The neighbors probably thought I was insane, but who cares? #doitforthegram, y'all, and be proud of it.

We were shopping in Dallas, and I saw this sign on the side of a building and had a "blogger moment," which is basically a moment where I become a basic blogger and have to take a picture of something because it is perfect and/or goals. There was a long line of people trying to get a picture, but I had to wait until everyone cleared out so I could take my time and get the perfect angle - because I'm that picky about my pictures.

When my grandparents came back in October, my grandma brought these delicious pumpkin spice almonds. I thought it would make a cute picture if I arranged the almonds on my plate in a cute shape or something, but the almonds kept moving and it was really hard to get them to look like flowers. I don't even know if y'all can tell if they're flowers. You may just think that they're random blobs.

When the Red Cups first came out this year, I made a run to Starbucks ASAP so I could jump on the bandwagon and post a red cup to Instagram just like every single blogger out there. After I drank my Peppermint Mocha, I put on some red lipstick and a white top and had a mini photoshoot in my backyard. My family looked at me like I was crazy, but that's nothing we didn't know already, and I got a cute picture, so...

So basically, what you can learn from this, is that bloggers are kind of obsessive over their photos and they will go to extreme measures to get them to turn out how they want. The hashtag #doitforthegram can pretty much define any blogger's life, and there's almost always a crazy story behind every picture.

What crazy measures do you go to for the perfect Instagram picture?