The Stupid Things I Do For Instagram

The idea for this post came to me while I was taking the below photo of my coffee and cake, which I thought would look best with both my hands in frame, so I put my phone on self-timer and held it with my teeth. As well as that, I randomly sprinkled some pumpkin seeds and flour on my just cleaned kitchen worktop to 'add something' to the picture. During the last three seconds of the countdown (I set it to ten so I'd have some time to get the framing right) it occured to me how absolutely ridiculous it was that I was doing this for an Instagram picture. And it got me thinking about how there are possibly hundreds of similarly absurd situations that I've put myself in just for the 'gram so I thought it'd be kinda funny to share some of my most recent ones on here. I'd love to hear if you have any funny 'for the 'gram' stories too. 

 If you follow me on Instagram you may be familiar with the outfit shots against this blank wall in my house - I use it to show off daily snippets of what I'm wearing or elements of an outfit I want to show. The wall is in our utility room, it provides a blank canvas and there's a big window opposite it so the light is great. However, to achieve this shot I'm stood right next to the cats' litter tray, which isn't the nicest outfit picture location is it? I've been interrupted by a cat wanting to do his business and I've popped in to do a quick shot before work only to discover that there's a more pressing quick job to do before work...

I love a good candid shot. I also love coffee so naturally candid shots of me drinking coffee make up a lot of my Instagram feed. The thing with this one is, I'm not drinking coffee because I finished it about half an hour before this picture was taken. I also moved from my table to a chair by the window which was cuter and had better light. So rather than a candid photo of me drinking coffee naturally captured by my coffee companion Ashton, this is actually a very set up shot of me pretending to enjoy a coffee I don't have. 

Believe it or not the below is actually taken on a tripod and not by someone holding the camera above me and is possibly one of the most ridiculous shots I've tried to achieve. My tripod is on the bed with my legs between it which yes, is very precarious especially when the duvet needs rearranging to cover your face. I used the timer on my phone connected to my camera and quickly shoved my phone out of view and threw my head under the covers. To top things off, because I needed light in the room I had the curtains open, which means that if anyone who lives opposite was looking they would see the whole sorry affair...

I'd bought a new coat from Primark and really wanted to show it off, but I knew it would have to be a self-timer job. I vetoed my utility room because I thought it would look odd having a shot of a coat in there so knew I'd have to brave the actual outside world to get a shot (my yard is not pretty). I absolutely hate taking my tripod out to get outfit shots, I feel so self-conscious doing it and it's rare the shots ever turn out that well as I don't spend the time needed on them because I want to get them done as quickly as possible. On this day I was also going to feed my friend's cat so I decided to take my camera with me in case her garden was fairly private and would make a decent background. So I stood in my friend's garden with her cat looking on in confusion as I took a self-timer shot (and she still doesn't know about it). 

There are many more where these came from, but I didn't think anyone would appreciate a mammoth post. Do you have any similar anecdotes?

Amy x