Yes, I wanted to make the title simple and straight to the point. I went home last week for the bank holidays and realised that I wanted to take a few photos of some outfits that I had taken. After trying to fit my DSLR and 3 lenses into an already heaving suitcase with no success, it hit me: I had become obsessed with taking crisp/clear ‘Instagram worthy’ photos.

I unpacked my DSLR, used my phone to take photos of the lenses and camera, and put them up for sale on eBay. I instead packed my little Sony compact camera and got to work after arriving at my Mum’s house.

Karl Kani x Pretty Little Thing Crop Top(size 22’s left, but can fit up to a size 26!) // Mini Skirt 

It’s funny/amazing how much has changed within the blogging industry over the last 10 years or so. I remembered when I started blogging, we were all using cheap point-and-shoot cameras or our phone cameras (and I’m not talking snazzy iPhone clear-as-hell cameras. I’m talking about the ones that came on the Sony Ericsson phones and old Nokia/Motorola phones. YOU KNOW WHICH ONES I MEAN!). We would take photos of our used makeup using flash and upload it to Instagram without a care in the world. We took our outfit photos in the mirror, or outside our front doors, and these photos would garner hundreds of likes/comments.

Now, we can’t eat food at a restaurant without taking an Insta-worthy pic of it first. We won’t upload photos of us enjoying days/nights out with our friends and family for fear it won’t fit into our Insta-theme. Every ‘candid’ photo is staged in order to fit the requirements of the brand sponsoring said photo. VSCO, FaceTune and QuickLight are our best friends and as for standing and smiling in a photo for an outfit pic? Forget about it. It’s all about the ‘mid-walk across the street’ or ‘awkward angle’ shot. Our Instagram feeds have turned into digital magazines.

Don’t get me wrong, I know why a lot of us do this. As an influencer myself who sometimes creates sponsored posts, we are often given a brief to work to, and for those who are full time Influencers/Bloggers, this is the life they know. However I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t miss seeing silly/unfiltered/un-posed pictures on the ‘gram. Let’s face it, Instagram/blogs and online content are the new magazines, due to us providing *honest, quick, original, impartial content. I get that in order to sometimes collaborate with brands and get paid, you need to have a certain image, but I feel that sometimes people’s identities can get lost among the strained poses, always-positive captions and wisteria.

Maybe it’s me being old and being a bit of a moan (most probably), but putting my DSLR camera up for sale and switching down to a digital camera has been a bit freeing for me to be honest. Taking these non-crisp, slightly blurry photos of me felt good and reminded me of why I started my blog in the first place; to share my AWESOME FASHION SENSE with y’all and just have fun!

I guess what I’m trying to say is that social media has allowed us influencers an amazing gateway into creating engaging content and being our own bosses. Let’s not forget the reasons why we started though. Stay true to yourself and personality, and try not to lose yourself among the filters and Instagram themes. <3