DOING IT FOR 'THE GRAM'

We all laugh and joke don't we, as bloggers or just as people who are pretty active on social media, that something is 'instagrammable' or 'insta-worthy'. I've watched every blogger and their dog this summer head to lavender fields, sunflower farms and pick your own patches, the photos are always beautiful, fit in with any Instagram dream grid and firmly tick off a box for being part of the bandwagon. But why? Why do we do it? I thought it over this weekend, as I debated making an almost two hour drive for lavender glory before giving my brain a reality check and talking some sense into myself. And perhaps these are the reasons I'll never be the owner of a swipe up function, or never truly be '#goals', should we be pushing ourselves to visit beautiful places every weekend or is it all for the sake of a picture and selling a dream that is so far away from our reality?


Instagram will always hold a love hate relationship for me, I go through phases when I can't get enough, I want to post every waking day and my stories are fifty clips long. But then I flip and jump ship, I don't post for days on end and the only Instagram stories are firmly in my archives. I know that this is probably the true reason why my goals are slow to reach over there, though I can't help but feel the pressure on Instagram to be constantly doing what everyone else is. It's very much a keeping up with the Jones situation - and we can all sit here and whizz out 'do you boo' quotes and talk about how you should have your own goals but if that was the case why are suddenly pumpkin patches and rapeseed fields an absolute go to for the season. I don't think it's the strong affinity for carving out stringy pumpkin seeds, do you? Last year when we visited the patch on opening weekend, John couldn't wrap his head around why so many people left with no pumpkins, he likened it to going to a petrol station and leaving with no petrol. Because to a guy that's only ever uploaded twenty photos to Instagram, the concept that people actually just wanted photos amongst the pumpkins to look like they'd picked some - was so alien, and I guess his way of thinking is the norm but when you're so wrapped up in social media you don't sit back and take a second glance, at least I certainly didn't.

Don't get me wrong, I have full respect to anyone willing to travel miles on end for the sake of floral photos, it's not always rainbows and butterflies even if the photos that end up on a grid, paint a different picture. I'm completely guilty of falling into the Instagram trap myself, we drive by fields and I gasp at how pretty they would look... in a photo.

Suddenly I was second guessing everything we do. Am I just going to the farm because I want cute photographs of the boys, did we just pick fruit because I knew it was the done thing on Instagram and in the fog of the moment I couldn't actually remember my intentions behind the plans but I knew that I didn't want to feel like it going forward. This past month I've left my camera at home more often than I've taken it out, whilst I know it's important to be in the photograph and actually capture the memory, it's also incredibly important for me to be in the moment and actually remember why we were there. I'm not fussed whether my hair and make up are photo ready or if I wore this t-shirt last time we visited, I just don't care, because it isn't just about getting the shot anymore, it's about enjoying the day and being a bit more present.

I don't want to be constantly questioning my own motives going forward, I know that as part of my job I have to attempt to take semi-reasonable photos. Cartier-Bresson I am not, but I can try at least. It also doesn't go without saying that I adore having the photographs to look back on, I adore seeing what we've got up to when years have passed and ultimately there will be a time when those photos are all my boys have but it's so important to know that photographs aren't everything. You can experience things without having to put them online, and just because it didn't feature on Instagram, doesn't mean it didn't happen. So whilst I'll still be posting away like nothing in my mindset has changed, know that it has, though I was never one to be photoshopping shooting stars into my photos or removing crowds from times square, I am definitely guilty of taking pictures solely for the purpose of sharing them online. Of course it's nice to do things for the gram, but it's even nicer to do them for my family instead.