The Right... Instagram Confession

My lovely friend Katie tagged me in one of her latest posts all about her Instagram confessions so I decided to share my own with you today!  I have to admit, I try to be as "real" as possible on my Instagram but honestly, sometimes you have to stage things.  Its like anything with photography - you need to have the right balance of objects in the photo, the right lighting, etc. and with all the photo editing apps out there, it's really easy to make your online life look even more amazing than usual.

Below are some of my recent snaps (including the before/raw shot!) and a little explanation behind each.  I hope you find this post amusing (and don't unfollow me!) rather than annoying and I can assure you, 90% of my Instagram life is my real life in real time (just with a little enhancement): 

before...

after...

What I want you to see: Look at me!  I get up early every day to enjoy the sunrise in Central Park on my nice long runs and I'm so fit and so blessed to have this view!

What's really happening: I'm still half asleep because it's 6:30 AM and it's really super hot/muggy/humid but the clouds!  The clouds are making a fake sunrise (because really the sun has been up for a good 45 minutes).  Oh and I'm not stopping on my run today so I'm going to snap this while I run, trying to get a shot that's not totally blurry.  This is one of about 6 photos...

before...

after...

What I want you to see: Ermahgerd nature and flowers!  Oh and look at me, I'm taking beautiful pictures while I'm running through Central Park again!

What's really happening: I took this picture 2 weeks earlier in Washington Square Park (I know, I know - this one is probably the worst) BUT I saw a patch of these same flowers on my run in Central Park all week.  I just didn't want to stop to take the photo.  And I hadn't instagrammed those flowers yet.  And if I crop it just right you won't really know...  This is one of about 8 photos...

before...

after...

What I want you to see: #SummerFriday with my bestie by the pool at the Dream Downtown sipping sauv blanc and lovin' life.

What's really happening: "WTF is going on in the background??  Crop, Crop, CROP!"  Also, "this filter makes us look SO tan!"  Annddd this is no joke our fourth (maybe fifth?) glass of wine.  Because apparently that's how we roll on a Friday afternoon. This is one of about 10 photos...

before...

after...

What I want you to see: Dayum these shoes look good - and they look SO good on my rug #win.

What's really happening: This is one of (literally) 55 photos.  This is the 5th "background" I've photographed.  I'm running late for work because I just had to instagram these shoes today.  Oh and can we talk about how hard it is to take a picture of your damn shoes/feet without them looking awkward?  I really don't know how Eva Chen does it.

before...

after...

What I want you to see: Look how cute my casual Saturday night out outfit is - I'm so matchy matchy with my white lace, jeans and sandals.  Oh and look how cute my new C.Wonder bracelet is!

What's really happening: "Wait, before we leave for dinner I have to insta something."  This turned into me trying to figure out just how bright and white I could get this picture before it was totally distorted.  Oh and it's photo 1 of about 12...

before...

after...

What I want you to see: You know, just casually strolling around midtown, taking a break with some afternoon coffee from a cute little non-Starbucks cafe.

What's really happening: My first set of photos taken off to the side on a sidewalk just didn't look right.  As if I didn't get enough stares there, I decided to pause on the corner at the red light.  "I must get just the right angle so maybe @coffeenclothes will regram me!" And "I better get back to the office because I've been gone wayyyy to long" (coffee breaks are definitely not a regular part of my job).  Photo 1 of about 8...

after...

What I want you to see: Clearly I spend my weekends wandering around NYC finding pretty things to instagram and look at this bike I stumbled upon!  How cute is it?!

What's really happening: I took this picture in May.  I instagrammed it 3 weeks ago.  I wasn't really in SoHo that day, but I just thought I'd pretend like I was (because really, it is an adorbs bike that needed to be shared anyway, right?).  Oh and I deleted the original already because it was so.long.ago.

I hope you enjoyed today's post and I hope to see more of these popping up around the internets (they really are entertaining when you think about it!).

Have a great weekend!  

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