The Story Behind a Photo

Beautiful sunsets, candid family moments, on point make up with glistening highlight—sound familiar? Well, those are the types of flawless photographs we see flooding our social timelines.

There is an untold trend of trying to present a well-put-together, flawless image out to the world, I myself am guilty of doing this. It is as though the world can only see the good, great and simply outstanding versions of ourselves. The real mystery is in the circumstances around the capturing of that stunning shot.

I can only speak on my own individual experiences when it comes to this, so let me share a few background stories to some of the photos I have posted before.

Summer, June 2017 we went on a much deserved mini family vacation to Istanbul. Of course, like many, I only posted the photos that I deemed to be flattering and the rest remained in my camera roll. However, those that know us would know that my daughter randomly vomits. On this occasion it was a beautiful day and we went to visit Haga Sophia, she was running around having a jolly time then fell asleep. We took this as an opportunity to get a few individual photos and with no warning, she threw up all over herself while in her stroller. All our attention went to get her cleaned up and that concluded the photo session. Later on, that evening while going through the many photographs that were taken that day I came across one that made me laugh. My husband was facing the stroller that was beside me while I took his photograph, I unintentionally caught the moment he saw her vomit. His facial expression is definitely PRICELESS!

This is just one of many funny stories, untold to the world of social media but laughed about within family and friends. I'm sure there are many embarrassing moments that take place during big occasions, it is always the stories behind the photos that come up in family gatherings not so much how good people looked. If we take all our childhood photos many of them are shocking to us now, with no sense of direction or sense of awareness many of our photos are laughable.

At the end of the day, the focus shouldn't be on presenting ourselves the way we think society thinks is acceptable, but to present the most authentic version of ourselves. The funniest and most memorable moments are created among the chaos, and even though at the time it may not feel like you've got the money shot the stories that come out of these situations are much more worthy of sharing.

Of course the volume of how much one shares is based on individual preference and differs from person to person. However the more authentic and vulnerable people are starting to become the more they start to share and connect with others on a deeper level.

So next time your planning to post, if there is an interesting story don't just share the great, but include the laughable.