My phone is not making this easy on me

Apologies again for last weeks crummy photo quality. At least the first couple of days this week are going to be similarly pants.

Here's me yesterday:



Here's me today:



I know that those of you that sponsored me want to keep an eye on me to make sure I'm following the rules, and that ideally the images shouldn't be all grainy and shite. The thing is though my phone hates me.

Not only does the camera not have a flash (meaning it's impossible to take a decent photo not only in the evening, but lets face it between the months of November and March), but the bloody cable has stopped working. This means that I might be able to post things on instagram, but retrieving them to use on my blog is a two hour ordeal involving a lot of swearing, one full on pillow thumping paddy and two large books being thrown across the room. I know - it's unfair on the books but the computer belongs to work and the phone (much as it's my mortal enemy as regards its capacity to take and share photos) is how I keep in touch with my mum, my husband and everyone else who doesn't use social media.

I've done a bit of research today about what I can do to make the photos better both for instagram and for the blog. Basically the internet offered up two options: buy a wifi enabled camera, or get an iphone.

The thing is I have a great camera, and a cool little instax mini, and I don't really want to make the significant investment that a wifi enabled camera costs right now. And as for iphones HAVE YOU SEEN HOW MUCH THEY COST? 

Wow.

No.

I'm sorry but I have to presume that no-one actually buys one of these outright but instead everyone gets them on contract and then kids themselves it's free 'cos they are only paying for data right? I can't judge on this by the way, that's how I'm buying my crappy windows phone - slowly and painfully with a commitment until September 2016 for something that hasn't even got a flash. ( I know I'm banging on about this but it was advertised as having a lumix camera & those are ace- this is not one of those).

So what to do?

Thankfully there is (I hope) a third way. I've just found this site and ordered myself a wifi enabled memory card. According to the site I can just pop this in my standard camera and it will automatically update my cloud account and download things to my other devices. Meaning I can use my phone to instagram photos I take from my normal camera.

I'm pretty chuffed with this idea & will let you know how it works out. - Hopefully it'll mean no more rubbish (quality - I make no promises about the me gurning situation) photos on the blog.

I'll probably pick up a cheap pocket sized camera to carry with me (I love my Nikon but it's too heavy to carry everyday) - does anyone have any suggestions?

Selfie hatred (Day 5)

I hate having my photo taken. Always have.

My nephew Sam describes me as the anti- Barney Stinson. For those of you that haven't watched 'How I met your mother' this is Barney Stinson.





There is a running joke in the show that you just can't get a bad photo of Barney, whatever he is doing no matter how undignified you take a photo and he looks just like he does above straightening his tie.

And the opposite of that is me. I'm a gawky, clumsy girl who gets very excited about things and moves around a lot. This makes me amusing to be around but it doesn't make for good photos AT ALL. I have lost count of the number of family photos I've ruined by gurning, or doing something weird with my hands, or somehow rolling my eyes back into my head. And I'm not doing it deliberately - I would love to take a good picture but I just don't. 

Here are a couple of examples:
 
 
......and those are ones I allowed myself to be tagged in on facebook! 

I didn't really think about this when I set up this challenge but the act of taking and then posting online photos of me everyday for a year is pretty hideous. 

So I'm going to have to get over this hatred pretty quickly.

Day 2 saw me taking my first ever selfie - this is not a medium I enjoy at all. It's so self regarding, false and entirely set up. It also feels really anti social.  I can see the point if you are recording something, proving a point or asking an opinion - but otherwise go outside, hang around with someone you like and then if you want your photo taken get them to take it. I don't care how pretty you are your mirror does not provide good conversation.

By Day 5 I was on selfie 3

I think you can actually see my soul being sucked out in this. It is just so joyless. So from now on I'm going to try to avoid the selfie & when I am out with people I like, I'm going to get them to take the photos.

I'm also going to learn from a couple of my more photogenic chums how to pose. Something I have never felt motivated to do before and I am sure will look ridiculous at least initially. But there are  360 of these photos to go - so I think for all our sakes I should try.