UPDATE:

The giveaway is now closed, the winner is Simona! Congrats gurl!!!

Thank you to everyone for joining, there´ll be more soon ;)

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oh, you´re only here for the giveaway? Busted! ;)

You have to read everything first and after that i´ll tell you how to participate (or you just scroll down... ;) lol

Today is the last day of January and Valentine´s almost here. I don´t know if you´re into that (i wasn´t until Instagram made me..."look what you made me do" (the song? Taylor Swift, anybody?)

So, either you celebrate it or not, i would like to talk to you about Instagram couples. We did a cool shooting for Cluse for their Valentine´s campaign and now we´re on their website and i want to celebrate it! yay!

Because "instagram couple goals" seems to be a hot topic lately, here are my thoughts:

all #couplegoals pictures on Instagram are staged! all of them! There isn´t anybody following you with a camera just to capture that tender, spontaneous smile ;)
now, even if the shooting is staged, that doesn´t make it fake! Staged and fake are not synonyms. I think we sometimes forget that. We might dress up, wear make up (only me though, Raresh not ;) and pretend to eat a pizza on a beautiful summer day in Venice, but the joy, the laugh and the pizza are still real. Some shootings are super fun...
others aren´t entirely fun. Think about this: none of us is photogenic, or just say none of us has found his Schokoladenseite yet, meaning, we still haven´t found our best angle, lol!
but pictures aren´t only about being photogenic, there is so much more:
- poses
- outfits
- they have to tell a story
- featuring the product we advertise (in case the shooting is for a sponsored collaboration)
- finding the location. If the shooting is outside, there might be people passing by or starring at you. See the man in the background? ;)

- not to talk about the weather factor. That exact day you were planing on taking pictures outside it starts raining or it is very cold or too windy..
- the light plays an important role too. Winter is always challenging because the day are so short.
some of you might think it is all easy peasy, but it is really not..at least for us, i don´t know about others. ;)
now, what do you do on those bad shooting days? I´ve been mad a few times (actually lots of times, sorry husband!) and that´s a no go! You need a lot of patience for a #couplegoals picture, even if it doesn´t always turn out the way you want it, the shootings should be mostly fun.

By the way, if you´d like to see some behind the scenes of one of our recent shootings, watch this video:

You will now ask "and why are you telling us this?" Because sometimes i have the feeling that Instagram, besides inspiring us, can also make us jealous. So remember:

having nice couple pictures on social media doesn´t say anything about your relationship
if somebody doesn´t show his/her partner on insta, that doesn´t mean that person is not in a great relationship! Some people just want to keep it private.
we shouldn´t even talk about #goals. Who´s goals?
if somebody has a perfectly curated life:
- it might not be that perfect
- and even if it is...
- that´s their kind of perfect, it doesn´t have to be yours
don´t idealize social media couples but don´t judge them too hard either. Just look at them as creators that make visible stories.

I am both a creator and a follower. I am happy to share my visual stories with you but i also feel frustrated and a tiny, little jealous (sometimes more that that, yes, i confess) when i look at other accounts, so all these thoughts are firstly for me, to remind myself to create my own kind of magic, not recreate or envy someone else´s. We don´t have to be all bloggers or travel the world in order to be happy. What we post on social media only shows some aspects of our lives, it doesn´t describe us entirely.

Tell me, does this make sense to you? ;)

GIVEAWAY

Now, to celebrate our Valentine´s campaign with Cluse, i would like to give one lucky winner:

* 1 Cluse watch

* 1 Cluse necklace

RULES:

to join the giveaway:

1. ask Raresh and me a question in the comments below. We would like to do a Q&A vlog (Questions and answers) soon and would like to know your questions. Like for example "how did we meet", etc..

· The giveaway runs until Sunday, the 4th of February and i will announce the winner on Monday.

· there is only one winner, who will win both a watch and a necklace

-> please see the rest of the rules here <-

wishing you all the luck!

Now, hit us with your questions ;)