Bloggers take a ton of photos. Like – seriously. A bajillion photos. Everyday, I upload about 300 photos to the good ol computer. Inevitably, there are a buttload of photos that never make it to the big screen. Usually it’s due to lousy lighting or blurry images. Sometimes the image isn’t quite level or parts of the image aren’t arranged correctly. But then there are those other times. The times when you get a gem. A photo or project that is sort of awesome in it’s own special way, but still won’t make the cut. Today we honor those gems. While the rest of the blog world is rounding up the Top blog posts of the year, I’m giving you the Top  posts that never happened. So here we go: The Official Damask Love 2015 Cutting Room Floor aka The Top 8 Photos You Almost Never Saw aka The Top 8 Images I Might Regret as Soon as I Hit “Publish”

MISSED MANNERS

No one will ever accuse me of lacking in the personality department. I know how to feel all the feels and I’m pretty outgoing. But then there are those times when outgoing turns into straight up cray. Like in this. Everyone loves a good a nice roundhouse kick  but maybe don’t do one in a hot pink skirt. I’m pretty sure every etiquette book on earth has a chapter on the important of refraining from karate while wearing a skirt. To keep from offending all your etiquette fans, I opted for a tamed down version of this photo and the results are far less offensive.

HOLY CROP!

You’ve seen this image a million times. It’s my headshot on the blog and on every social media channel…but I bet you didn’t know that there’s more to the story…in the form of a full on hipster beard peeking into the side of this shot. Hallelujah for a quick crop job, right?!

SLIGHTLY INAPPROPRIATE

Everything is art…including neon red abstract representations of boobs and awkward sex positions. Only problem is that you don’t always notice them when you’re in the middle of a photo shoot. You just sit there, posing with your iPad grinning away oblivious to the wrongness going on behind you. Thankfully, after a few snaps of the camera your photog notices the problem and relocates you to a more PG-13 portion of the mural.

THE STANK FACE

It’s gonna happen. The stank face. In every photoshoot there will be at least one. You’re tired, you’re hot, you’re confused, you’re over it. And that’s precisely when the stank face emerges. Fortunately, you typically snap back to your chipper self and carry on as if everything is amazeballs. With that in mind, I couldn’t even fault this little cutie for her moment of stank faceness. It happens to the very best of us, and she really was the best. Check out her cuteness in the final post of this project. 

THE “SOLD OUT” SITUATION

I work pretty far in advance for each project you see on Damask Love. In most cases, it works to my advantage since I have content ready to roll well before it needs to be done. But then there are the times when I make something awesome…and the supplies sell out and are nowhere to be found in all of the interwebs. This means that you guys won’t be able to get your hands on the goods needed to replicate the project. Such was the case with these jeweled flats. I bought all the supplies from Charming Charlie and then a month later none of the supplies were available. I used a cheap statement necklace and deconstructed them to create pretty jeweled embellishments on brightly colored flats. I’m hoping I can revive this project in the Spring, but until then, this one stays on the cutting room floor.

TRADE SECRETS

I am queen of the “one-nail-manicure.” It’s a blogger trade secret so don’t tell anyone I let you in on this. You see, with so much content to create it’s easiest to just paint the most necessary nails for the shot and then take the polish right off and repeat for the next image you need to photogragh. Some might call  me “lazy.” I’ll stick with “efficient.” I’ve even been known to strut around with two fingers painted pink and the other three painted teal with gold sparkles. It’s pretty classy. The one-nail-manicure is generally a win, until, of course, that one-nail-manicure screws up the entire photo like it did here. Everything looks great until you see those sad, sad unpainted fingernails and that stylish bandaid. I had no choice to chop this one from Instagram eligibility.

MORE TRADE SECRETS

Now, if you promise to keep this close to the vest, I’ll let you in on another trade secret. You know all those fun, quirky shoe photos floating around Instagram? Photos like this one? Well, behind…or should I say, underneath each photo of kicked up shoes is a blogger laying down in an awkward and precarious situation. From the waist down, she’s all poised and perfect. Fromthe waist up she straining to keep the post or laying down in a cozy bed of concrete and pebbles. It’s the glamorous life, people. So, so glamorous.

 C’MON KID!

All I wanted him to do was wear the glasses…for, like, 2.6 seconds. It was gonna be the icing on the cake of this project. But in the end, he wasn’t having it. He wanted nothing to do with those glasses and the best I could get was this photo of the ongoing battle between daddy and baby. Baby won. No glasses. Oh well. Life goes on.

Now that you’ve seen my #2015cuttingroomfloor, let me see yours! Join me on Instagram for a little fun and share a photo that didn’t quite make the cut. Use the #2015cuttingroomfloor hashtag and we can all have a laugh at those less than perfect moments.