(The seasons are changing, all in one line of the grid. Instagram: @livingmybeststyle)

Now I’m not gonna wag my finger and complain about the over-consumerism of the holidays and Christmas creep and Thanksgiving erasure. That complaint has been overdone. I’m more interested in why SO early this year? It’s never been THIS bad, right? Also, what is the rush? Can we get some time to chill for a sec? Can our jack-o’-lantern get a chance to rot? I posted about this on my Instagram a few days ago and got an interesting theory from Eve.

She makes a good point. I think this also has to do with who else but retailers. I was dismayed to go to Trader Joe’s this weekend (again, Nov. 2!) and realize all the fall and pumpkin products have been unceremoniously yanked off the shelves before I had the chance to have them one last time. Sorry, you snooze you lose, capitalism seems to be saying to us. Fall is over now, because we said so! So I don’t blame people on Instagram for following suit. They are just following the cues piped into our brains every day by corporations trying to sell us stuff.

Retailers have always moved faster than the rest of us from one holiday to another — now, we don't even have a break. I'm worried the stress of keeping up with the unrelenting stream of holidays will slowly suck all the joy out of the season. And that does NOT make me want to double-tap.

— Stephanie McNeal

I was writing about influencers and then an Instagram photo shoot broke out next to me. These pros taught me how it’s DONE.

My creepy photo

Earlier this week, I had a front-row seat to a behind-the-scenes Instagram show at a coffee shop in Chicago. Two customers came in, purchased a fancy matcha latte, sat next to me, and began an impressive and exhaustive photo shoot.

The pair appeared to be women in their late twenties/early thirties. One of them was the photographer with a professional camera in tow, and the other was the subject/potential influencer. Ironically, I was working on a story about Instagram influencers right next to them. Bacio da chef! (According to Google Translate, this is “chef kiss” in Italian.)

Here’s what I learned from being a fly on the wall (and potential background character) of this shoot:

The two purposely coordinated the shoot in a way that allowed them to blend into the environment of a casual but bustling coffee shop in the morning hours.

The IG subject would motion for the photographer to shoot from different angles around her with small, nonverbal cues, like a nudge. This impressed me. Sometimes she’d just say, “Go over there,” and the photog did. It was a very small space that they had to work with (a few feet around a narrow wooden bar), but they worked seamlessly.

Of course, they got the quintessential shot of the matcha latte from above. The matcha latte didn’t come dressed up for the occasion for no reason.

I noticed myself trying to act as natural as possible, to both not appear like I was observing them like I was Jane Goodall, but also to adhere to the “natural” environment of the coffee shop backdrop. I was now a potential prop in a potential Instagram (!).

The photographer also stepped outside to shoot the subject through the window. Creative. I would never have thought to do that.

The whole event lasted about 30 minutes, and the drink sat there untouched the whole time. It probably turned completely cold and that made me anxious. But every small business has expenses, I guess.

Finally, I tried to look for the Instagram post by searching the geotagged location of the coffee shop and other hashtags on the app, but could not find it! Perhaps the photos are not ready, edited, and/or perfectly primed to be posted yet.

I’ll keep you guys posted if I can ever locate it — and let you know if I made the cut to be a supporting role in a potentially very influential Instagram post.

Until next time,

Tanya

Want more? Here are other stories we were following this week:

How these small-time Christian influencers became a viral TikTok meme about purity culture. Girl Defined, a pair of Christian sisters with a relatively small following on YouTube, are being mocked for their views on sexuality and dating.

Parents were attacked by anti-vaxxers for posting flu-shot sponcon. Over the past few weeks, parents on Instagram who were paid to promote a Walgreens campaign to get the flu vaccine said their sponcon posts became the target of relentless harassment from the online anti-vaccination community.

Inside the highly organized lives of “planner addicts,” a massive Instagram community of women who make beautiful to-do lists. Money.com spotlights women on social media who share a love for “hustle porn”: planners that are meticulously organized, color-coded, aesthetically pleasing.

This viral wedding story had our group chat with some OG influencers going WILD! Find out what some of the biggest reality stars from Survivor, The Real World, and Big Brother had to say about it on our new show Did You See This?

Check it out here.