Summer is finally here. This means it is time for long days spent soaking up the sun on the beach, chilling with friends, and of course, taking lots of photographs. (Did it even happen if you didn't Instagram it?!) The worst thing to happen during these summer yolos is needing cute candid photos or posed photos and not having a personal photographer following you every second of the day.

There are only so many times that it is socially acceptable to bother strangers while you and your posse pose a bunch for the perfect pic. If you decide to go to the beach with your friends merely to get the perfect Instagram-worthy photo, here are the 10 steps that you must take in order to be successful.

1. Choose your scenery

First and foremost, you must decide where you want the picture to be taken. Where is the background the most interesting and the sunlight the best?

2. Determine the distance your phone needs to be in order to capture the people and scene

Have one friend hold the phone to view the shot through the camera while the other friend(s) get into the perfect position just to be sure that everyone will fit in the photo.

3. Make a stable stand for your phone

Pile up some sturdy rocks to prop your phone against.

4. Place the phone against the stand to ensure that the camera will still capture all necessary parts of the shot and has a good angle

Pro tip: add some rocks if you need to adjust the angle.

5. Picture posers get into the final position

But be sure to leave adequate room for the person operating the phone to slide in.

6. The person in charge of operating the phone sets the camera to a 10-second timer

7. While the phone operator starts the timer, those who are in the final picture pose begin to countdown from 10

8. Phone operator sprints from the rock phone stand and gets into the picture pose as soon as possible

Shoutout to the phone operator for sprinting like a mad person to get into the shot in time.

9. Stop counting at 8 seconds and smile

You don't want the camera to capture your mouth mid-shout to alert the phone operator how many seconds they have left to get into position.

10. Check photo

11. Repeat a hundred times

This way, you'll get a wide variety of perfectly posed pics, as well as cute candids.