While I love traveling with my husband and family and capturing our beautiful holidays on “film”, it seems there is something missing from the photos. Usually, me. I nervously will give my camera to a stranger to snap a photo of all of us now and again…but then the photo always feels posed and unnatural. Something I’m not a big fan of.
So for a while I’ve wondered if other people feel the same. Do they wish there was someone around on their vacation to capture something fun that otherwise would never be documented? (ie- surfing, paddleboarding, swimming, picnics, hiking and playing on the beach together) I know it’s something I would seriously consider.
Anyhow, after reading an article from the Wall Street Journal I am realizing this is apparently not as crazy of an idea as I thought…other people might really love to have someone photograph their fun holiday moments. So if you are planning a vacation, day trip, adventure, or even a picnic and would like to have some nice photos with everyone in them, write me an email and we will see if we can plan something together :)
Tonya, I just stumbled across that same WSJ article and in doing a bit more googling came across your site. I’d be curious (as a fellow photog) to know if you’ve had any success in marketing this? I’ve done some on-location engagement shoots, but never given much thought to vacations as a market. Would love to hear any thoughts you have to offer!
Hi Stephan, funny you should ask…but I haven’t really marketed this at all. In fact it was more of a joke between my family and friends that I wanted to be a photographer for people on their holidays! Then I saw that article and thought “maybe it’s not as crazy of an idea as everyone made it sound!” Anyhow…sorry I cannot offer more advise to you at the moment. Haha…if I figure this all out I will certainly let you know! :)
I had the same thought process, actually. A friend actually suggested it to one of her acquaintances offhand and they were all about it, and it started me wondering whether it might not be a marketable business model. Anyways good luck, I hope it turns into a thing because I would love to be part of a trend like that!
I’ve actually found a good deal of success doing exactly this. In January I traveled to Costa Rica with a group of folks to capture their adventures. It was just as fun and exciting as you would hope. So far I’ve done about ten adventure trips like this; some were personal, but I can still benefit from the photos I took.
Even though I lived in a tourist destination (Washington DC) for several years none of my business has come from out of town visitors looking for a short photo session. All of my trips have come about from word of mouth, so I don’t have any marketing insight yet. However, I’ll be sharing best practices and lessons learned on my blog: http://blog.yourvacationphotographer.com/
Hopefully we can all figure this out together! It’s such an obvious win-win opportunity just waiting to take off…
That is amazing Stephen! I think it would be really amazing to capture people’s happy life experiences for them. Your photos are really beautiful. Best of luck to you and if you have any tips on marketing this service, let me know! Thanks for stopping by!