DON’T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT
The latest travel accessory is a vacation photo shoot.
(from left to right)
PORTUGAL SURPRISE
Flytographer Orsi pretends to be a tourist while secretly capturing a surprise proposal in the Alfama neighborhood in Lisbon.
A LITTLE HELP FROM DAD
A 2-year-old boy gets a lift from Dad during an alpine ski lesson on the slopes at Copper Mountain, Colorado.
GONE FISHING
A dad teaches his daughter how to fly fish on a warm fall day on the Crystal River in Marble, Colorado, near Aspen.
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elfie stick, step aside. The new trend in creating unforgettable travel pics is the personal travel photographer, who documents your trip and delivers gorgeous, high-quality photos—without you having to snap a shot. Societal norms are rapidly shifting around hiring a travel photographer; it’s now considered akin to hiring a photographer for a wedding. Fueling the trend: the growing recognition that the travel photos a pro takes are a different order of magnitude than the ones you can snap on the fly with your phone. Admit it: You probably struggle with photo fatigue, whether it’s rooted in roping in a stranger to take a group shot, contorting for a collective selfie, or resigning yourself to be the designated documenter. While those strategies may be good enough for a Facebook post or Instagram feed, the benefit of hiring a professional means you’re guaranteed to end up with genuine, timeless keepers—photos you will actually want to blow up, frame, and treasure. If this sounds more savvy than splurgy, Flytographer (basically Airbnb for travel photographers) will connect you with a professional, fully vetted photographer in over 275 cities worldwide. Or explore a more immersive experience with a private photographer who shadows your family all day to capture an intimate—and unforgettable—day-in-the-life. Inspirato talked to both Flytographer and Casie Zalud, an independent documentary family photographer, to explain why good vacation shots are worth every penny.
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According to Flytographer founder Nicole Smith, a former Microsoft executive, the personal photographer movement coincides with the rise of people recognizing the value of experiences over “stuff.” “Our clients have found the most memorable mementos are professional-quality vacation photos,” Smith said. (Enjoy the relief of calling off the search for the perfect souvenir.) She discovered this firsthand, when the idea for Flytographer arose after a trip she took with her best friend to Paris six years ago. “The photos we had taken of ourselves and the ones we had asked strangers to snap were disappointing,” she said, “so we asked a friend living in the city to take some shots. We ended up with stunning images that captured the spirit of the trip.” She founded the company in 2013—as a side project. Since then, burgeoning demand has spurred aggressive growth, and the company keeps upscaling. Flytographer offers packages that range from 30 minutes to two hours: Prices start at $250 and go up to $650, with customers receiving a complete set of digital images within five days of the meeting. “Most people opt for 60 to 90 minutes,” she said, “because it does take a little time to warm up to the camera.” The success of companies such as Flytographer suggest that our best defense against visual overload may be discrimination. “With Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram, we’ve become a much more visual world, and in particular, there’s been an explosion of visual storytelling,” Smith said. Our devices bombard us with images in our feeds, posts, texts, and emails. INSPIRATO.COM
from left: flytographer; casie zalud (2)
BY ELIZABETH MARGLIN