Live Your Taylor Swift Life By Hiring a Vacation Photographer
When I saw the gorgeous Instagram photos of Taylor Swift and her boyfriend Calvin Harris frolicking on a beach to celebrate their one-year anniversary, two immediate thoughts came to mind: One, Swift looks good, and two, it definitely looks like she hired a professional photographer to snap images of her romantic getaway.
Vacation photography is not a new concept. Plenty of resorts have staff photographers who can get a posed, cute shot of the family for that year’s holiday card, and many guides on all-inclusive tour packages also offer to take snapshots of their guests. But in the last few years, as people have taken to social media to share vacation photos-slash-humblebrags, more and more experienced photographers have begun offering their services to set up professional-level shoots for previously casual holiday snaps.
Florida-based photographer Tricia Keffer started getting requests to take professional photos of families vacationing in Destin back in 1997. Ten years later, as requests grew and more people began contacting her ahead of their trips, she launched her own business focusing specifically on vacation pictures, Tricia Co Family Vacation Photographers. She branched out to other resort towns in Florida and the occasional jaunt to Paris (where she loves to go, and where her clients often want a shot in front of the Eiffel Tower), where the clientele was more likely to be couples getting engaged or celebrating their anniversary (like Swift and Calvin) than parents wanting photos to send to Grandma. Now, Keffer’s rates begin at $149 for the shoot alone, and then there are add-on costs for the type and number of prints purchased. The minimum package is $350.
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Although many of Keffer’s clients want pictures they can share on Facebook or Instagram, they also want professional-level quality that they won’t get with a selfie stick or the Amaro filter. “People say they don’t want to pose, but they don’t realize that few things in magazines are not posed. You look better and more relaxed when I pose you,” Keffer tells Condé Nast Traveler about how she differentiates her services. “The other thing to look for is that I shoot on film. A lot of photographers these days don’t have that foundation.” She also provides digital photos, and meets with clients ahead of time to get a sense of their personalities and interests, which she incorporates into the shoot.
When New York City’s Sasha Chou began her own photography business in 2015, several of her early clients were couples from Italy who had come to the Big Apple for an anniversary or honeymoon. “I realized it was a trend for them to come here, take photos, and tell their friends,” says Chou. From there, an idea developed, and she founded PicVoyage, a vacation photo company. A fluent Mandarin speaker, she advertised on Chinese websites to grow her brand. “It helps to have someone who knows the area and speaks the language,” she says.
Many people visiting New York, especially those coming for the first time, want to get wide shots of themselves with famous attractions like Times Square, Rockefeller Center, and the Empire State Building in the background, says Chou. Although she is happy to oblige, she will also suggest more out-of-the-way locations that still capture New York’s essence (busy streetscapes, yellow taxis in the background). Since launching, Chou has expanded PicVoyage to Paris, Venice, and Rome, where she hires local photographers who know the area well rather than going herself. PicVoyage has three pricing options, beginning at $250 for 25 digital photos at 1-2 locations and maxing out at $600 for 90 digital photos at 3-4 locations, which is the most popular option for proposal shoots.
So, it’s possible that Swift is one of those superhuman types that looks like she has always stepped out of a glossy editorial. But it’s also possible that she’s smart enough to surround herself with the best people, including professional photographers who will guarantee that her life looks beautifully art directed. Either way, it’s working, and she’s inducing travel envy worldwide.
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