I’m sure that we are not the only family to return home from a holiday to find very few – if any – photos of all us together. What we usually end up with is hundreds of photos of the kids, dozens of pictures of the children with their dad and the odd shot of me – the designated family photographer.
Now, I’m really not one for posing in front of a camera (the idea of a selfie stick fills me with horror!) but I would still like to be featured in at least some of our family holiday snaps. And it was for this reason that I fell in love with the idea behind Flytographer.
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Launched by Nicole Smith, a former Microsoft Marketing Manager and consultant-turned-entrepreneur, Flytographer aims to pair travellers with local photographers around the world.
The website launched in March 2013 and today Flytographer has a network of over 500 carefully curated professional photographers in over 350 cities around the world from Scottsdale to Seoul to Santiago.
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Flytographer photo shoots
You can book a photographer to capture any kind of moment that you like. To date Flytographers have snapped marriage proposals, anniversaries, honeymoons and family holidays such as ours.
I booked our shoot to coincide with our visit to Victoria, the penultimate stop on our 2.5-week road trip around British Columbia, Canada. Our Shoot Concierge, Jen, was fantastic and helped to recommend Cadboro Beach, a great location for our shoot with a fun playground where the kids could run around.
As it turned out, Victoria is actually Flytographer’s HQ so Jen also kindly recommend a lot of great restaurants for us as well.
We had an hour with our photographer, Leanna, and she was great. She made our session fun and relaxed and despite my reluctant husband periodically muttering under his breath “never again” as she snapped away, the photos turned out brilliantly.
Everything about the service was flawless, from booking the shoot to receiving our online gallery of photos.
Our initial Flytographer shoot was such a success that we have used the company several times since. We booked a shoot for my mother-in-law’s 70th birthday, when we were all gathered together in Florence, Italy. We also gave my mother a Flytographer family photo session for her 70th birthday. For that shoot we met our London family photographer in Regents Park.
Most recently we gifted a 90 minute Flytographer session to my parents for their 50th wedding anniversary. We all travelled to the South fo France for a week and spent an afternoon with Florent, who produced some wonderful photos of the family. And, don’t tell my in-laws, but we will be doing a similar thing for them when we celebrate their golden wedding anniversary in the summer of 2022.
How does Flytographer work?
1. Choose your destination and then choose your photographer at Flytographer.
2. Submit an online enquiry, a Shoot Concierge will get back to you asap to confirm your booking. The great thing about Flytographer is that you deal with a real person rather than an automated system.
3. Prior to your shoot, your Shoot Concierge will send you the details for your shoot and put you in touch with your photographer
4. Meet your photographer and have your photos taken!
5. Receive your online gallery of photos, download them and share.
Prices
Pricing ranges from US $285 for a 30-minute shoot in one location (15 digital photos) to US$ 385 for a one hour shoot in one or two locations (30 digital photos).
A 90 minute shoot with 45 digital photos costs USD $535 and a two-hour shoot in multiple locations costs US$650 (60 digital photos). The photos are then yours to send, print and use however you like (personal use only).
If you would like a USD$25 credit towards your first Flytographer shoot, use this link!
I love this idea so very much! I never have any photos of me after our travels (or ever, really). I am definitely going to give Flytographer a shout next time we go on a family vacation.
I would definitely try it! It was a really fun experience in the end and it’s so nice to have a few photos of us all together!
I have been waiting for these photos Katja ! They are gorgeous. I’m evening thinking of booking a shoot for Barbados !
Thank you! There were a few that didn’t turn out quite so well but these were the ones of Nick and I by ourselves. – I had to try and hold Sam out of shot and Nick was just grumpy! But overall I was really pleased with them all and I would definitely recommend that you try them out!
They are BEAUTIFUL shots, I think that is lovely to get some family photos of you all on your holidays. Lovely memories.
Thank you so much! That’s what I kept trying to tell my husband as he was grumbling away!!
This is a great idea as I am never in our holiday shots but the only time we employed a photographer while travelling was recently at a club med. We booked the resort photographer with the result being 50 almost unusable photos and kids alienated by a photographer that had no interest in them and me $250 poorer. Hopefully this services photographers are much better as if they are I’d love to use them!
Oh no! What an awful experience! The thing I liked about flytographer is that you have a choice of photographers in most destinations. I specifically choose one who is a mum herself in the hope that she knew how to work with kids – and she did! I think that as a company they are very particular about which photographers they have on their site and you can see examples of the photographers’ work before you choose and book. I hope that next time you have a much better experience!!
These are beautiful picture for sure! I have done this twice before on a couples trip and a family trip, and I cherish both sets of photos. I am eager to book Flytographer myself when we go to the right destination. Beautiful family!!!
Ah, thank you! I think proof of a good photographer and service are photos that you want to frame – and I now have various framed around the house! I’m definitely planning to use them again. I’d love to hear about your experience as and when you get a chance to use them.
We are exactly the same. This is such a good idea and I am looking to get some family shots done, but not the cheesy kid, some great ones of us out and about. So Flytographer fits the bill while you are away. The prices are quite good as they actually include the photos – so many companies charge so much extra. Will look into this! Great photos by the way! Thanks for linking up with #MondayEscapes
Thank you! I do think they offer a really good service. And it’s good to hear that you think the prices are reasonable. I thought that the money spent was definitely equal to the service and photos received. I didn’t realise that other companies charge extra for the photos, what a cheek!
Hey Katja and family! So glad to read your post about your experience with me, and Flytographer, and that you enjoyed the experience. It was a fun day (and Nick was very much the gentleman, and any grumpiness was well hidden!) I think I will book a photographer myself through Flytographer for our next family gathering, too. Because I am a photographer, you can imagine I’m pretty picky, but love the idea of having a versatile professional capture our family. Cheers!
Hi Leanna! Thank you so much for your comments!! You are very kind to have not noticed Nick’s reluctance 🙂 I really enjoyed the experience and I LOVE the photos you took. I hope you try out a family shoot soon, I am definitely a convert!
Glad we found your post on the #TravelTuesday link-up. We had never gone in for family photos, really, but gave in on a recent trip and let the hotel photographer takes some shots. As soon as we saw the pictures, we knew we were hooked – it’s about the best souvenir from that trip! So now it’s an option for every trip. Learned about Flytographer just recently, so it’s good to see the review. Very helpful! Beautiful family, by the way!
What a lovely comment, thank you! I would definitely do this again. Like you said, these photos make such nice souvenirs. I would highly recommend trying out Flytographer, they have great personal service and the photographers that they use all appear to be very good and very professional.
Thank you for sharing this on Travel Tuesday. I have never heard of such a service, and yes, we always have so few photographs of the whole family during our family vacations. I love that all the photos are so natural and non-intrusive.