Flytographer Photo Shoot in Waikiki

I’m someone who likes to travel light. I almost always travel with carry-on only and while there are lots of benefits to traveling this way, one downside is the dearth of space for shopping. I usually don’t have room in my suitcase to fit anything other than what I left home with! Fortunately, some of the best souvenirs you can bring home don’t take up any space at all inside a suitcase: Photographs.

Photos are hands down my favourite souvenir from any trip I’ve taken. Years later, sitting down and flipping through travel photos can take me instantly back to a moment frozen in time in a way that no other material souvenir can. My husband and I are huge shutterbugs and our phones and computers and memory cards are stuffed to the gills with tens of thousands of photos of our memories from around the world.

Because I love photos so much, I was excited to learn about Flytographer, who I first heard about from my friend and colleague Anne Taylor Hartzell of Hip Travel Mama. Flytographer has local photographers in 120 cities around the world and you can book them for a photo session to capture your travels, from a special occasion to an annual family vacation and everything in between.

My husband and I booked a shoot during our stay in Waikiki and met our photographer Chelsea on the beach at dawn on New Year’s Eve. Eager to capture the best light of the day, our sunrise shoot was a fun and special way to close out the year. Chelsea was wonderful to work with; she’s a free spirit and her carefree way put us instantly at ease.
Our shoot was the perfect combination of candid and posed shots. Chelsea photographed us goofing around, then posed us for a few shots so that we’d have a good variety to choose from. We strolled the beach and Chelsea picked out spots for us to use as a backdrop. I was so impressed with her eye. At one point, we stopped in front of a row of surfboards all lined up. They didn’t look like anything special but when I saw the final photos, I realized that Chelsea knew what she was doing; the surfboards blurred into a soft and pretty background.

One of the best parts about working with Flytographer is that their photographers are locals. So if you’re vacationing in a spot you’re not all that familiar with, your photographer will have great ideas for shooting locations. Within five business days of your shoot, you’ll receive a link to an online gallery where you can download all of your photographs in high resolution.

Besides our wedding day, my husband and I haven’t done professional photos before but I absolutely loved the pictures that we got from our session (despite the fact that my bangs are way too short; bad decision on my part to get them trimmed the day before by a scissor-happy stylist!) The photos are a perfect souvenir from our trip to Hawaii and I look forward to booking another Flytographer session in another city some time when I don’t hate my bangs!

Click here to learn more about Flytographer photo shoots and rates and to book a session.