How One Pet Owner Turned Holidays Into a Living
Capturing those perfect memories of a lifetime while on holiday is not always easy, but one pet owner is helping travelers capture special moments around the globe.
We caught up with Sarah Pearce, the founder of Travelshoot, for some expert advice on how you can make the most of your holidays by capturing the best possible photos.
Q. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Do you have any of your pets?
Name: Sarah Pearce
Founder of: Travelshoot
What is Travelshoot all about: Connecting travellers with professional photographers in over 90 cities worldwide. Travellers make the memories, and we capture them.
What about when you’re not working: I spend any non work time with my family. I’ve got a 1yr old daughter London, and am expecting my second human (non business) baby in January next year. So weekends typically start with a breakfast out and if we can a trip to the coast.
Pets: 2 male Shih Tzus – both Huey and Morris who’ve been with us for 10years. They loved a stint in Melbourne as they lay by heaters most of the day and enjoyed trips to the abundance of dog friendly cafes Melbourne has to offer!
Q. What is your favourite travel destination?
Internationally it would have to be Paris – just the striking beauty of the city never disappoints. I’ve been lucky to get there a few times and my favourite days are the ones you have nothing planned and can just wander the streets of the central arristonements and take in all the cafes, markets and just local culture and architecture. On a local level, I love Byron Bay – nothing is more relaxing than a weekend getaway there.
Q. Why did you start Travelshoot and how long have you been in business for?
3 years ago I was in New York for the first time with my husband and a friend of ours was a professional photographer. We ended up having an hour with him to help him with content for his website. Ironically when we got the images back, we were in awe of how awesome they were – unlike any travel selfies we had ever taken. My favourite was a huge black and white frame of the Manhattan skyline with us together in the shot. We weren’t looking at the camera, so unlike your standard travel selfie, it was quite artistic and just more natural, and the ultimate souvenir of that trip for us. So this was the brainchild for the business.
Q. Tell us about your own Travelshoots?
Since the original shoot in New York that started it all, I’ve been fortunate to have a couple other Travelshoot experiences of my own. My husband and I had a shoot done in Melbourne to capture some maternity memories when I was at the end of my pregnancy. We spent some time in Melbourne and loved the cafes and restuarants around Hosier Lane and Federation Square, so this is where we chose to have our shoot. And then recently, we took our first family holiday in the Maldives and my daughter had her first birthday – so we had a Travelshoot done on the island we were staying in. The photos compared to our selfies do so much more justice to just how beautiful the Maldives is!
Sarah with her family in the Maldives, is an example of one of the many types of photos that Travelshoot takes.
Q. What do you love most about Travelshoot?
We’re quite lucky in that not only do we get customer feedback, but we get to see all these incredible memories of customers travel adventures and special trips away. So we can see for ourselves what our service has allowed them to have for the years ahead to cherish. My favourite is customers who’ve done a Travelshoot perhaps every year, and you get to see their kids grow older in each experience, family memories are such a cool thing to help document.
Q. Where is Travelshoot offered in, nationally and internationally?
We have over 90 locations on the network now – both across Australia and the globe. Our most popular destinations to date seem to be: New York, Paris, Bali, Hawaii and in Australia both Sydney and Byron Bay are popular.
Q. What types of occasions does Travelshoot shoot for?
Everything – holidays for couples and families, honeymoons and engagements, surprise wedding proposals, girls getaways, and destination events like group birthday holidays or family reunions. We’ve also just started offering a service for destination weddings.
Q. Do you find family photos including pets is a trend on the rise?
Yes! We’ve had a few actually. Including myself in Melbourne on our maternity shoot! Most of our other pet loving customers are families or couples who’ve had a Travelshoot experience done close to home to capture some updated memories. Taking their dogs to their local beach is a common request for pet lovers, and our photographers love it!
Q. When does a phone camera and selfie stick just not cut it? Why do you think professional photography still resonates with people?
Travel selfies and your own phone or camera snaps when you travel absolutely still have their place. Of course people don’t spend their whole holiday with a personal photographer documenting every moment.
But a Travelshoot helps people have at least an album of really special memories. Ones that get the best angles of that incredible city as our locals know where to go, photos that get everyone in the frame without awkward selfies, and most importantly – the job of a professional photographer is to make memories authentic. Allowing a couple or family to walk around Paris and have a laugh, and capturing those moments that aren’t staged where people are just being them – they’re the moments only a professional photographer knows how to capture.
Q. Who are you finding values this type of travel experience?
We find females value the importance of capturing couple or family memories the most. They book Travelshoots to capture important moments in their life – family holidays, bucket list travel adventures, girl’s getaways, honeymoons, and weddings.
One of the interesting reasons we keep hearing from mothers in particular is they are ‘frustrated’ they are always the ones taking photos on a family holiday, but this means they never make it into the photos themselves!
Q. Best tips for someone wanting memorable holiday photos?
Outside of taking their own photos, we obviously recommend a service like ours. Particularly for big trips and once in a lifetime memories, we really tried to make our experiences affordable, around the same cost of a hire car for a couple of days – so that it wasn’t just a luxury experience that’s not accessible for everyone. For people who book a Travelshoot to get memorable holidays, we just recommend for them to be themselves – the best photos are the ones where clients aren’t trying to pose and are just being relaxed, having fun and being themselves. Our photographers are really anti-posing, the more natural the better.
Q. When should travellers look at booking a photographer?
We can accommodate all requests up to usually a few days ahead since we have a big network of photographers. But we definitely recommend the earlier the better so clients can get the dates and locations they’d prefer.
Would you love to have a special photo shoot with your furbaby or on your next holiday?
We’ve got a special deal for you from our friends!
PetCloud users get $50 Off their first Travelshoot experience. Can be used on any experience or gift cards purchased using coupon code: petcloud
Hurry and book your photographer at Travelshoot today! Offer expires 31 January 2018!
Download the PetCloud App and get Pet Friendly Cafes around you, on the go.
Download IOS: https://apple.co/2PifzXs Android: https://bit.ly/3aFeK2m
