Short answer: Yes 🙂

Since we started dating ten years ago, I have made my now-husband a photobook of our year together for every Christmas. Capturing memories through photos and journaling our adventures has always been part of our life. Before it was ‘for the gram’ it was ‘for the book’ 😉 However, in the early years, our travel photos involved a lot of selfies or trying to catch the attention of a friendly-looking stranger to take a photo. Usually this results in someone’s head looking abnormally large or missing the view we were hoping to capture. I know you know the struggle.

To switch things up a few years ago, my husband gifted me with a professional travel photoshoot for our trip to the Amalfi Coast. The photographers made us feel super comfortable and captured beautiful shots we could never get on our own. We have those pictures hanging on our wall now and they are the perfect way to remember our time in Positano. Since then, we’ve done photoshoots in Ireland, Scotland, and Colombia. Booking a professional photographer definitely gets filed under luxury travel and there are a lot of other wonderful ways to remember your adventures. But if you have the ability to make this type of investment, these make a beautiful keepsake. Not only do you get beautiful photos but you get to know the photographer and connect with someone who knows the place you are and can show you all the best spots you might not find on your own.

If you are thinking about booking a professional photographer to capture memories for your next trip, there are a lot of options out there to choose from. I’ll review four different options – Flytographer, Angle (formerly Shoot My Travel), Localgrapher, and AirBnB Experiences, including cost. At the end is a code for $50 off your first shoot with my favorite of the four!

How it Works

Other than AirBnB, all of these sites offer fairly similar booking experiences. Choose your destination from their list, which will allow you to see the photographers available in that city as well as a few photos from their portfolio and a short bio. You can choose a particular photographer or say that you are comfortable with whomever is available. Then you choose your date and time and complete the booking with payment. Once you book, you will be contacted by a concierge to confirm the details and they will put you in touch with the photographer as the shoot gets closer. After the shoot, you receive a link to view and download your photos.

Tip: If you’re not sure which photographer’s style you like best, look for their business website or Instagram to see more of their work.

AirBnB Experiences

We love AirBnB, and not just for finding a place to stay. Their Experiences arm can connect you with hikes, cooking classes, distillery tours, and photographers. I have booked photo shoots through AirBnB twice, once in Edinburgh and once in Cartagena. The benefit of this platform is competitive pricing and direct contact with your host/photographer. Unlike the booking companies, you can shop around depending on how many listings there are in the city and typically find a lower price. For both shoots we did, our cost was around $40 per person for roughly an hour. Sometimes these are newer photographers that are looking to grow their business and portfolio. Also, unlike the booking companies, no one is vetting the listings for quality other than your fellow travelers. Be sure to read the reviews and feel free to message the host through AirBnB asking for a link to additional photos if the few they can post to their profile aren’t enough to get a good sense of their shooting style. Shoots booked through AirBnB have generally felt a little more casual and flexible. These shoots are also where I’ve received the most photos, 40-100 images, versus the 15-30 that are typically included in packages.

• Pros: Price, flexibility, direct communication, number of photos
• Cons: No quality control on photographers

Angle (formerly Shoot My Travel)

We booked through Angle (at the time for our photo shoot in Ireland, at Howth Summit. Our photographer, Noel (Tristan Pereña on Instagram), was amazing and so sweet. He even brought a drone and sent us a short bonus video after our shoot! They have photographers in over 500 cities and packages start at $235 for an hour for some destinations. More popular or remote destinations, like Santorini, start at $295 for an hour. My only critique with Shoot My Travel is their customer service. For our trip to Dublin, the concierge didn’t do much at all to coordinate, just passed my contact information on to the photographer (not Noel) who we initially booked with. There were a lot of lags in communication and when she ultimately had to cancel due to a family emergency, Shoot My Travel didn’t tell us. We found out when the photographer graciously reached out to apologize assuming they had notified us. More recently, I tried booking a shoot for my parents as a gift and had similar issues with customer support. Luckily we ended up with photos we love and had a great experience thanks to the photographer.

• Pros: Number of destinations, price
• Cons: Customer experience

Localgrapher

When my parents took their first overseas vacation in years for their thirtieth anniversary, I gifted them a photoshoot through Localgrapher. This company was great because my parents were staying in a small town in southern Spain and Localgrapher has the most destinations of any company in the market – over 900. My parents’ plans were changing a lot and a credit to Localgrapher was that they were very communicative and made sure everything went smoothly despite me booking somewhat last minute. They were really open to whichever location would be most convenient for my parents, who had just arrived and weren’t yet familiar with the area. Packages start at $250 for 30 minutes.

• Pros: Number of destinations, customer support
• Cons: Price

Flytographer

Flytographer is the gold standard, and the pricing reflects that. This is who we booked with for the Positano photoshoot and despite us being entirely new to this, they made everything very easy. The Canadian-based company offers over 380 destinations, from Aruba to Zanzibar and, in my opinion, has the most curated catalog of photographers. Packages start at $285 for 30 minutes, which seems short but really just felt efficient. Our photographers in Positano, the wonderfully talented and kind Mary and Maurizio of Quattro Studio, knew the location well and exactly how to get great shots and what we should do. This really put my husband at ease who doesn’t always feel comfortable in front of the camera. Flytographer specializes in helping to plan and capture surprise proposals, which start at $385. Some of their proposals have even gone viral, like this sweet couple who was on Ellen!

• Pros: Best photographers, professional customer experience
• Cons: Price (To help with that, use CODE1437 at check-out to save $25 on your first shoot)

Have you done a travel photo shoot, what was your experience? Tell me or put questions in the comments.