Even your photographer enjoys a good photobooth

I love photobooths. I really do.

Whenever I mention photobooths, I am asked if it is doing my job for me. I think not: a good photobooth is not redundant with a professional photographer. A photographer will be with you all day – finding those little moments of shared emotion and documenting formal groups.

A photobooth is part reception entertainment and part fun guest documentation. Think of the photo booth as an upgrade to “table shots” from a your wedding – you get photos of each guest, but instead of a table number and waterglasses, they are in smaller groups and often (gasp) having fun! Even though any photographer will try to photograph most of the guests, it can be impossible to document everyone – there is usually some group of family friends or coworkers that doesn’t like to dance (where I usually am) and leaves a little early (so I don’t get them on my next time around the room). For those people especially, a photo booth is a fun way to get their photos in your guestbook.

With digital photobooths, like Snapz or the Travling Photo Booth, the machine prints two strips – one for the couple, and one for the guests.

Which is especially good news when one of the groom’s college friends asks if he can join you in the photobooth – of course the answer is yes! And now I have a copy, too!

Photo planning tips: alternatives to disposable cameras

I remember when my cousin had her wedding and there were little plastic disposable cameras on each table. The idea was great — most professional photographers at the time (this was 10 years ago) were more “traditional” — they left the reception right after the cake cutting, so disposable cameras were a great way to have photos of the guests.

Fast forward to today. If you have an attachment to disposable cameras, by all means go ahead and use them. Personally, I find that they produce poor quality photos and are expensive. They are certainly not a replacement for a professional photographer, but if you are looking for extra coverage of your guests, you have some options you might not have thought about.

• Talk with your photographer. A good photographer is already planning on taking photos of your guests at the reception, and many will stay for enough time to get those “candid” moments. If you have a lot of guests or want portraits of each of your guests, you can talk with you photographer about options: maybe they can bring along an additional shooter who is dedicated to shooting or even set up a small photo booth. This is often cheaper than having 20 cameras developed, and is one less thing for you to worry about.

• Polaroid camera. Yep, they still make them and they are still fun. Your guests can take photos as they have time throughout the evening and put their photos into a guest book. Even better news is that Polaroid has introduced a new digital instant printing camera called the PoGo. It still gives you the option to print instantly, but since it is digital, you can choose to not print photos that didn’t turn out, and you can save all the photos digitally for future fun! Make sure you have a lot of Polaroid film, and you should probably assign a friend or family member to check on refills from time to time.

• Bring a laptop and universal card reader. Face it, most of your guests will bring their own digital cameras and are already doing the work for you. Make an announcement during the reception for guests to download their cards onto your laptop (assign a friend to man the machine). This also saves you from tracking down all the different albums people will put on flickr, facebook, and snapfish. Best of all? It is totally free.

• The Photo booth. There are lots of photo booth companies that will install a photo booth for a few hours during the reception. It can be entertaining for the guests, you can use the photo strips as an alternative to a guest book. Many companies operate digitally, and can  upload copies online for your guests to see and purchase. The Traveling Photo Booth is great for small spaces and operates totally digitally, while still providing the great strips. Photobooth Memories produces the classic photo prints and is not digital.