1. Why A Photo Booth Works
As a cruise director for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line I had an opportunity to observe men
and women in a celebratory environment and was especially tuned to what they enjoyed and
how they reacted to entertainment as a group. Following 3 years operating a photo booth
corporation, I am nevertheless amazed at the way people today react to a photo booth at a
wedding. I began to ask why!
When I very first heard the thought, it sounded stupid, till I saw it with my own eyes. Positive
sufficient, this old notion, which we would casually pass up with hardly a second glance at
the mall, is breathing new life into wedding entertainment. When people today get in the
booth collectively, a spark ignites, the youngster within them comes out and they play behind
the curtain, seeing how silly they can make the photographs and laughing the whole time. It's
clear to me that photo booths are the new "chocolate fountain", that is to say, a new staple of
entertainment at weddings and parties.
So why is it that even though just about every person there has a telephone with a camera in
it, they line up to play in the photo booth?
MEMORIES: The photo booth captures folks who could not commonly be photographed
together. What a wedding photographer captures is fairly unique from what a photo booth
captures. Strange pairings ofpeople who may well only be with each other at your event are
preserved forever. This could include family members mixing with college buddies from the
opposite coast, children with excellent-grandparents, and finest buddies who have under no
circumstances met until now. You squeeze, you giggle, pose and mug your faces, use props
and get creative!
• UNFAMILIAR Surroundings: On cruise ships, people were far more childlike and open to
silliness mainly because they had been out of their element. They looked to us (the crew)
for cues how to act. When we showed them it was OK to be playful, they felt free of charge
to be silly and had a blast, moving out of their usual roles. A photo booth performs
significantly the exact same way.
• NOSTALGIA: Absolutely everyone has been in a photo booth as a kid and becoming in one
particular as an adult brings you back to your childhood. Older people may possibly not
have been in one for 50 years and stepping inside is like stepping back in time.
• PRIVACY: It is a thing like a game of peek-a-boo! We know we are going to show our
images to absolutely everyone, there may even be an external monitor, yet when that
curtain closes we really feel we have the privacy to loosen up, distort our faces and pop out
laughing! Then we show them our four frozen moments of goofiness!
• SPACE: No matter the size of the booth, you have to get close to other people, breaking
down our usual social barriers as we suspend our personal boundaries. This is exhilarating
in itself but it also indicates the usual rules of conduct do not apply and we let ourselves
"play" and interact with the booth and the people we are with. It's fun.