Don’t want to ask a stranger to snap your pic? Now you can hire an ‘iPhoneographer’
Visiting New York? Going for a night out? It can be a hassle asking people to take photos of you, whether it’s in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art or at the club with your friends. Don’t worry, there’s an app for that.
PhotoSesh Light lets you hire an iPhoneographer — professional photographers that use iPhones -to follow you around for an hour, two hours, or a day. You pay them by the hour, and they’ll take photos of whatever you wish. The service is almost exactlly the same as the company’s main app, PhotoSesh. It’s like Uber for photographers — events are scheduled in the app, or dropped in a map for immediate requests, and photographers can accept or reject at their discretion.
The difference between PhotoSesh and PhotoSesh Light is that photographers in the latter app use an iPhone, not a DSLR.
“Many people we’ve surveyed would feel more comfortable if someone followed them around with an iPhone and took their pictures,” the company tells Digital Trends. “Top reasons were concerns that the big black camera can be intimidating out in public, and this would seem less attention-grabbing for more candid shots of a tourist experience.”
PhotoSesh Light lists photographers near you in distance order, and you can send a request out to your favorite photographers. The first one to accept “gets your business.” Just like the main PhotoSesh app, you can request for a photographer immediately or schedule someone for a later time.
The service costs about $10 for 30 minutes of an iPhoneographer’s time, or $20 per hour. Photos are sent over wirelessly via Apple’s AirDrop, which requires two iPhones to be next to each other. PhotoSesh Light has been in a closed beta, and it’s now available on iOS.
Technically, photographers can be found in most major cities across the U.S., but the company hasn’t advertised in areas outside of New York City. Now, it’s promoting the San Diego area on the West Coast as it has enough verified photographers to market the service.
The timing isn’t coincidental — the company has been rushing to release its app before people get an iPhone 7 in their hands. The new devices have improved cameras, particularly thanks to the dual-camera system on the iPhone 7 Plus.
