With Mayday just behind us it seems like a good idea to think about things that bring workmates together – and a Photo Booth is one of them.

Shared experiences are always a great way to bond folk together and a shared experience where you take something away with you makes the memory of that experience last a little bit longer. Photo Booths provide that. With strips to take away and a USB stick of all the images captured in the booth on hand after the event there’s plenty of memories to go around.

And the props box is a great leveler. Whether you are a CEO or mail room clerk, silly glasses and a hat are silly glasses and a hat. Photo Booths put everyone on the same level fun playing field. And there’s nothing like a bit of equality to bring the workers together.

So enough of the propaganda – whether your next party is a Communist Party, People’s Liberation Party, Christmas Party or End of Project Party we’ve got the perfect thing to unite the workers!

After a whirlwind couple of months it was great to get into the Porirua markets last weekend.

Not that there was any less mayhem and energy – just a different type. We parked our trusty photo booth amidst the food stalls and got to be part of one of Wellington’s best weekly doses of fun, colour and great food, produce and other amazing stuff.

As it always does, it takes some people a while to click to the fact that having something as awesome as a photo booth free for them to use is possible. But once we got the message out there was a queue of families, waiting for a photo and even one guy that we had to break the sad news to that the background was the wrong colour for a legitimate passport photo!

Thanks for having us Porirua Saturday Markets! If you haven’t got along on a Saturday morning you’re missing out on great food and vegies, awesome Pasifika food and some of the best fudge you’ll find!

We might even come back for another time round later in the year.

Take a look at this shot – they called it “The Bohemian Rhapsody” and at 11:30 at night with a little bit of celebratory alcohol in the system this took a while to sort out.

Its good but it could be better. And it’s all in the eyes. “Make love to the camera” is a great cliche of photo-taking but the camera does love it when you make eye contact. Look at the guy in the top row. He’s looking into the camera and you’re drawn to him. It’s the same as when you are having a conversation with someone and they don’t look at you – things get awkward. But when they look at you everything goes better.

So resist the temptation of the screen, look at it after the shot. Make love to the camera and look it straight in the eye while you’re doing it. 

That’s when the magic happens.

If you scroll back through this blog enough you’ll probably find other posts similar to this from past Wellington Managers – but here’s my version.

I get to go to a few weddings in my life. I’ve had one batch of friends hitched and the next, slightly younger wave is starting the process now but as they are my friends the weddings are all sorta the same. We are a group of people with similar backgrounds and similar interests and tastes. But since embarking on my first wedding season with Photobooth Fun I’ve seen a lot more! I’ve been to big cook Island weddings with dancing and singing, rocker weddings with tattoos, piercings and partial nudity and quite a few in between. Its a real chance to see how different people celebrate and to be part of those celebrations.

Thanks folks – for inviting us in and letting us make your special day a little more special.

And roll on the rest of the wedding season – I can’t wait to see what I’ll find

This time of year brings all sorts of folk into the Photobooth – its Christmas after all. One of the coolest things we get to do is help out charities and combine this with Christmas and you’ve got good vibes all round. Already this Christmas we’ve had the real privilege of having a Photobooth at the Child Cancer Foundation Christmas Party in Wellington. They are a great charity that don’t quite get the funds that some of the other charities do but they do fantastic work supporting the whole family of kids who have or have had cancer.

And at a party like this a Photobooth strip is a little more important. Its often a record of a family together in tough times, or having survived tough times. The number of times we heard kids being told – “This is a family photo for Mummy” brought it home. These are families for whom memories are really very important.

What was also amazing to hear was how many families still had their strip from last year’s party and were creating a little collection of memories.

We wish all those folk plenty of happy memories to come and a big thanks for having us along as part of the celebrations.

You can be part of their celebrations too by helping out kiwi kids with cancer this Christmas by clicking here

One of the great things about birthdays, weddings or other family events is that it brings together family. Often we don’t get to see the rest of the family during the course of the year and so the addition of the wider whanau makes these events special. And its nice to remember them.

That’s one of the cool things about the Photobooth its a great way t capture generations of the same family together in one place. And not in one of those stagey, awkward family photos. Having fun. Together.

Adding an album or an online gallery makes it even easier to preserve and share those memories.

And maybe even use that embarrassing photo of Dad for better leverage when you need that next family loan!