By: Meagan L.

The other day I was flipping through pictures I had taken at my daughter’s third birthday party. I smiled seeing the balloons, the aqua blue mermaid cake, squirt guns, and neighborhood kids running around in swim trunks. But there was one really important element I didn’t see anywhere: her mom—me! But finally, I found one picture of myself—oh, but wait, it’s just a lame selfie, I thought. The only picture of me at my daughter’s party was just me holding the camera out and squinting into the sun. You couldn’t even tell where I was.

While this story sounds pretty pathetic, it’s becoming more and more common. We live in the era of Pinterest parties and magazine-worthy baby showers. And, so often we are driven to get pictures of the cupcakes, tissue paper flowers and cake pops—so we can post a pristine pic of our event on Instagram. But there’s just one problem: we don’t end up in many of the pictures. Even worse, we often spend our time taking (or asking others to take) iPhone photos all night, essentially missing the whole point of our party or event in the first place: to have fun! And after spending half your party figuring out photo logistics, good luck tracking down all the pictures scattered across ten different iPhones.

It’s not practical to book a full-priced photographer for every barbecue, birthday and ballgame—so how do we solve this modern predicament? Luckily, there’s a new way to schedule an affordable, on-demand photographer for an event, party, sporting event or even a weekend vacation! It’s a company called PhotoSesh, and it’s fulfilling a HUGE need in the event and photography industry. You can book a professional photographer, at rates starting around $30 an hour—for any event. If I had known about this, I would have jumped at the chance to just enjoy the birthday party without worrying about taking pictures with my phone. I could have spent time with the kids and guests all while a local, professional, experienced photographer took care of it!

And, PhotoSesh isn’t just for parties. Maybe you are listing your house, or hitting up a music festival, or taking your four-legged friend out for a quick romp and want a PhotoSesh. It’s so easy and affordable; you can now hire a photographer for pretty much anything. Paying by the hour makes sense for you and the PhotoSesh photographers—who are a community of vetted, professional photographers with background checks, by the way. Plus, you can leave feedback and ratings about your experience. You can even hire a photographer outside of the PhotoSesh scheduling system, if you are blown away!

But actually, the coolest thing about this company is that, simply put, it’s got heart. It’s family-owned, service-oriented, and looks out for its clients and photographers. It’s not “just another app.” PhotoSesh makes giving back a part of their company fabric. They donate photographic coverage to food drives, charity tournaments and animal rescues. And with the spirit of giving in mind—wouldn’t an hour or two of PhotoSesh make a unique present for your parents’ anniversary? Or a friend’s moving day?   

When it comes right down to it, we all want photographs of happy times and loved ones—and lots of them. With social media, printable picture books and blogging, beautiful pictures are a must. Taking pictures at events and parties is a must, and I know that I don’t want to spend my daughter’s fourth birthday behind my iPhone. So, with the PhotoSeshApp, I can look forward to sitting back and relaxing, knowing that PhotoSesh has me covered. I’m already dreaming about that special mommy-daughter birthday picture. I think I might even document our next family hike…or the neighborhood barbecue…or get some frame-worthy shots of my nephew’s little league game…I could go on, but you get the idea: PhotoSesh is a revolutionary new way to provide on-demand, affordable photography to the masses!