Paris | May 1 – 5, 2023

Celebrating 10 Years

This spring, Flytographer celebrated 10 years of capturing memories! Did you know the idea for Flytographer was born in the streets of Paris, on a trip with two best friends? What better place to host our 6th annual Global Meetup than the City of Light – back where it all began!? 

Needless to say, this was a very special year for us as it was our first meetup after a long hiatus due to the chaos of the last few years. (See our past events in Santorini, Lisbon, Florence, Barcelona, and our very first official meetup in Paris back in 2015!) 

Let’s wind back to the beginning of the week, when 33 of our photographers and some of our HQ team members touched down in the magical French capital to celebrate our amazing community.

Photos: Aly in Victoria. Flytographer founder, Nicole, and best friend Erika 10 years later.

Day 1

Monday, May 1st

Our kick-off event was a stunning red carpet sunset river cruise on the Seine (a whole lot of adjectives that still deserve at least a handful more to try and explain what a special night this was)! Just before we were scheduled to gather, a huge thunderstorm rolled through Paris, yet somehow cleared just in time for us to enjoy the most spectacular sunset and skies. We were relieved, enthusiastic, and quite appreciative – a life lesson in gratitude and timing for sure!

Photos: Aly in Victoria. 

The boat, the balloon wall, our Flytographer team together celebrating after too-long apart… and of course, the views! Ahh! So much excitement was in the air.

We also really enjoyed hosting our special guests and Flytographer faves, Jillian Harris and husband, Justin Pasutto, who came with us to Paris to celebrate as well. We love you, Jillian!

Our boat cruise was full of hugs, laughter, catching up, dancing, celebrating, and as you might imagine, taking lotsssss of photos.

Photos: Aly in Victoria. 

Photo: Amanda in NYC

Day 2

Tuesday, May 2nd

Our first full day together started off with some classroom time – intros, updates, Q&A, and of course, goodie bags with our fave branded blue shirts and other fun surprises! 🩵 We had a group photo, and then broke into smaller groups for a photo hunt around the arrondissement (which, of course had everyone laughing hysterically because when aren’t scavenger hunts an adventure?!). 

Photo: Pierpaolo in Sorrento

Photos: Aly in Victoria. 

On Tuesday night we had a Flytographer gallery showcase at the breathtaking Place des Vosges. During gallery night, a favourite photo from each of our photographers is featured, giving us a glimpse into each of our photographer’s talents, along with their local city backdrops.

Photos: Aly in Victoria. 

Fun fact: our gallery in Le Marais is also the exact neighbourhood where the idea for Flytographer was sparked 10 years ago!

(Can you get over this architecture?!)

Photo: Pierpaolo in Sorrento

Day 3

Wednesday, May 3rd

The crew met back up bright and early Wednesday morning in our classroom space to enjoy workshops, team brainstorming, storytelling, and portfolio assessments with our VIP, Jonas Peterson.

Photos: Aly in Victoria. 

Wednesday evening brought a Fly-photog-fave event: the sunset photo walk! This golden hour photo walk is a tradition we’ve held onto since our first meetup; we gather for a scenic stroll to capture photos of each other while the sun sets. This walk is our time to have fun with our cameras, build even deeper social ties, and to experience a little more of our meetup destination. 

This year we were perhaps a bit overzealous with the ground we thought we could expeditiously cover because walking as a group of 30+ photographers in Paris at sunset is a little like trying to herd a group of kids through Disney on a summer afternoon. Can you imagine? You can imagine. #distracted #WAITONEMORE! 

Photos: Aly in Victoria. 

Photo: Roberta in Rome

Photo: Fernanda in Cabo San Lucas

Photo: Chema in Tenerife

Photos: Aly in Victoria. 

After our picturesque and leisurely stroll (), we had “family dinner” together in the 7th. There’s nothing like an amazing group meal in Paris – delicious food, incredible views, and awesome conversations.

Photos: Aly in Victoria. 

Day 4

Thursday, May 4th

Thursday we were up early and ready to roll for another photo walk – this time a morning golden hour walk with Jonas Peterson. Aside from exploring beautiful streets with our lovely models (including our wonderful Paris photographers turned models, Olga and Kirill!), we also enjoyed watching the Parisians in the 8th as they started their day – patisserie pickups and kids riding scooters on their way to school. The majority of us surely didn’t look like locals ( ), but we sure enjoyed being around them; oh, Paris!

Photo: Amanda in NYC

Photo: Roberta in Rome

Photo: Aly in Victoria

Photos: Fernanda in Cabo San Lucas

Photo: Joanna in Amsterdam

Photo: Aly in Victoria

Photo: Chema in Tenerife

Photo: Amanda in NYC

Post photo walk, back at our meeting space we finished up our last day of workshops with editing tips and PechaKucha storytelling presentations. By this point in the trip we’re all feeling comfortable, relaxed, and getting really sentimental! All the cafe au lait was keeping us going… but where was our time going?!

Photos: Aly in Victoria

We have to take a minute to say that we had great sponsors who generously donated awesome giveaway prizes to our photographers. Our thanks to Peak Design, Topaz Labs, Narrative Select, Archipelago Quest, and ShootProof for bringing extra smiles to these happy faces!

Our final night together was celebrated with a farewell party on a rooftop patio, complete with the most magical sunset behind the Sacre Coeur and nearby Montmartre.

Photo: Amanda in NYC

After the rooftop closed for the night, we moved our celebrations downstairs to a bar for some world class karaoke and the (in)famous Flytographer meetup bathroom dance party! (Are you familiar with our bathroom dance parties? Another long-standing and favourite tradition.) Thankfully this year we found a bathroom that was sized juuuust right…

…and we’ll just leave our final night festivities on that note.

Photos: Amanda in NYC

Day 5

Friday, May 5th

Our meetup technically ends on Thursday night, but we like to add in a final optional event if people are staying an extra day, and this year was a Fat Tire bicycle tour of Paris!

We had such a great group, and biking was a perfect way to explore the city in a breeze (seriously though, it was so breezy ).

Photo: Fernanda in Cabo San Lucas

Photos: Joanna in Amsterdam

Photo: Elisenda in Washington DC

Photo: Roberta in Rome

Photo: Aly in Victoria

Celebrating our community

The best part of our meetups is and always will be the tight friendships that spring up almost immediately when a group of like-minded colleagues come together. 🩵 Our 500 photographers worldwide are each carefully screened and selected to join our team based on outstanding professional skills, values, and personalities; because we all share such similar qualities, it is inevitable that we end up with a meetup group of 30 kindred souls when we come together in person. How wonderful it was to gather again after such a long hiatus!

Until next year, friends! Au revoir! 

Hi! Nicole here, founder of Flytographer.

Have you ever had a startup idea?

One that you couldn’t stop thinking about? 

Flytographer started on the streets of Paris … ten years ago this month.

Here’s my story on how the idea originated, how I finally decided to take action, and the first steps I took. 

It was October 2011.

By some miracle, I was chosen to go to Paris for a work project.

My best friend, Erika, flew down from Copenhagen to meet up with me for the weekend.

We were having a marvelous time, strolling the cobblestones in Le Marais, savouring our coffees, laughing and catching up as we soaked up Paris together. Living on two separate continents means Erika and I don’t see each other very often, and I didn’t want to forget this precious day, ever. Memories have always been so important to me … are you the same? I wanted to capture this moment, this story of our perfect day together in Paris.

Try as we might, we just couldn’t get a decent selfie / stranger-taken photo to save our lives. I mean, we’ve all been there, right? The results displayed seven chins, heads cut off, weird angles, bad lighting … and too embarrassed to ask the kind stranger to re-take the photo.

Luckily, on that foggy October day in Paris, we had brunch with a local ex-pat friend of Erika’s named Anita. 

Afterward, I passed her my iPhone and asked if she would snap a few shots from a wide-angled distance as Erika and I walked through the pretty streets. All I wanted was one decent photo of us with the gorgeous Parisian architecture in the backdrop so I would be able to relive the memory when I was back in Canada, far away from this moment. 

Twenty minutes later, when I got my phone back, I scrolled through the camera roll … and shivered with goosebumps. It was there. Anita captured our story. The spirit of the trip. The beauty of Paris. In a photo.

Nicole & her best friend, Erika met up in Paris in 2011. This photo sparked the idea for Flytographer.

It was the best souvenir I brought home from that trip. 

I wondered how I would capture a photo like this on a future trip? This was the ONLY souvenir I wanted to bring back home.

The idea for Flytographer entered my brain. 

Every day for 9 months, I thought about this idea. Yet all that time, I did nothing.

I had all the reasons: I was too busy with kids, work, life. Too scared. I felt too old.

A 40th birthday on the horizon

As my 40th birthday approached, I realized something life-changing: My greatest fear was actually not all the excuses I had told myself, but that I might get to age 80 and be left wondering, “What if I had had the courage to try that crazy idea at 40 — what could have it become?” And then experiencing deep regret that I never even tried.

I decided to either take action on this idea before my 40th birthday, which was at this time only a few months away … or put it to rest forever.

Nicole & her best friend, Erika on a trip to Italy the day she decided to begin building Flytographer.

Summer 2012

So in the summer of 2012, I came up with a name, bought the URL, and started testing a few things. ​​

My first step was recruiting my first photographer off Craigslist.

I asked Gonçalo to shoot a friend who was travelling to Paris. (Fun fact: this same friend, Michelle, has been working for Flytographer since the beginning and is our wonderful Head of Community!)

Photo: Goncalo S. in Lisbon (taken in Paris). Test shot from one of the first Flytographer shoots in Paris.

I learned a lot from that test. I took the lessons and repeated the process with groups of friends who were travelling so I could see if this was a problem people actually would pay to solve, if photographers found it valuable,  work out the kinks, iterate, and gather enough insight/data to decide if I should officially “GO FOR IT.”

The rest is history. I officially soft-launched Flytographer in March 2013 with 18 cities. 

Today, we have over 380 cities globally, have captured over 4 million photos and created a community of 600 hand-picked, incredibly talented and kind photographers.

Photo: Natalie in Honolulu for Flytographer (taken in Santorini). Group shots from 2019 at the 5th Global Flytographer Meetup in Santorini. 

Photo: Amelia in Buenos Aires for Flytographer. LD and Scott celebrate their honeymoon in Buenos Aires in October 2012. 

Photo: Emiliano in Helsinki (shot in London). Natalie and Bruce on a couples trip to London. 

Nicole and Gonçalo in Paris after being the first hired Flytographer.

Photo: Olga in Paris for Flytographer. (Love this print? You can buy it here!)

So that’s how the idea began, how I tested it before starting, and some of the people who helped bring it to life.

The pandemic has caused many of us to reconsider how we want to live our lives and what success means to us.
If you have an idea rolling around rent-free in your brain — maybe now is the time to take that first step? 

One of our core values centres around celebration, so our HQ team (which currently spans from Honolulu, across Canada, and all the way to Paris) will be marking the 10th anniversary of the Flytographer idea with a Zoom lunch party this month!

p.s. If you’re curious how we navigated the pandemic (we tell this story in GIFS!), find it here, or eight lessons I’ve learned scaling this business from idea to over $19 million dollars in photo shoot sales, read here. 

Thank you for trusting us to capture your memories all these years. It’s truly an honour. 

– Nicole

Our founder and CEO, Nicole Smith, takes a look at what we can expect over the next year in travel.

It’s the million-dollar question we all want to know: Exactly WHEN can I hop on a plane to Paris/Tokyo/Dubai (insert your destination here)? As we hunker down at home — waiting for our coronavirus vaccinations, for international borders to open, and the sweet relief that travel is finally safe again — all we can do right now is mentally transport ourselves into our pre-Covid travel dreams.

As you probably know, travel was one of the first industries affected by the pandemic and will likely be one of the last to recover. Flytographer was definitely hit hard with the travel restrictions, and you can read how we pivoted in 2020 to ride out the storm. Did you know that “travel and tourism generate 1 in 10 of the world’s jobs,” according to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC)? So many livelihoods depend on the swift recovery of this industry, and there are a lot of people working hard to ensure we can get back to travelling safely as soon as possible.

As a founder in the travel space, I’ve been thinking a lot about 2021 and trying to predict what’s in store for travel in the next 12 months. Looking at our customer data and industry trends, I have a few predictions … but let’s be real … no one truly knows for sure at this point. All we do know is that travel will not look the same as it did in a pre-COVID world.

Photos (left to right): Joe in Chicago for Flytographer, Megan in Banff for Flytographer, Emily in Nantucket for Flytographer, Elisenda in Washington DC for Flytographer

Saying that, here’s what’s been on my mind for the future of the travel industry for the next 12 months:

1. Domestic travel and staycations will remain a popular choice until fall.

Many people explored their own communities or did short road trips in 2020 and it’s amazing what can be discovered in your own backyard. We saw many opt for “hometown” photo shoots at a local beach, park or iconic landmark in their city. Others opted for short road trips. Although 90% of our customers are American and Canadian travellers, for the last 7 years our most-booked city in the world has been Paris — by a lot! Last year, however, it was Jackson Hole, WY that grabbed the #1 spot from the City of Lights … and even more surprising for us as we had only added this location in October 2019, right before the pandemic hit! In Canada, our most booked location was the incredible beaches of Tofino, BC. Given that children may not even be eligible for vaccines until the fall, I predict many families will continue to stay closer to home or do road trips again this summer. Personally, I am already planning a week at a nearby lake and will be a forever fan of #lakelife — especially with teenage boys!

Photos (left to right): Peter in Jackson Hole for Flytographer, Cheryl in Miami for Flytographer, Marie in Maui for Flytographer, Alyssa in Lake Tahoe for Flytographer

2. Tropical and rural destinations will boom first.

Raise your hand if you are feeling the January blues! For many of us it’s dark, cold, grey — and to top it off, we are cooped up at home missing human connection. Close your eyes for a minute … doesn’t a tropical beach sound pretty amazing right about now? I loved visiting big cities in the past (Dubai was next on my list until Covid), but right about now, I am definitely leaning more towards either a tropical beach or wide-open rural spaces to hit that reset button. Other people seem to have a similar train of thought: Forbes shared research that, “the most searched destinations for winter 2021 include the Florida Keys, FL; the Smoky Mountains, TN, and NC; Naples, FL; Lake Tahoe, CA and Maui, HI. In contrast, destinations known for their bustling nightlife, such as Manhattan, NY, and New Orleans, LA, have been slower to recover in terms of travel interest. In 2020, search data already showed that nearly 90% of overall searches were for trips to rural areas.” Seems like we all need a mental break with some space to breathe.

Photos (left to right): Fernanda in Cabo for Flytographer, Julia in Madrid for Flytographer, Taena in Maui for Flytographer, Linda and Cecilia in Stockholm for Flytographer

3. Increase in multi-generational trips.

With families separated for long stretches at a time since March 2020, the first trip many will take will be to see the loved ones they’ve been missing. Grandparents and grandkids, eager for time together (and equally excited to escape their own homes), will opt for safe “third places” to meet up where a reunion and vacation can both happen. Multigen trips were on the rise before Covid hit, but we noticed a massive drop in 2020 — which is a good thing, as it meant people were socially distancing within their bubbles to keep everyone safe. But once travel starts to re-open, I predict a surge in these trips, as we’ve all come to realize what’s important and families prioritize creating closer bonds and lasting memories through travel. Over the past 7 years, Maui has been our top spot for multi-generational photo shoots, so it will be interesting to see if that trend continues later this year. I know my mom is looking forward to taking all the kids and grandkids to Disneyland once it’s safe. A family ride on the Incredi-coaster or screaming down Space Mountain are priceless memories that will last a lifetime.

Photos (left to right): Bayu in Bali for Flytographer, Spyros in Santorini for Flytographer, Andrea in Positano for Flytographer, Camille in San Juan for Flytographer

4. Acceleration of bucket-list trip planning.

Be honest, how many times have you Googled plane ticket prices? If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that everything can change in a New York minute. Putting it off for a future date when nothing in life is guaranteed feels like too big of a risk. Planning that dream trip will move up everyone’s priority list. Even if it’s a year or more away, it feels good to start planning now so it actually happens when global travel opens up. Some of the most-searched bucket-list destinations are, according to Forbes, “Aruba (+2,298%), Santorini, Greece (+945%), St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands (+665%), Bali, Indonesia (+294%) and Naples, Italy (+207%).”  I predict that international trips will slowly start in the summer and ramp up in the fall after a majority of people are vaccinated and more borders start to re-open. I really hope so, as our global photographers are so excited to get back to work — they truly miss showing customers around their cities and capturing your vacation memories!

One thing we do know for sure is the pent-up demand for leisure travel is massive and only growing by the day. With many cities on lockdown, and people feeling cabin fever, it feels good to imagine SOMETHING to look forward to on the calendar — even if it’s still a little ways in the future. Most of us now have a lot of extra vacation days accrued, and in a post-Covid world, we will appreciate spending those days more than we ever could have imagined. Whether it’s a local adventure, road trip or holding out for that tropical getaway or bucket-list international trip later this year, so many of us have travel in our DNA and we can’t wait to live out our adventures near and far … especially with those loved ones we have been missing!

For me personally, there are three adventures that fill my daydreams (hey, making up for lost time!):

1. Family trip: Taking my sons to an NBA game, sitting in the stadium cheering the team on, listening to the music, and feeling the energy of the crowd. 
2. Restore trip: Swimming, reading, napping and Mai Tai’ing in (where else?) Maui!
3. Bucket-list trip: Exploring Sicily and Puglia (ideally at Flytographer’s next Global Meetup).

What are your predictions for 2021? What places are you daydreaming about? I’d love to know! Find our Instagram post here and drop your thoughts.

Oh, the places we’ll go (as soon as we can)! 

Nicole

2020 — what a year.

So many people have suffered deeply due to COVID-19 and its many ripple effects. From healthcare and frontline workers’ tireless efforts to entrepreneurs and small business owners struggling to hold on, and to the far too many who have lost loved ones, it has touched everyone. It has been a year of dichotomy — while there are millions of heartbreaking stories out there, there are also the ones that warm our hearts. Sharing these stories can make us feel less alone as we document the events of one very, very strange year.

In light of this, I wanted to share my story as the founder of a travel industry startup, and what it was like to navigate the pandemic and run a travel-dependent business when the entire world stopped travelling.  

A lot of this is still pretty raw for me, so to lighten the mood, I’ll use GIFs to help tell my story.

JANUARY

2020 started off on a reallyyyyy good vibe. 

Sales were up 40% year over year, we had a fantastic team of 20, a gorgeous office downtown, and exciting work trips were on the horizon. Riding the momentum of our successful fall Global Flytographer Meetup in Santorini, we were busy planning our next big community meetup in Sicily, by far my favourite event each year. We’d captured over 3 million memories for customers since launching in 2013, and 2020 was the year in which we were finally hitting our stride.

On a personal note, I had finally returned to playing squash after a multi-year break (too distracted growing the business and raising my sons). I was finally going to prioritize myself and get in shape again doing a sport I loved.

Life was good. Things were on track!

FEBRUARY

I had been loosely watching the evolving situation in Wuhan since early January. The virologists I was now obsessively following on Twitter made me realize it was less and less likely this mystery “flu” was going to be contained … and that big trouble was brewing for the world. 

I bought a deep freezer and stocked up my house slowly over 6 weeks like a bonafide prepper. I remember telling my team and friends to prep for this too. I am sure I got a lot of eye rolls … but I had a veeeeery bad feeling deep in my gut.

I was scheduled to speak at two travel conferences in March. One in NYC and one near Dubai. I had done Shine’s Keynote Speaker Bootcamp in 2019 and was excited to flex my emerging speaker muscles. I was bringing my 15-yr-old son to Dubai with me and meeting my best friend who lives in Europe there too. I was so looking forward to exploring the Middle East for the first time with two of my favourite people.

By late February, when our new bookings had slid for a week straight and cancellations had started rolling in due to the situation brewing in Lombardo, Italy, I knew I had to make a decision. I did not feel comfortable travelling far away from home with so many unknowns looming so I cancelled those trips. I also knew I needed to be at HQ with my team if we had a few bumpy days ahead. 

Welp … that was an understatement.

MARCH

We. Got. Hit. 

Our sales literally ground to a halt around mid-March. On a day where we should have had 50+ new bookings, we had ZERO. 

Travel is a seasonal industry; March is when sales start to climb again after low-season, so the timing could not have been worse. 

But it wasn’t just the complete halting of revenue. What shocked us more was the tsunami of refund requests that came flooding in. Customers typically book months in advance. We suddenly had no money coming in, but even worse, we also had money flying out the door. Despite the hardship to our business, we honoured all requests for refunds as we knew our customers were also in difficult positions. 

I knew I had to act swiftly to ensure our business could survive the uncertainties ahead. Every line item in our operating expenses was scrutinized, non-mission-critical software was cut, and I made the heartbreaking decision to downsize our team. 

I felt scared and very, very alone.

APRIL

“The entire world will stop travelling” was not in any of my business contingency plans (shocking, right?), and so I needed to figure out what was next, what we could control amidst so much of what we could not.

I knew that worrying would not serve me. I needed to get battle-ready and pivot. (Note: Daily walks really helped with my mental health during this time — and still do, to this day.)

With our smaller crew now working from home, we gathered over Zoom to plot what was next. It was time to shift gears to new opportunities. How could we still be of valuable service to our customers while travel was on pause? How could we provide work for our photographers around the world? We brainstormed a few areas to test: 

• Hometown photo shoots. These were non-travel shoots we have always done here and there based on customer demand, but had just not promoted in any of our marketing before. We now had an opportunity to create booking inquiry flows in our platform that addressed the unique needs of these kinds of shoots.
• Travel puzzles. Everyone was nesting at home and puzzles were suddenly in demand. So we designed a series of city puzzles to nurture travel daydreams. This led us to think about other travel-inspired products we could offer while travel was halted globally.

We also reached out to check in on our global community of photographers. We did group Zoom calls, we texted over WhatsApp, and we created a video series that shared their stories on what lockdown life was like in their cities around the world. You can read those blog posts or watch those videos here.

MAY to SEPTEMBER

We got busy! We planned and executed a new Shopify online store built around travel-inspired apparel, gifts and digital products like courses, prints and presets. We called it “The Travel Shop by Flytographer”.

We also took time to work on automating many parts of our booking platform and advancing our tech so our customers and photographers had a better, more streamlined booking experience for when we could get back at travel shoots again.

We started to see more bookings over the summer as customers wanted memories while they travelled closer to home. Our shoots are socially-distanced by nature, being outdoors in the city, so we were able to safely capture memories (mostly road trips and hometown shoots). Jackson Hole, WY emerged as the “new Paris” in terms of being the city with the most inquiries. We were so grateful to capture these many heartwarming hometown shoots that highlighted that simply being together with the ones you love is what truly matters. 

We also re-evaluated our responsibility to diversity, committed to reading and educating ourselves more, and launched an effort to both increase the number of Black photographers on our team and feature even more BIPOC customer stories and inspiring travel bloggers in our content. We have always made it a priority to have as much diverse representation as we can, but this year’s protests and events stemming from racial injustice reminded us we could always do more … and we will continually strive for better.

OCTOBER & NOVEMBER

We found as a team that we loved the flexibility and balance of working from home but it was really challenging to brainstorm and connect over Zoom. Over the summer when the weather was fine, we were able to gather outside in my backyard for physically-distanced meetings with our chairs spread out in a very wide circle. But as the temps cooled, we realized we needed a longer-term solution for a “third space.” We had recently subleased our big office downtown so that space would no longer be an option for us in future.

We needed a new place where we could connect, brainstorm, and capture content for marketing. So we decided to create a collaboration space in my home’s empty, neglected basement.  

It needed a lot of TLC, but as a team, we rolled up our sleeves and painted, wallpapered, put down new floors and DIY’d it into a beautiful space that will serve our needs for the years to come. (Just don’t ask about the sausage in the ceiling!) Big thanks to Metka on our marketing team who led the design. 

Although we are still in lockdown right now, we look forward to one day gathering here a few times a week, taking kayaks down to the nearby beach after work for a team paddle, and having mini brainstorm sessions in my kids’ backyard treehouse during warmer months. We are calling our new space “The Nest” for now, but if you have any suggestions, we welcome your ideas! We will be posting a blog on “The Nest” soon too along with our DIY basement reno hacks. It was a really fun process. I can’t wait to show you the beautiful bird wallpaper in our main meeting room!  

The future of work for us will be a mix of WFH, flex time and gathering in our Nest. It’s actually kind of fun “living above the shop.” I definitely don’t miss getting office-ready 5x a week, commuting downtown and racing home to prepare dinner for the kids. My life is more balanced than ever in many ways. 

The other big thing that happened this fall was we released our first-ever online course: “Better Everyday Photos with your iPhone” to help our customers learn the technical features of their iPhone camera, storytelling, composition and editing tips. We worked with Flytographers in Santorini, Paris, Honolulu and London so you could virtually travel while you learn.

We also launched our first preset collection, so in a few clicks you can edit your iPhone photos and elevate your everyday memories. And we launched Travel Candles — my favourite scent is Golden Hour and I pretty much have it lit all day long; it smells delicious.

In partnership with our photographers, we also built out the first phase of our fine art City Prints Collection (which then launched in December) so we could help our customers “Bring Travel Home” through their gorgeous photographs in Barcelona, Bali, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Santorini, Maui, NYC and Rome.

DECEMBER

As 2020 comes to a close, this Obama GIF pretty much sums up my thoughts:

“Phew … we survived it, this dumpster fire of a year.”

Although I never want to go through this again, I have to say our company is definitely stronger, wiser and more diversified from the challenges of 2020. 

We were reminded by our customers that love truly is still all around. Check out our blog on the Most Heartwarming Photos of 2020 and Our Top 30 Surprise Proposal Stories of 2020 for all the feels.

On a personal level, 2020 allowed me to spend way more time with my kids and I’ll always be grateful for that. 

2021 … SO WHAT’S NEXT?

As so many of us have travel in our DNA and we’ve been cooped up inside, I know we are ready to ESCAPE and jump on a plane as soon as it feels safe again. 

My prediction is that we will see travel begin to recover in mid-2021 as vaccines roll out, but 2022 will be the breakout year for travel. 

In the meantime, we will continue to innovate and expand into new areas, like personal-branding photoshoots. Look for our “Modern Headshot” package next month!

So that’s our story in GIFs … how we got hit, pivoted, diversified, built a new nest and navigated this wild year.

My heart breaks for those who’ve lost loved ones and for all the small business owners who have been fighting to survive the 2020 roller coaster. I’ve also been inspired by our photographers who’ve started new businesses, written books, launched podcasts and continue to create and evolve. Entrepreneurship is a tough journey in normal times, just making it through THIS year is an accomplishment.

I am filled with gratitude that Flytographer survived and emerged stronger. I am so proud of my team’s resilience, creativity, and kindness throughout it all. And as always, we look forward to capturing millions more magical memories for you, all over the world, for years and years to come.

And to 2020?

“Buh-bye!”

With appreciation and a full heart,

Nicole 

Make Your 2021 Dreams Come True

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Santorini | September  16 – 20, 2019

Written by Michelle Ardiel, Director of Photographer Operations at Flytographer

So have you heard the one about 40 photographers who walked into a bar in Greece … ? No? Well, I’ll get to that later.

Let me wind back to the beginning of the week, when these 40 photographers touched down on the magical island of Santorini to celebrate our community at Flytographer’s annual Global Meetup. This was a very special year for us, as it was our 5th anniversary of meetups (see our past events in Paris, Barcelona, Florence and Lisbon) and we hosted our most diverse group yet, with photographers representing 30 cities in 15 countries in 5 continents. 

MONDAY

We kicked it all off with a Meet & Greet pool party at our rented villa in Karterádos, where we got to know each other better over a few glasses of local wine and traditional Greek specialties. About a third of our group had been to a meetup before, while everyone else was joining us for the first time. (A special shout out to the lovely Mankica in Ljubljana, Krystal in Paris and Johnny in NYC, who have been to all 5 meetups!) No matter who was new or returning – by the end of the night, we were already fast friends! Our local Santorini photographers also taught us to cheers in Greek, although with a slightly anglicized twist – apparently, you can get away with saying “Skinny asses!” when you clink glasses and it sounds close enough to the actual word that you’ll get a hall pass. (Well, according to Kimon; Spiros was not so sure.)

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TUESDAY

Our first full day was off to a very early start – we caught the 7am sunrise in Oia before splitting into groups to get some great portfolio shots of our couples and a family at various scenic points around the village. It was the perfect time to be out – we ended just before the cruise ship tourists started to pour into Oia! Cheers to our photographers who volunteered themselves (and their partners) to be models for this walk: Mankica & Kevin, Joanna & Arun, Amanda & Mike, Christina & Stathis, Claudia and her beautiful family, and Suzy & Keith (parents of one of our team at HQ whose holiday luckily coincided with our meetup).

Next up was a posing workshop with Rachael in Paris and Kimon in Santorini. We headed to a different location away from the crowds and met up with two couples in Santorini on holiday who helped us practice our ideas. They were fantastic models who kept their cool while forty cameras were pointed at them. Thank you, Courtney & Chris and Ashley & Samuel, for spending your morning with us!

After taking a break for the afternoon to recharge our batteries, our group got back together in the village of Pyrgos. We started the evening by hiking up to the highest viewpoint to catch the sunset, and then meandered over to the beautiful hilltop restaurant, Botargo, for a celebratory glass of champagne. After speeches and cheers, our photographers returned to the main village for the opening night reception of our very own Flytographer exhibit, featuring a favourite photograph from each of our attending photographers. We are grateful to Pyrgos Estia Cultural Centre and Hatzidakis Winery for sponsoring our gallery event.

WEDNESDAY

A full day at our workshop space in Pyrgos, generously hosted by the Estia Cultural Centre, meant we had the chance to brainstorm some fun new ideas for Flytographer before meeting our VIP speaker who arrived after lunch. We were so excited to welcome the wonderful Fer Juaristi, who joined us from Mexico to add some inspiration and positive energy to our meetup. His slideshow about honing creativity and trusting your vision sparked excitement in our group, many of whom eagerly pulled out their cameras to experiment with new ideas at the break. Fer spent the remainder of the afternoon offering a speed-round of personal portfolio assessments with each of our photographers.

One tradition we’ve held onto since our first meetup is our Golden Hour Photo Walk, which gets us all together for a scenic stroll to capture photos of each other while the sun is ending its day. This is our time to just have fun with our cameras, to build even deeper social ties and to experience a little more of our destination. This year, the walk was the famed Caldera Trail from Fira to Imerovigli, with the sunset caught at Skaros Rock. Although the trail was mostly uphill (and yes, it’s still hot in Santorini in September!), it was nothing but smiles and laughter along the way as we posed, played and clicked our shutters. Once we got to Skaros Rock, however, the real fun began. We were like excited children running around, taking photos, and soaking up the gorgeous setting, all with the gratitude that comes with being in a special place with special people. The sunset was, of course, sublime – is there anything else like a Santorini sunset? – and we all came away with beautiful memories in our cameras and in our hearts.

Right after the Golden Hour Photo Walk, we headed back to Fira to enjoy our Family Dinner with a delicious 4-course meal on an outdoor terrace in the middle of the village. The wine and conversation flowed, the food was perfect, and we were even treated to a traditional Greek dance lesson from Christina in Thessaloniki. (She and her husband Stathis are expert salsa dancers too – ask them to teach you a few steps when you book your shoot with them!) The night, as always, is ever so young, and after-dinner festivities continued on for some late-night owls.

THURSDAY

Even after a night of red wine, we set our alarms to rise up early to meet Fer Juaristi in Pyrgos for his sunrise photo walk. We had two honeymooning couples join us as models, and we watched as Fer set up his shots with them, all the while talking through his creative thought process and decision-making. Watching someone else in action is such a valuable exercise and not one of us came away without learning something new that could be applied to our own work. Thank you to Jenna & Brandon and Arielle & Adrian for being such pros at holding a pose with 40 sets of eyes and cameras on you!

We then enjoyed a few more presentations in our workshop space while Fer did a quick edit of his morning’s shots, which he then presented to us so we could see the end result of his vision. He has so many meaningful thoughts on composition and setting up the shot, and it really helped to crystallize his teachings when we saw the outcome. Fer was an incredible addition to our meetup and I am so happy he made the time to join us. He is so personable, kind and authentic in his words and his work, that I would encourage any photographers reading this to attend a workshop with him if you can or watch one online. Gracias, Fer, por todo!

Our final (and most cherished!) event was our PechaKucha-style presentations by ten photographers who bravely volunteered to present in front of the group. Our hats are off to these amazing people who took the time and effort to create a presentation – and all but two were presenting in their second language! So impressed by Elisenda in Washington DC, Fernanda in Cabo San Lucas, Andrea in Amalfi Coast, Kimon in Santorini, Elisa in Québec City, Joanna in Lima, Tracy in Amman, Christina in Thessaloniki, Daniel in Puerto Vallarta, and Mariana in Costa Rica for making this portion of our meetup so special by infusing it with their amazing images and personalities. 

Finally, we were so grateful to have fantastic sponsors who generously donated some valuable giveaway prizes for our photographers. Thank you so much to Peak Design, Shootproof, Tribe Archipelago, CameraBits and Iris Works – our lucky winners were so excited to receive your fabulous products!

After a week like this, how hard is it to say goodbye? We tried to soften the blow with an outdoor patio overlooking the caldera and sparkling lights of the island while we sipped on wine and soaked up our final meetup sunset together. This was also a chance to meet some of our photographers’ partners who had come to Santorini but had been on their own while we workshopped – they finally got to see all the people their spouses had been hanging out with all week and enjoy our friendly community vibe.

Now, back to the 40 photographers in a bar bit ….

After our formal goodbye at the outdoor patio, we moved to the informal wind-up, traditionally known as the “bathroom party” (see previous meetup posts to know what I’m talking about). When I was on the hunt this year for a good bar bathroom, our local photographers replied with, “Have you seen Santorini bathrooms?” Now that I have, I can confirm they are tiny and no place for a party (unless it’s a party of one – ha!). Instead, our locals found us a place that was the perfect size for our group. We swarmed into a little bar that was rather on the quiet side when we arrived, but within no time, the place was lit as we immediately filled the dance floor (and maybe the bar-top once or twice). There was even a large birdcage in the corner of this bar, and although I won’t divulge any names, it was good fun to see everyone let loose and take their turn dancing in it. If I ever want to just dance and sing and laugh all night long, I know which 40 people to call up!

FRIDAY

We were asked about this last year, so this year we did it! We planned an extra bonus activity for anyone who wanted just one more day to hang out, where there was no photography-related agenda or workshops – something just for pure social fun. We found a local captain who took us for a leisurely afternoon cruise around the island aboard his catamaran, complete with a barbeque dinner, drinks and sunset-watching on the water. Heaven! It was the perfect way to end the meetup. We swam in the sea, popped some champagne, and of course, took lots of photos.

The best part of our meetups is and always will be the tight friendships that spring up almost immediately when a group of like-minded colleagues come together. Our 500 photographers worldwide are each carefully screened and selected to join our team based on outstanding professional skills, values and personalities; because we all share such similar qualities, it is inevitable that we end up with a meetup group of 40 kindred souls when we come together in person. The proof is in our private WhatsApp group, which, two months later as I write this, still lights up daily with everyone just checking in to say hello or to send the group funny photos or ideas. It’s a true community that warms my heart no end. Until we meet again, my friends!

Interested in joining this rockstar team?

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p.s. I would like to give a special thank you and send endless hugs to Kimon, one of our local Santorini photographers, for the tremendous amount of on-the-ground assistance he gave me in organizing this meetup. It’s a tough task getting things in place from my desk in Canada, but Kimon was incredible in helping to navigate the local waters on my behalf and doing it all with his usual good humour and amazing smile. I would also be remiss if I didn’t call out the generous Mr. Lefteris Zorzos of Crossroads Antiques who got us set up in Pyrgos with the Estia Cultural Centre and other local contacts; he is truly a generous and thoughtful representative of that famous Greek hospitality. Ευχαριστώ!

Want to see more beautiful footage? Our highlights video from the meetup can be found here.

Hi! I’m Nicole, the founder of Flytographer.

Seven years ago, the idea for Flytographer was born on the streets of Paris when I met up with my best friend during a work trip abroad. The idea for the world’s first global vacation photography marketplace hit me like a lightning bolt, but I waited nine months to take my first step. I was a single mom, living on a small island in Western Canada, with a good job. I was just through a tricky divorce and finally feeling steady. The thought of building a startup and inviting chaos into my life again was utterly terrifying. I had no idea even where to start … but thoughts about Flytographer were bursting out of me every day. Fear held me back for 9 months, but as I got close to turning forty, I realized if I didn’t do something, at least TRY, I would regret it forever.

So I took the first step, and the next right step, and slowly built Flytographer over nights and weekends between my day job at Microsoft and my other full-time role as mother to two boys who were five and seven at the time. Since those early days, we’ve grown the business to 20 full-time employees, sold over $10 million worth of vacation photo shoots globally, and captured two million memories for travellers all around the world. Here are six things I’ve learned along the way.

1. Startups are HARD. You have to really love what you are building.

Make sure you’re super passionate about the product and business you are building. If you are not passionate, the highs and lows will beat you down over time. Building a startup is a marathon, not a sprint. The only way you can weather that storm is doing work that you truly love and that matters to you. I could be having a super-stressful “sky is falling” kind of day, but then I’ll just dip into the customer testimonials, read a few and remind myself about our mission to capture the magic of travel and get moms back in the photos (vs being the ones chronicling them). It’s such an honour to be invited to capture travellers’ heartfelt stories of joy, love and adventure all over the world. When I read these stories, I get goosebumps and smile, and it fuels me right back up again.

2. Solve a problem people are actually willing to pay money for.

You can test this in small ways. With Flytographer, I did a number of test shoots with friends who were already travelling to make sure there was perceived value before I built the website and launched the business. It’s really important to first talk to your prospective customers, and in my case, also photographers, to see if this was something that they cared about and would pay money for. This also helps give you insight into other features or ideas you may not have considered. For example, when we first launched Flytographer in 2013, it was all about capturing the memories. What I didn’t realize at this time was that one of our customer’s favourite things about the experience was connecting with a local and hearing their personal tips about the city on what to eat, see and do. I learned from my customer’s feedback and integrated this into our product and messaging.

3. Be obsessed with customer experience from the start.

Map out the entire customer journey, with every touch point your brand has with your customers. Think of opportunities not only to delight your customers at every interaction but how to reduce friction and remove the burden of choice. Your best marketing vehicle (and cheapest!) is word-of-mouth and repeat customers. At Flytographer, this accounts for 40% of our bookings every month and we are very proud to have a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 90 over the past 6 years. Your customers can tell when you truly care, and everyone on your team needs to be fully aligned with that philosophy. Sometimes this means refunding them when things go sideways due to misaligned expectations. That’s just the cost of doing business, and it’s a great learning opportunity to tweak your messaging and processes. The most important thing is to first make your customers feel heard and cared about, and only then to quickly switch gears into problem-solving mode.

4. Be design-led.

I knew from the start two things. The first was that, because I was building a marketplace that had never existed before, the name had to be really unique. I wanted to be the Kleenex or Rollerblade of our space – the brand name that subs in for the product, a word that defined this new category I was inventing. With that in mind, I chose the name Flytographer.

Secondly, I wanted every inch of the brand to be completely design-led and beautiful from the start. One of the first things I invested in was professional graphic design for the logo and website as I wanted there to be an instant emotional reaction that made our customers trust this brand and feel inspired. We continue that today by prioritizing great design, great UX/UI and ensuring everything you see and touch with Flytographer is beautiful and on-brand.

5. Balance is super-hard. Think in chapters.

Running a startup is gruelling and endless and way harder than I could have ever imagined. You have to be careful because it’s very easy to put yourself and your health last, but there are ways to make it all work. One of the things that has worked for me is thinking about Flytographer as a “crazy chapter” where I know I’m going to have to work harder than I have worked in my entire life, with the knowledge that it will end at some point. This lets me be OK to invest so much of my time because it’s a conscious choice to do so. In the early years, I missed a lot of social events with friends, I didn’t watch TV, I didn’t travel much; every dollar and every hour was going into getting lift-off for Flytographer.

Six years later, I’m still working hard but I am taking a little bit more time for myself. When you have kids, it’s impossible to work every single minute. I practice “work-life integration” where I try to bring my kids into the business wherever it makes sense. For example, one of my sons appeared on Dragons’ Den with me a few years ago, and now we have this great experience of flying to Toronto and going on set together. I’ll always look back at that video and cherish that he was part of it. I also bring them to meetups when I visit our photographers around the world. I just got back from Japan with my oldest son, and last year, I took both my kids on a trip to Europe where we did a fast-paced eight-city road show and met photographers across Dublin, London, Venice, Rome, Lisbon, Lake Como, and Paris. Last summer, my oldest son helped around the office as an intern for a week. We commuted together and went for lunch — it was so fun sharing more of the business with him now that he’s a bit older. Whenever I’m with my kids, I also try to put my phone away and be really present to focus on that precious quality time. It’s definitely a struggle to balance it all as a single parent, but having your kids understand what you’re doing and why it matters is the most important thing.

6. Dream bigger!

When I was in my 20s and 30s, never in a million years would I have dreamed that I’d start a business or be a CEO. I had subconsciously “ceiling’ed” myself. Now I realize that the more women who get out there and chase their big dreams, the more examples and inspiration we all have to follow. Sometimes you have to see it to believe it.

Do you have a big dream? What is stopping you from taking that first step? Take that risk! You might surprise yourself and go further than you have ever imagined.

Lisbon | October 9 – 11, 2018
Written by Michelle Ardiel, Director of Photographer Operations at Flytographer

This has to be my favourite time of year. I’m not talking about Christmas or summer holidays, or even when the cherry blossoms start to pop (all moments I do love, by the way). No, the best time of year is when Flytographer hosts our annual Global Meetup. This is an event where our photographers have the opportunity to come together in a fun location for three days of workshops, photo walks, brainstorming, collaborating, learning, networking, and of course, lots of sampling of the local food and wine scene. We chose the gorgeous city of Lisbon, Portugal as our meetup base for 2018, and found it to be the perfect backdrop to our activities. We could not have been more inspired by the colours, the patterns (those tiled walls!), the yellow trams, the warm fall sunshine, the cobblestone streets (mostly running up or downhill), the architecture, the friendly people, and the many incredible viewpoints from each of the city’s famous lookouts.

As the person in charge of Flytographer’s photographer recruitment and community, what makes this event special for me is that I get to witness the magic of our global team come together in one place. After months or even years of communicating only via email, social media, or Skype, finally, we meet in real life! In the end, it doesn’t really matter where we host our meetup (though a standout city like Lisbon certainly adds to it); the very best thing about our Global Meetup is the chance for our photographers to connect with each other in person – such a valuable thing in what can be a solitary profession. It is so gratifying for me to see the friendships that are created and renewed each year, and it simply reaffirms what I already know: that our community is strong and full of human beings with giant hearts who care not only about their work, but more importantly, about the people around them.

Curious to know what we got up to during our Global Meetup in Lisbon? Read on for my daily journal, accompanied by our photographers’ stunning images. (And check out our IG hashtag #lisbonmeetup2018 for some insider photos as well.)

Day 1 – Tuesday

After months of planning, it was finally here! The afternoon sun kissed our cheeks as our group of 40 came together for the first time in beautiful São Domingos square. It took no time at all for old friends to embrace and new friends to shake hands, ready for the meetup to begin. We were kicking it all off with a guided photo walk around the streets with models (friends of one of our Lisbon photographers) to practice posing techniques and watch each other in action. We split up into four groups, each with a set of models and a local photographer to make sure we didn’t get lost in the city’s labyrinth of streets, and ventured out into the neighbourhoods of Chiado, Bairro Alto and Alfama. After a couple of hours and thousands of shutter clicks later, our group reconvened in the square, where we had bottles of Ginjinha, Portugal’s famous sour cherry liquor, ready to go. We each raised a shot glass to toast each other and the start of our annual Global Meetup. Saúde!

After the success of our first photo walk, I was even more excited for that evening’s event: our very first gallery exhibition featuring Flytographer photos! Favourite images from each of our meetup participants were displayed in a cool neighbourhood gallery called Sala d’estar; as a special one-day pop-up show, the public was invited to visit the space during the day. In the evening, we took over the gallery for our private event, with nothing but wine, food, photography, and friendship on our minds. It was thrilling to see all our photographers’ beautiful work in a public space and feel their pride in being part of an international photography exhibition.

Day 2 – Wednesday

If you’ve been to Lisbon, you know that you can’t turn a corner without coming face-to-face with yet another beautiful vista or neighbourhood; the city is overflowing with streets and squares presided over by buildings swathed in colour and pattern. We chose a workshop space nestled within an eclectic, up-and-coming area called Intendente. The Surf Office was the perfect place to set up camp for our event, away from the touristy crowds but close to trendy restaurants and elegant buildings covered in tile with the popular yellow tram running right by the front door, so we still felt right at the heart of Lisbon.

We got the first full day started by discussing our gallery photos with each other, and afterward, we created our own gallery wall within the office so we could enjoy each other’s work for a little longer.

Marian, one of our incredible photographers who works in Lake Como and region, generously presented a workshop on creativity, a topic close to her heart (and a workshop which she also offers at various conferences around the world). With so much soul and grace, Marian transfixed our group as she discussed ideas and practices for keeping creativity alive every day.

After a short lunch break, we met back at the space to hear our VIP speaker talk about storytelling. Anne Farrar is the Director of Photography for National Geographic Traveler magazine, and she provided us with so many gems related to creating, shaping and telling a visual story through the lens. With cameras in hand, we followed her through the streets of Intendente to put theory into practice, where we asked questions and used each other as models and muse to our photo ideas. We can’t thank Anne enough for lending her expertise and experience to our group, and providing us with valuable insight to apply to our own work.

As evening approached, we reassembled for our traditional Golden Hour Photowalk, led by Lisbon photographer Gonçalo B. We started the walk in Praça Dom Pedro IV (Rossio), wandering the streets until we ended up at Praça do Comércio and down by the water. The sunset light was perfect with the Tagus River glistening in the background, and we wasted no time posing each other and capturing gorgeous portraits. When eventually it became too dark to shoot, we strolled back towards the city for a team dinner. Nestled into a courtyard in Chiado, Café Fábulas seated us at a long, family-style table and served a delicious menu of grilled octopus, bacalhau, risotto, and vegetarian strudel, accompanied by delicious Portuguese wine and sweets. Bellies filled, we rolled back out into the street in search of a photo booth, gelato, or home.

Day 3 – Thursday

Our final day saw us bright and early back at our meetup space, ready to hear the team from HQ discuss best Flytographer practices and conduct a little business brainstorming. After lunch, Marian again took to the stage to discuss the importance of connections, and then our founder, Nicole, gave some tips on finding success with social media.

After a tiny stretch break, we sat back down, eager for the first Flytographer PechaKucha 20X20, a presentation format whereby each presenter gets 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide to talk. We were blown away by the images and stories of Juan Felipe from Bogotá, Claudia from Cancún, Kimon from Santorini, Katie from LA, Daniel from Puerto Vallarta, Jimmy from London, and Lyndsay from Banff/Calgary, all who were brave enough to get up in front of everyone and present their personal projects and ideas. I was so inspired to hear their passion wrapped around every word.

We ended our time in the workshop space with a draw for some incredible giveaways from our awesome Meetup sponsors. Huge thanks and shoutouts to uber-generous Peak Design for donating bags and straps (Have you seen their products yet? They are fantastic – well-designed and well-made. Several of our photographers were already long-time fans and came equipped with their own beloved gear); to Tribe Archipelago for some cool new presets; and to ShootProof for offering a full gallery plan to one lucky winner.

And in the end, what’s left to do but celebrate? Everyone met at a hotel rooftop bar for our farewell, where the wine, stories and fun overflowed. Eager to move on to a dance club, we left the bar after a couple hours – but first squeezed into one of the hotel’s public washrooms for our traditional “bathroom party” (see where it all started in the Barcelona 2016 post). Lisbon embraced us well into the wee hours of the morning, watching us dance and sing, laugh and cry (happy tears, of course), all while knitting our friendships together even tighter.

Until we meet again in 2019 (and I can hardly wait) – até logo, meus amigos! xo