Selfie sticks. You either love them or hate them, but either way they’re not going anywhere. Selfie sticks are the tripods of the modern personal photography era. Back in the day, owning a tripod meant you were taking photography more seriously than every other regular schmo, and that might be the source of the sordid reputation the selfie-stick has received. After all, who takes smartphone pictures seriously? People with selfie-sticks, that’s who. Frankly, we applaud them, like we would the guy in the 60’s who risked looking like a ‘nerd’ to enjoy his photographic hobby more.
These days, the disposable camera on each table at the reception has gone out of fashion. They’re expensive to develop, people forget and take them home, they get lost, the photos are hard to share, and most importantly, we’re all carrying cameras around with us all the time. So, goodbye disposable cameras, hello instagram hashtag. Well, kind of.
Depending what your guests list looks like, you might be underwhelmed with how much people post with your hashtag. Think about it–who’s going to do it? Pretty much just your friends who treat Instagram like a hobby already. Other people who have Instagram accounts, but don’t use it very often, probably won’t think to do it, as usual. And aunt Jean, who still forewords chain-letter jokes to your email address, probably doesn’t even know how. Simply presenting a hashtag won’t motivate people who aren’t already motivated. Kind of like back in the day, when people who weren’t motivated to bring a camera with them to the wedding weren’t taking any pictures at weddings until a disposable camera showed up on the table.
Imagine what happens when you put a couple of selfie-sticks on each table? All your friends and family with smartphones and lightly-used Instagram accounts are suddenly curious. They might’ve taken a picture or two anyway, but now there’s a toy to play with that motivates them to get into it a little more. And now that you’ve reinvigorated your guest’s interest in taking their own pictures at your wedding, you can point them to your wedding hashtag on the handle of the selfie-stick, or tied to a string on a card. And, since the photos your guests take have a new and interesting look to them, they’re going to be more interested in posting those babies for you!
You may be wondering how your professional photographer might feel about an army of guests wielding selfie-sticks. As professional photographers ourselves, the answer is: it really doesn’t matter what we think about it. Weddings are always evolving, trends change. Professional photos of guests taking selfies is already commonplace, and they’re an important little piece of history that says something about who we are. We encourage your guests to whip out their cameras–and of course, we will politely tell them to scram if they’re getting in the way. We would love to explore the goofy, silly, exciting images that would inevitably come from what your guests dream up to do with those selfie-sticks. The hilarious, the genius, it’s all a part of what makes your wedding day special and unique. You should totally have at it.
If you’re interested, you can buy selfie-sticks for as little as $3-4 when you buy them in bulk, and they’re always on sale. It’s a great idea, absolutely worth considering!