‘Uber for photographers’ ensures the pictures of your next vacation will be resplendent

Picture credit: kishjar?

The pervasiveness of smartphones and accessories like selfie sticks means we’re taking more photos than ever before. Whether they’re actually any good is a matter of debate.

High-end smartphones now come equipped with incredible cameras, but at the end of the day, they’re still operated by us: amateurs. If you don’t know the right angles and filters, don’t expect the resulting pics to set the world on fire.

Another problem is that many tourist spots have started to ban selfies. Disney stopped visitors at all of its themeparks from using selfie sticks last year. And you can’t carry them to places like Coachella, Wimbledon, or the Kentucky Derby either. Twelve tourists actually died taking selfies in 2015, which is no laughing matter.

So what do you do when you want some snazzy photos to show off your latest European jaunt? Some memorable moments with your family, an album for your kids to remember, or maybe just humblebrags on Instagram? Pinpic is trying to solve this problem.

Think of Pinpic as an Uber for photographers. The idea for the startup came after one of the founders, Alen Ankajcan, was unsatisfied with the photos he had taken during a family vacation to Greece. He realized he would have gladly paid a small amount of money to hire a local photographer who would have snapped far better images. But Alen didn’t speak the local language, had no idea where he could have possibly hired a photographer, and couldn’t ascertain whether they’d even be worth the money.

Realizing that this was a problem undoubtedly faced by other travelers, Alen consulted his friend and co-founder, Urooj Qureshi, and the two got to work.

“We crunched some numbers and saw it’s a big enough, growing market within the travel and app space that’s currently not being exploited,” explains Urooj. “The closest competitor to us is still the agency model where you would contact them prior to going on the trip, and they would arrange a photographer for you, at absurdly high prices.”

Pinpic hasn’t launched yet, but it does have a Kickstarter for early adopters. Urooj says one reason for starting the crowdfunding campaign was to ascertain demand. If the majority of early backers indicate that they’d like to hire a photographer in Europe, then that’s where they’ll focus their marketing efforts. Initially, Urooj says, it’ll be impossible for the startup to cater to all major tourist destinations, so it’s trying to see which cities would potentially have the most traction.

But the app will launch in early April, regardless of whether the Kickstarter is funded or not. Urooj says in that scenario, the launch might be scaled down – so initially introduced in just a single city rather than several. Barcelona, London, and Lisbon are likely to be unlocked first, based on projected tourist numbers, with destinations like Thailand and Singapore following suit.

“Kickstarter is really a ramp-up campaign for us. We’d love to reach our goal but we need to spread the idea to test price points, what kind of photography people are interested in, and which locations,” he adds.