Our family loves a photo booth. A photo booth at a party takes the party to another level. SO FUN!

What makes a photo booth more fun than just someone snapping pics of everyone? After careful analysis, here’s my list of reasons why we love a photo booth.  

1. A photo booth lets you see your photo being taken immediately because it is done typically with the front facing camera on an iPad. It’s basically a hands-free selfie. 
2. It also has a countdown element which makes for a sense of “fun urgency.” Once you see the 4, 3, 2, 1 countdown happening, you have to get serious about your pose or smile or the prop you picked out and that, in itself, makes it more fun. 
3. And, anyone can use one. Young or old, it doesn’t matter. If you can push a button, you can have fun with a photo booth.
4. Lastly, a photo booth makes everyone feel like a kid making faces in a mirror. Who doesn’t love that feeling?

Korie had a photo booth at Sadie’s wedding and it was like icing on a very delicious cake. The line of people wanting a pic stayed extremely long. The booth brought so many laughs and smiles to an already amazing party. After the wedding, Korie had the Duck Commander Christmas party, and, once again, she ordered the photo booth. Again, it was a hit!  Everyone loved it!

So, when Christmas Eve, which is always at me house, rolled around, I really wanted a photo booth. What I didn’t want was the expense of a photo booth, so I began researching DIY photo booths. To my complete joy, I discovered I already had two of the things necessary to have a DIY photo booth. I had an iPad and a ring light. A ring light is just like it sounds. It is a light in the shape of a ring or circle. I use one when I do a vlog, which is a video blog. It makes great lighting in any room. If you are using a photo booth outside in natural lighting, a lighting source is not necessary, so keep that in mind. 

The next thing I needed to do was purchase a photo booth program and a stand for my iPad. I bought a program called Simple Booths. Here’s the link: https://www.simplebooth.com/products/apps.  There are several other companies to choose from, but this one was great for me.  I think it was right at $100.00, maybe a little less, which is a bargain, considering all the uses I have planned for my new DIY photo booth. The iPad stand was around $30.00 on Amazon. Again, not very expensive, but vital to the booth as your iPad has to sit up facing the people who are getting a pic taken. 

Once I had the program on my iPad and my iPad sitting in the stand, I just needed to play with it a little and learn how it worked. It wasn’t hard to figure out. After a few tries, I was a DIY photo booth pro.

A trip to hobby lobby was the next thing needed to buy a few props. By then it was so close to Christmas that everything was 60% off, so I got some fun props for a fraction of the costs. Props are not necessary as this program actually lets you put props in the pic with you, but they are a fun addition. 

I, then, set everything up in a back bedroom. The program is so simple I could set it up and walk away and let my guests enjoy the fun. It even lets your guests send the pic to their phone, so no printing is necessary. For me, setting a printer up seemed to complicated, so I opted for the send-to-my-phone option, which is so simple. Everyone has a phone, right? It was perfect! Everyone has so much fun with it! 

Here’s the important thing to remember. Old dogs CAN learn new tricks. Don’t be afraid to “figure out” something that you have no idea how to do. Don’t be afraid of technology. Don’t think the new “stuff” is too complicated. After all, you’re from the generation who figured out how to do a hula-hoop while your parents stared stunned that anyone could make a hoop go around your waist and keep it from falling down. YOU’VE GOT THIS!

Anything you set your mind to do, you can do it! You’re never too old!