(CNN) — It seems tailor manufactured for Instagram likes: brilliant blue sky, white partitions and a ruby-colored gown swirling elegantly in the breeze.
These images, acknowledged as “flying dress” photos, commenced out on the picturesque Greek island of Santorini and have due to the fact come to be well-liked in other tourist spots like Dubai, Tulum and Italy.
Although the images seem like they could have been taken for a substantial trend magazine, the photo shoots are relatively inexpensive and have develop into a far more widespread providing on journey encounter reserving sites like Viator and Klook.
Born on a Greek island
The couple were being both equally wedding and portrait photographers and Babenkov was reportedly doing the job on a shoot in the Dominican Republic, in the course of which a stylist included a very long practice to a gown to include much more drama, offering him the idea to replicate the glance for visitors.
Due to the fact then, they have expanded their small business to Italy, Cuba and Dubai.
Volokitina and Babenkov took advantage of Search engine optimization — research motor optimization, a way to pack a web site total of crucial words that make it a lot easier to obtain in a brief Google search — and now it is really pretty much difficult to locate a traveling costume photograph on the internet that will not guide again to their internet site or social media profiles in some way.
Achievement, nevertheless, has presented other persons in other marketplaces the thought to try out a comparable photography company model.
A female posing for a traveling gown picture in Oia, Santorini.
Adobe Stock
Chrisan Hunter is a single of them.
She was functioning as a marriage ceremony planner in her indigenous Montego Bay, Jamaica, when the coronavirus pandemic hit.
Rather than pursue her individual journey desire — going to Santorini to phase a flying gown photo shoot — she made the decision to capitalize on the pattern in her household place.
She also bought lucky. Despite the fact that Jamaica has experienced some short lockdown periods and curfews throughout the pandemic, the state has largely remained open. Vacationers from the US and Canada ongoing to head to Jamaica for their holidays, which means Hunter was still able to bring in consumers.
And, ironically, very a couple of her shoppers were being folks who experienced planned trips to Greece that fell apart because of vacation constraints or improvements.
Powering the scenes
One particular of the most widespread questions she gets questioned is no matter if she owns a wind machine to get the attire to swirl so drastically.
“All our shoots include things like an assistant,” Hunter describes. “We get our clients dressed and every thing, and then once it is time to shoot, we coordinate with the photographer and it is really a 1, 2, 3 depend. We toss up the costume, he catches (the shot) quickly.”
Now, like most tendencies, flying dresses have long gone over and above solo experiences. Hunter has coordinated team pics for up to 14 women in unique attire as nicely as several maternity shoots.
A female in a blue “traveling costume” poses in Santorini.
Adobe Stock
Other similar images enterprises have had to find their possess ways to up the ante.
Flying Dresses Tulum, primarily based in the popular Mexican resort city, expanded their choices to include watertight “flowing dresses” that are ideal for floating in cenotes, the colourful h2o-loaded sinkholes that are located all through the Yucatan peninsula.
Other firms can choose the photos by drone or organize a proposal to come about mid-shoot, so guaranteeing that the ring pictures will also search Insta-completely ready.
Each rose has its thorn
Nonetheless, there are some things that even the most attractive costume cannot effortlessly disguise.
Christina Kumar did a person of these shoots in the California desert.
“The cameraman had to do a brief rattlesnake check out at my standing site,” she tells CNN, including, “there have been thorns all over my dress mainly because it was in a location with pretty dense character, and it was pretty sizzling.”
She ended up going all over as minimal as probable in the course of the shoot, letting the dramatic costume do the do the job.
Regardless of the probable for catastrophe, Kumar’s shoot went off perfectly and she loved the closing products.
Hunter says a single of the biggest challenges for her business enterprise is Jamaica’s unpredictable weather. But there is certainly always a protected area that models can stay in until the storm clears up, and a nearby photographer utilised to operating with the ailments can grab a couple of attractive pics in seconds.
Possible travel dangers apart, the ordinary shoot usually takes just an hour — but the images can very last permanently.