Whitney Chamberlin left a $250,000/year corporate gig to help people create their own images in the Smilebooth. His unique formula has his Atlanta, GA, booth rentals topping $200,000 in revenue, making $30,000–40,000/year on his own local events. Partnering with SmugMug for its simple gallery hierarchy, social-media marketing, and large, beautiful image display allows Smilebooth event-goers to quickly browse by location and quickly share photos, all while seamlessly integrating with their main site.
In his former life as a brand manager and marketer, Whitney Chamberlin spent his time bringing back iconic Nikes and wallowing in indie music. He was creative and successful, but something was missing. “I was making amazing money, but what I did didn’t have an end—what was I really doing?” he said. “Here I’m making people genuinely happy, just by putting something there for them to do.”
The Smilebooth idea bloomed when he started joining his wedding photographer wife, Jesse, on weekend jobs. “I was in the giant corporate world during the week, and my wife was shooting weddings on weekends. It was a bummer,” Chamberlin said. “I used to lose sleep worrying about [all the guests] being photographed. I said, I’m not going to walk around begging—it wasn’t my style. So I built the first photo booth out of plywood and a makeshift computer. It worked great.” He continued to refine the booth and grow the business.
Smilebooth milks every drop of revenue from SmugMug’s tool set by exploiting the social aspect of photo sharing. Citing SmugMug’s excellence at showcasing multiple images and large, beautiful displays, Chamberlin said he links directly to SmugMug from his own site so customers can view and discuss their images on SmugMug without any extra clicks.
Chamberlin likes having an online place to do event postmortems. “Then you can say, ‘I was at this event, come view my photos!’” he pointed out.
Furthermore, Chamberlin has been known to build clients their own SmugMug site so they can collect revenue from events themselves. “Some of our brides were a bit iffy on using the Smilebooth,” he said. “I said I could discount their Smilebooth and make them their own SmugMug account with Smilebooth images. She can set [the price]. It's enticing for the budget bride.”
There’s a silver lining for the vendor as well. “As a rental business, I don’t really need [the revenue]; print sales are an amazing added bonus,” Chamberlain said.
Chamberlin’s original venture exploded into a diverse international enterprise. In addition to Smilebooth rentals and his own company’s shoots, he manages an affiliate network and continues to produce booths for purchase. Seamless integration between his site and SmugMug, along with advanced customization, lets him manage his diverse business arms and maintain a unified look and feel. To his delight, the Smilebooth concept has proved nearly recession-proof.
“We created the first one in 2005 and growth has been spontaneously amazing. I used to get emails from photographers every week saying how do you get these shots in a photo booth?” he said. “We haven’t had any hiccups. The only challenge is getting photographers to stop interacting with everyone and let the Smilebooth do its job.”
The main lesson Chamberlin brought with him from the agency world was the ability to channel anticipation without meddling. Although letting drama and creativity unfold naturally is second nature to him, getting professional photographers to do the same is more difficult.
“For a while, I was frustrated with copycats,” he said. “Then I thought, why not build booths for them? I created a whole other business because I didn’t think people would get it.”
Smilebooth has spawned many imitators, but Chamberlin thinks his team’s ability to let action happen without intervening sets them apart. “I’m not one to hide the feather boa and silly hats, but that’s not our aesthetic,” he pointed out. “You are the creative. [In the booth], you can be creative with nothing in your hands or something physical in the room, instead of bringing the same props everyone has. Custom-made props? Awesome. Relevant props? Great.”
Jesse’s classical training came in handy, he noted, citing her general knowledge of cameras and lighting as key. Typically, his team demos the freestanding booth and clicker for one person. Jesse avoids posing subjects, often just advising them to be themselves.
“She has a photographic gift beyond the eye,” he said of her charisma and ability to help subjects let loose. “That’s what makes her an amazing photographer. How everything feels with the photo booth is basically that same feeling.”
The Smilebooth is addictive—and the results speak for themselves, all over Smilebooth’s SmugMug galleries.
“People don’t get out,” Chamberlin said. “It’s like that Risky Business moment where you’re sliding across the floor in your socks. People regain their childhood when they’re in front of this thing.”
Chamberlin’s captured grandmothers flipping off the camera, dads hugging sons, and lots of devious teenagers smiling about something they shouldn’t be. “People get excited about doing their own thing in front of the camera instead of being told what to do,” he said. “The game of anticipation is really simple. When you’re in a group and one person has the wireless clicker remote, it’s exciting—it’s unbounded and limitless. You can push the button thousands of times or just once, and there’s a roar of laughter, because it’s a real moment, not a pause—not a tight, confined scenario.”
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