After near half a decade in the local industry, photo and video company Photobooth Jamaica Limited is positioning its lens to capture a greater share of the entertainment market, more so for weddings, birthdays and corporate events.

The St Ann-based company, which offers service through a growing fleet of high-quality photo and video booths, boast the use professional-grade equipment and technology which it uses to produce stunning photos and videos services to a network of customers islandwide.

Through a diverse range of photo and video booths, the company boast customisation options including props, print designs and video overlays, which it said are tailored to meet the preferences and needs of individual and corporate clients.

“While we have seen the rise of a few competitors in the last few years, we remain the only company that provides a range of different photo booths, including our standalone dream photo, dream mirror and 360 platform booths. We also recently acquired the innovative dream spin ‘FREEDOM’ overhead 360 video experience booth which is perfect for weddings, corporate events, and other special occasions,” owner and CEO of Photobooth Jamaica Veronica Allen-Ettinger told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview.

Having injected capital of over US$25,000 to build out the business since it first debuted to market in 2018, Technical Director Shaun Ettinger said that while current demand has not yet reached peak levels, plans are afoot to double down on a greater segment of the entertainment and events industry, with hopes to add new clientèle and to rake in more gigs.

“The photo booth business is a very small niche of the wedding and events industry, as not all events will request the service. We have photo booths rentals ranging from $30,000-$100,000 per hour depending on the type of event, booth and options included among other factors. However, while we do all types of events, we have been actively placing a lot of focus on the wedding market as we try to meet the need for having more real-time video and photography fun sessions for guests especially during the cocktail hour,” he said to Sunday Finance.

“A large number of our clientèle are customers from overseas in the US, Canada and the UK, who seek out our services for their destination weddings and other events they want to celebrate when on visit to the island,” he added.

The technical director, who has also not ruled out a pivoting of the company’s services beyond local shores, said talks remain ongoing as he along with his wife looks to, over time, tap into new areas for growth.

“Expanding to other areas of the Caribbean has definitely been an area of consideration for us even as our services locally remain primary and foremost in all discussions for moving forward. Looking across the Caribbean, we see opportunities in countries such as the Cayman Islands, Grenada and the Dominican Republic which we will be specifically targeting based on the potential of their tourism and wedding industries,” he said

“We want to grow organically as we continue to invest in state-of-the-art equipment and any other innovative equipment coming to the industry. One of the photo booths we’re now working on is a robotic arm dream Glam Bot which can capture short video segments, which is now one of the hottest things in Los Angeles for red carpet events. It’s now in the development and testing stage with plans for roll-out later in the year,” he further said, noting that the recent addition of a karaoke services and a VIP programme for large clients will help to provide an added boost for the business.

Now recovering from the devastating fall-outs of the novel coronavirus pandemic, which completely shuttered the entertainment industry and the hosting of events for near two years, Ettinger said the company is now on the hunt for greater fortunes as moves bullishly to restore lost earnings.

“[The year] 2022 proved to be our best year in business surpassing pre-pandemic levels, but for 2023, we hope to have even better results. For this year, our hope is to match or even surpass last year’s performance even as some amount of uncertainty exist globally,” he stated.