In 2022, Christy Hunter, a professional photographer, joined fellow talented photographer and experienced tour guide, Gina Palmeri, to create photographic experiences for locals and visitors in Nashville. They and their team at Photowalk Your Travel capture memories for solo and family travelers, as well as couples and groups celebrating everything from bachelorette parties and birthdays to vow renewals and anniversaries.
“I was working weddings and fashion, and just building my career, and I would see all these people lining up at Nashville Wings, The Gulch, on the Pedestrian Bridge and other little areas of Nashville and taking their own pictures,” says Christy.
“With the rise of Instagram, everybody wants photos. I would often get asked to take their photos without them knowing I was an actual photographer. They would be surprised when the pictures would turn out so great.”
Instead of using their cell phones for amateurish pictures of these iconic places, she wanted to provide them with professional photographs along with tours of all the interesting places in Nashville. But, how would she go about connecting with these people?
“I was scrolling on the website for Airbnb, just dreaming of homes in Paris and other places I couldn't afford, and one summer night I saw that Airbnb had a separate product called Experiences,” says Christy. “Local people in different cities were doing activities for guests coming in, and one was a Parisian photographer who would show you around the city and take your photos. I thought, ‘That's what I'm supposed to be doing.’”
She reached out to Airbnb and became an experience host community leader for Nashville. “It just kept growing and that's when I realized I needed to have my own website and make this an actual brand.” That was the beginning of Photowalk Your Travel.
Christy feels that taking someone's photos is a very intimate thing. “It's not just transactional and there's always an exchange of energy,” she says. “We had a girl contact us who had just broken up with her boyfriend and she wanted to do something special for herself and get some new pictures. By the end of the shoot, she was crying and thanking us for building up her confidence and giving her this amazing experience.”
Christy, Gina and their team feel that what they do is much more than just a photo shoot. “It's time with people and giving them insight into my city,” says Christy. “We tell stories and get to know them, so it's a very personal experience.”
They’ve also had women who came for a bachelorette party return with their significant others to do romantic shoots. “We've had lots of repeat guests, which speaks to the personal level of this experience and how absolutely connected they felt with me or one of our other photographers who did the shoot,” she says.
Other clients wish they would've contacted Photowalk Your Travel as soon as they arrived in Nashville because after the tour and photo shoot, they now knew the best places to eat, where to shop, and the most special places to visit. Once the experience is over, all these highlights are put into a digital guide for easy reference and for reliving wonderful memories.
Photowalk Your Travel is expanding into other cities and currently offers experiences in Scottsdale, Arizona as well as Nashville. “Our dream is to get set up in a lot of cities such as Austin and Charleston,” says Christy.