Photo AutoMat Amsterdam

I love having photos taken and taking photos. Whether that is of myself or others. There is something about black and white Photo Booth photos I have always loved. I think its because of the film Amelie. I love being able to edit photos and make them perfect, but there is something about these photos. They are so raw and real. You cannot change them. Once the photo has been taken, thats it. It's nice not to have any control of them. What has been snapped, has been snapped. Then of course you just have to wait and see what comes out, and sometimes depending on the machine whether the photos even get printed (I had this while I was in America, and I knew those photos were gonna be cute).

While in Amsterdam I was so happy to find an amazing photo booth in this really quirky store/cafe. The store was called Hutspot, it kinda reminded me of Urban Outfitters due to the gorgeous pieces for sale and the way it was styled. I will be talking about this store in another post very soon. In the front of the store is a Photo AutoMat machine, and it was only 2 euros a strip. I actually think its quite good value, when I was in Paris I think they were 3 or 4 euros a strip. 

I also find Photo Booth and the photos to take quite romantic. The typical couple thing to do is to both climb into the booth and take 4 really cute photos, and normally ending with a kiss shot. I have totally done this, many times I have made David take photos. I hope to one day put them all in a large frame and hang them on the wall in our future home. This was inspired by an amazing couple of friends of mine Shelby and Sam, who make sure whenever they see a booth they take a strip. Of course I loved this idea. However its really difficult to find these old machines. In the UK you can find newer machines in Brighton and London, but there is something about the old machines, the way the ink bleeds and the slight blur of the photos. 

My mum always tells me of this story when she was travelling the world as a child with her brother and her parents. They all climbed into a booth to take photos on a train platform. They waited for the photos to come out, but it was taking a while. They got on the train, and Grandad Stan kept running back off the train to check if they had come out yet. He nearly missed the train, but jumped on quick just before it went. Sadly the photos didn't come out in time, and my Mum always thinks about the photos that would have been left there.

Thankfully this machine didn't take to long for the photos to come out. I was really pleased with them. You know how it is looking at photos of yourself, it is difficult. Then I grabbed Immy and Sarah and we all climbed in and took some funny strips. It really was the perfect souvenir, and I also took another set of myself for David as a gift.