Who is behind Snappalachia Photo Booths?

What a great question to be answered for a first blog post, right? First and foremost, I’m Mikie and I hate talking about myself. So, this blog post may be a little hard for me to write, but at the same time I know it’s important for people to know who they are working with.

I guess we should start with some of the basics… I was born and raised in Southeastern Ohio and have lived here most of my life, with the exception of moving a couple hours North to attend The Ohio State University (O-H!). As a child we lived in Vinton County, probably one of the least populated areas in the state of Ohio, if not the least populated. At one point there were only 2 stop lights in the whole county. Now I believe there is only one. In the seventh grade, I transferred schools to Oak Hill, a small village about 45 minutes away, mainly to play basketball. It was there that I met some of my best friends that I still have today. We went through a lot together. Lots of big wins and also some very big losses. We were a hell of a girls basketball team, especially for the size of school we had. We won a lot of games together, but more importantly, we learned a lot about life and work ethic. I carry that work ethic with me to this day and if we get the chance to work together, I believe it is something that you will appreciate. I mentioned that we had some big losses, too. It’s important to me to mention this because one particular loss instilled some values in me that only a loss of that magnitude can do. In the 8th grade, a friend and teammate was diagnosed with bone cancer. Her name was Janie. Her number was 41. She was a year younger than myself. She was one of the strongest, bravest people I have ever met in my life. She fought so hard. Unfortunately, her battle came to an end her freshman year of high school. It was so unfair. But she taught a community an invaluable lesson. How important it is to support one another. That lesson has stuck with me to this day. That is one of the reasons you will see me volunteering with my booth and why I have a fundraising option for my booth rental. 

Now that we’ve been through high school together, let’s move on to college. After graduating from Oak Hill High School, I began attending The Ohio State University (Go Bucks!). I learned a lot about life here, as well. I learned that there was a whole world outside of little Oak Hill and that there was a lot to learn. Here I became more open and accepting of other cultures, ideas, and ways of life. It was good for me to get out and experience the world. This is where my love for photography began. I got a starter camera from my mom and her girlfriend for my birthday and the rest is history. I’ve taken so many pictures since that time. It’s always interesting to go back and see how much I have progressed since then. 

I graduated in the winter of 2014 with a BS degree in Biology. From there, I moved back home, began work as a substitute teacher and started working on my MPH online. While working on my MPH, I got hired as an epidemiologist for several local health departments in Southern Ohio. I loved that job, the people I worked with, and the communities I served. Unfortunately, COVID happened in 2020 and I got extremely burnt out. My mental health was not in a great place and it showed. I needed a break, so I took one. Ultimately, I left the health departments to go out and see what else the world had to offer. I now work as an Industrial Hygienist (just google it) and I still love photography.

Now to get to my personal life (there’s a point to this, I promise). If you’ve ever done online dating, you know that it can be like the Wild West at times. After my boyfriend of 5ish years and I broke up in 2023, I decided I wanted to get back out there and try online dating again. After several grueling months and several failed attempts at relationships, I was ready to give up. Right before I deleted the apps, I matched with a fellow roller derby girl (I forgot to mention I used to play roller derby). She was a little older and several hours away, but we had mutual friends so I decided what the hell, let’s see what happens. Long story short, we are now engaged. Now, to the point of my story. After getting engaged, we went to a wedding expo in Columbus. It was here that I was introduced to the world of photo booths. With my love of photography, decent technology skills, and willingness (or stubbornness depending on who you ask) to make things work, I decided that I could figure out a photo booth. I tossed around the idea of investing in one, but never made it happen. Until I did. About 7 months later, I volunteered to run a photo booth for a local event and knew it was something I wanted to invest in. Several weeks later, I did some research and reached out to a vendor that I felt was fitting for what I was looking for. It didn’t take much convincing and I invested in my booth the next day.

So, all of that to bring us to today. I am now the proud owner of Snappalachia Photo Booths. A premier photo booth experience located in the rolling hills of Southern Ohio. Our photo booth is not just a gimmick or prop for an event, it’s an experience. Almost every aspect of our photo booth is customizable, from the moment you walk up to it to the moment your picture comes out of the printer. As a photographer, there are a couple things that I feel make our booth stand out compared to others. First, our booth uses an actual mirrorless camera to take your pictures. Yes, you read that correctly. We use a CANON camera to take your picture with. We have a Canon R100 camera body inside of our booth. That’s 24.1 megapixels compared to 12 megapixels on the front camera of the Ipad we use for our photo booth software. That’s a huge quality difference! Second, as any photographer knows, lighting is key. Our booth is equipped with a Godox strobe to allow for perfect lighting anywhere. Those two things are huge in my opinion. And as much as I hate them sometimes, our booth has the options of filters for your pictures. We have a Glam Filter option that gives you that black and white Kim K wedding photo booth look and I am a sucker for a classy black and white photo any day of the week. There’s one last, very important, feature of our photo booth that I want to mention before I sign off of this surprisingly long blog post. And that is our online gallery option. As someone who has photographed weddings, I personally find it very hard, if not impossible, to get pictures of everyone. Most of our packages come with an online gallery option. This means you and your guests get access to an online gallery full of all of the pictures taken from your event. Not only does this give you an opportunity to go back and look at all of the fun your guests had with the photo booth during your event, it allows you to download everything for a keepsake. This may be the last picture or memory you get of someone and I truly think that is so very special. 

I’ll leave you with this. We may not be the cheapest photo booth you come across for your event, but between the features and quality of our booth, our additional options, and the experience you receive, I can almost bet we will be the best bang for your buck. As the owner, I will be available as your photo booth attendant for most events. I promise to provide you with the best photo booth experience I can possibly provide you with. If you want something and we don’t have it, we will work with you to make your event exactly what you dreamed it would be. So, thanks for stopping by the website and reading my rambling blog post. I can’t wait to work with you!

Mikie