JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — One Florida couple, like so many others, lost their main source of income due to COVID19 business closures, but their creative way to keep their business afloat has made them go viral.
Kareem and Sandy Virgo’s success is stemming from what started as a joke.
They said if kids can go to school online and businesses can meet online, why can’t they do their photoshoots online?
“My wife is notorious for taking funny pictures of people on Facetime,” Kareem said.
It’s a joke that turned into inspiration for the Virgo’s after losing months-worth of shoots.
“She came to me and was like, ‘what if you try it on a couple of people for a virtual shoot?’ I said ‘what?’” Kareem said.
The Virgo’s experimented with the concept, using their friends over Facetime.
“We got to pose them, direct them, use their background just like we would in a regular shoot,” Sandy said.
It filled the void of artistic interaction the couple missed so much about their job.
“When we tried it on them they loved it,” Kareem said.
Your everyday Facetime is turned into a work of art.
“We posted it on social media,” Sandy said. “That’s when so many people thought it was cool. They were calling it innovative.”
Suddenly their DMs flooded with requests for virtual photoshoots.
“It got pretty crazy,” Kareem said. “We got over 400 bookings.”
The Virgo’s could be profiting off of this in this hard time, but are continuing to do it for free.
“It was just something to spread positivity,” Sandy said. “We know so many people are out of jobs right now. We’re not the only ones.”
What started as something to fill their time has turned into a rewarding experience, showing that no matter where we are in the nation, we’re all affected by this pandemic in our own way.
“God has blessed us with that tremendously,” Sandy said. “We weren’t able to put a price tag on it.”
Although the couple is not making money from these small sessions, their website and social media pages have gained so much traction that they are getting heavily booked for those big shoots like weddings in the future.
They say thanks to the power of our phones and a whole lot of faith, their business has been pulled from a dark place.