Meet Amanda Collins

We had the good fortune of connecting with Amanda Collins and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amanda, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
My husband and I bought our first 1956 vintage trailer in 2014 and we decided to renovate it together to use for camping, My love for the vintage trailers grew a lot in that project. We had owned several classic cars together, but that was really more of my husband’s thing to work on the mechanicals of a motor vehicle. Whereas with the trailers, I could have artistic freedom with how it looked instead of just how it went together. We bought the second 1956 travel trailer, which is now Betty, in 2017 and everything sort of fell into place after that. I had a vision of a photo booth housed in a vintage “canned ham” trailer and my husband helped bring that vision to life.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am so grateful that my love of these old trailers and being able to help families freeze their memories in photographs, is my business. I love creating these new memories for people, it is definitely the biggest perk of the photo booth. I am so flattered every time someone thanks us for their photos, or tells us stories of “the trailer they had just like this growing up”. I guess I didn’t exactly know quite the impact Betty was going to have on other people’s lives, as well as our own.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I am a third generation Arizonian, and a second generation Phoenician. I love our valley so much. I think I would encourage them to come during Arizona Tiki Oasis which takes place in April at the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale. It’s a 4 day event that is just so incredible and fun. Plus that hotel is a mid-century masterpiece and I would encourage everyone to take their tour about the history of the hotel, which is offered year round not just during Arizona Tiki Oasis. Since I am a huge fan of architecture I would also say that Taliesin West is a not to miss when visiting Phoenix. I love food and tropical drinks from the Central Phoenix Hula’s Modern Tiki, and their speakeasy right next door The Captains Cabin for excellent craft cocktails.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would say my biggest inspiration behind me creating my business would be my Grandparents, this is also why I named my business after my Grandma Betty. My Grandfather was the photographer/videographer of the family. He usually always had a camcorder on his shoulder or a camera in front of him at any family gatherings. Now that my Grandparents have passed we are so fortunate to have so many memories frozen in time on film. My Grandma was the one who we traveled the most with. My family is mostly all female, so it was usually “Girls Trips” to San Diego or one time I remember we loaded up a van with 5 of us “girls” and drove from Arizona to Wisconsin to see my aunt and cousins.

I have old photographs of my Grandfather standing next to some of his vehicles from the 1940s and 1950s, and he took “pin-up” photos of my Grandmother in front of the cars as well. When their kids were little they traveled across country in a double decker 1950s trailer, that was pulled by a 1950s car (yes, car!!). We have so much film footage from the 1950s and 1960s of them on these totally picturesque Americana family vacations. So to say the least I have always loved vintage, especially 1950s and 1960s era things, and I have my Grandparents to thank for putting this love in my heart.

Website: vintagetrailerphotobooth.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vintagetrailerphotobooth/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BonafideBetty/ 

Image Credits
N/A