RIPLEY • All it took for Susan Butler to create a successful side business was an idea — and a vintage camper.
Susan Butler of Ripley waves from the doorway of her traveling photo booth business, Snap ‘N Roll Photo Booth, on Dec. 10, 2021. Butler began work on transforming a vintage camper into a mobile photo booth in 2019 and now hauls the thing to all kinds of fun events.
The Ripley resident is the owner and operator of the Snap ‘N Roll Photo Booth, a mobile photo booth complete with props and decor that change with the seasons.
Butler has worked as a dental hygienist for 33 years, 29 of which she’s spent at Family Dental Clinic in Ripley.
Butler had dabbled in photography over the years, mostly taking photos of family and friends, but hadn’t seriously considered turning her hobby into a business until 2018. While attending a wedding, she spotted a small photo booth set up for guests to use.
That’s when inspiration struck: She’d create her own traveling photo booth.
Getting hitched
Butler found a 1974 Travelaire camper on Craigslist in 2019 and drove to a spot just east of Atlanta to pick it up.
She hitched the camper up and never looked back. Literally.
The Snap ‘N Roll Photo Booth decked out in a “Grinning with the Grinch” Christmas theme. The booth began its life as a 1974 Travelaire camper, which Butler purchased on Craigslist in 2019.
“I had never pulled a trailer before in my life,” Butler said. “But I went over there, looked at it, bought it and pulled it all the way home going forward. I never backed it up a time.”
Two years later, Butler still avoids backing the camper up if at all possible, but she can do it when she needs to.
Butler started getting props and decor together for the camper in September 2019, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed her plans to open her unique photography business.
She and her coworkers were off work from March through May in 2020 because of the pandemic, so she spent that time assembling the Snap ‘N Roll Photo Booth.
The camper’s interior was in rough shape when Butler bought it. She gutted the inside — which originally had a sink, stove, table and closet — and hired B & B Camper Sales in Burnsville to install shiplap walls and redo the floors.
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