JACKSON HOLE, Wyo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board is striving to keep more visitors and animals safe as the summer travel season continues by introducing Selfie Control, an Instagram filter that helps visitors keep a safe distance while taking photos of wildlife.
The Selfie Control filter serves as a reminder that while viewing and taking photos of wildlife is allowed and encouraged, staying the appropriate distance is more than a suggestion—it’s a requirement. The filter is preloaded with distance requirements for all the wildlife that is native to Jackson Hole, including bison, bears, moose and more.
How It Works
To use, Jackson Hole visitors simply search for the Selfie Control filter button on Instagram, navigate through the animal options to the type of wildlife they are looking at and align the animal’s outline to the icon. If the animal appears bigger than the icon, they are considered too close for safety. Visitors can move back to the appropriate distance, take a photo, tag @visitjacksonhole and share as a Story or in-feed post.
“For professional photographers and amateurs alike, it’s hard to tell if a moose or bison is 25 or 100 yards away just by ‘eyeballing’ it, especially when you’re in a place like Grand Teton or Yellowstone National Park with sprawling, wide-open spaces,” said Erik Dombroski, chair of the Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board. “That’s why we created the Selfie Control filter—so visitors can easily gauge proper distance for their safety, as well as the wildlife they are sharing space with, while still allowing for a memorable shot.”
An Open-Source Solution
Safely photographing wildlife is not just a priority for Jackson Hole but for all destinations worldwide. That’s why Visit Jackson Hole is open-sourcing the files for the Selfie Control filter so that other destinations can add in the wildlife that calls their destinations home and help their visitors practice selfie control as well.
“It’s our hope that the filter can allow other wild destinations that are home to wildlife to keep their visitors and wildlife safe as visits are sure to increase during the summer travel season,” said Crista Valentino, executive director, Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board. “We want to see the numbers of stunning wildlife images on the rise and incidents and accidents steeply decline.”
The Selfie Control filter toolkit is available to other wild destinations by visiting https://industry.visitjacksonhole.com/selfie-control-toolkit.
The Selfie Control filter is now available for use on Instagram. Visitors can find out more information on the effort and fellow tourism destinations can find details for downloading the code and customizing the filter to make their own version of the app here. For more information on Jackson Hole, please follow the destination on Instagram.
For more information, to go VisitJacksonHole.com/Wildlife.
About the Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board
The Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board ensures that tourism is a positive force for people, for nature, and for the economy. The JHTTB is a seven-member volunteer board appointed by elected officials from the Town of Jackson and Teton County commissioners. Established in 2011, the primary function of the JHTTB at inception was to allocate Teton County’s portion of lodging tax collected by the State of Wyoming to promote travel and tourism within Teton County and the Town of Jackson. Due to unprecedented levels of visitation in the past five years, the JHTTB responded to the needs of our community by expanding its focus beyond promotional marketing to include visitor education and destination stewardship.
