As Pokémon GO advances in the field of AR technology, it only makes sense that Trainers worldwide become more and more interactive in the way they play. Part of this is not only being a Pokémon Trainer but being an AR Photographer as well.

Throughout this past month, Trainers worldwide have gone out to photograph Pokémon in the wild. Along with these photographs, they have brought back a story to tell. In this article, we will take a look at these Photographs, the stories behind them, and the Trainers who took them. These are their photos, these are their stories.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at February’s AR Photo Showcase!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Starting this month, the Showcase will change! In comparison to before, we will now have a themed showcase each month, this month’s theme is PARTY! Now, this doesn’t mean we want to see an overabundance of Party-hat Pikachus, be funny, be clever, be unique, you have a full box of Pokémon at your disposal to take photos of! For more information, take a look at the Final Notes section.
SECOND IMPORTANT NOTE: In order for your entry to make it to the showcase, it MUST FOLLOW THE THEME. If your photograph does not, it won’t appear in the showcase entries!

AR Photo Entries

In this segment, we take a look at the AR Photographs and stories submitted by your fellow Trainers.

The Mexican Flag Pokémon

“It was a wonderful Saturday afternoon in Mexico City. The sunlight wasn’t harsh at all, and a gentle wind blew from time to time. The sky was very clear, painted with the most perfect shades of blue. At one point, I saw a rainbow in the sky, even though it wasn’t raining. The wind started to blew stronger, and I started to sweat, I was very confused. I heard a powerful and beautiful cry, but no one else seemed to have heard it. I looked up, and there was it, the majestic rainbow Pokémon was in front of me. I couldn’t help but taking this picture before it quickly disappeared into the distance.”

Location: Ciudad de México, México

Photographer: ElDiosLecum

Side Note: Being from México myself, I find it amazing to see a Photographer highlight our country in such a simple yet beautiful way! – Hub Writer Josh Provines

Deoxys’ Destruction

“With a couple of Deoxys raids in the bag, our raid group was still looking for the “real” one… All of the previous ones turned into Ditto a couple of hours after we caught them… But this one was different. You could feel it’s incredible power from the moment it appeared. As Deoxys analyzed the surroundings, I felt pressure on my chest and my vision started getting blurry… Even my camera lenses started shaking when I pressed the capture button… Shortly that everything went black and when I came to my senses Deoxys was gone. That made me clear, that I still have a long way to go as a Pokémon trainer before I’ll even have a chance against this mythical power-house.”

Location: Steiermark, Austria

Photographer: Shadowcold69

Golden Claws

“Last day of the Kyogre & Groudon as raid bosses & I still hadn’t caught a shiny form of them, so my last raid of the day was this Groudon, I was beyond exiting just to get out of my car & take an AR pic of it, never thought I would get so much joy from taking a Pokémon AR shot.”

Location: Texas, United States

Photographer: Only6pokemon

Side Note: I absolutely love seeing the change of color in this picture. Going from a dark blue to a bright yellow with the golden-green hue of Groudon in between makes for a stunning array of life and color – Hub Writer Josh provines

A Sunset With Growlithe

“I was talking a walk in a park near my neighborhood when I saw a wild Growlithe playing around in the sun. It looked so happy playing that I didn’t want to interfere. But on my way out of the park, I noticed the beautiful sunset and thought, “hey, this is a great spot for a photo!” It took a few tries, but I finally got the picture I wanted.”

Location: Florida, United States

Photographer: Totopa99

Sun’s Getting Real Low…

“What an incredible thing to be able to coexist in the same world as Pokémon. I found this Onix peacefully making its way through a valley as the sunset, and couldn’t help but to feel an overwhelming sense of contentment even as it towered over me and cast its shadow vastly across the ground. Til we meet again…”

Location: Pennsylvania, United States

Photographer: pkmnphotographer

Sunny Winter Afternoon

“As I passed the green bench shown in this picture, I couldn’t help but think of how great of a spot it would’ve been for a shoot of a shiny Swinub. I was a little disappointed to find a normal one next to it instead — but then this guy spawned right after! Clearly, it wanted to get photographed!”

Location: Finland

Photographer: ShadowMetaru

Hunter From The Sky

“So I was taking a hike through the forest in the west of Leipzig, looking for some new Pokémon to catch. With no sign ahead, the silent hunter struck from the sky with a primal scream. To save myself I just jumped aside and took this quick snapshot. Good thing my buddy Luxio was with me and gave him a hard Wild Charge, what scared him away.”

Location: Leipzig, Germany

Photographer: RSRipper

Unfiltered Entries

Let’s get back to the basics of AR Photography, it is time to look at the raw, unfiltered, and unedited AR Photographs that your fellow Trainers have taken.

Coral Beach

“Was lazing on the beach when I noticed something coming out of the sea. Imagine my surprise when I saw this! I thought it would run, but I think he quite liked having his photo taken! It wasn’t too long before more Corsola appeared, but none liked their photo taken quite this much. We ended up playing in the sea and making sand castles all day before he practically hopped into my Pokéball on his own!”

Location: Quintana Roo, México

Photographer: Chesterpokego

Puertodile

“On my 30th birthday, I took a trip to Mexico. While exploring the coast, I spotted a Totodile. He was happy to see me. He had lost his mother you see. I took him back home to be reunited with his family, but not before snapping a quick shot of the water Pokémon.”

Location: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Photographer: TheOreoFilling

RIP Ash

“This is a huge, old cemetery with wildlife and Pokémon alike. People come here to walk and for peace and quiet away from the city much like a park. Ironic this grave sits under a Pokémon GO gym. While Pokémon don’t nest in this cemetery, this poor Murkrow can nearly always be found under the gym, loyally at Ash’s side.”

Location: Michigan, United States

Photographer: M3g4n4nn3

The Shiny Rainbow Pokémon

“It was a bright and hot day. I decided to go out to fill my Dex with new entries. As I was strolling down the street, a gush of wind and something so bright. It was a shiny Ho-oh! No wonder it was so bright that day. I managed to capture the beauty with my nation’s flag behind it. And then it flew away.”

Location: State of Nine, Malaysia

Photographer: SyafiqMadzli

Amour

“Throughout the 3 hours of Community Day, I was searching for the perfect spot to take an AR photo of the gorgeous Shiny Dratini. It wasn’t until the last 10 minutes that I noticed the 2 beautiful Cherry Blossom trees perfectly align with one another. It had rained earlier that day but the darker tone of the mud complimented the pink petals on the ground even further. So I took a stepped back, aligned the shot, and the moment was captured.”

Location: Tennessee, United States

Photographer: ProdigiesNation

Side Note: Does the user above ring a bell? It sure does for me, you can imagine my reaction as I was going through entries, checking AR Photos, and then noticing ‘ProdigiesNation’ in the corner of the picture. Putting it simply, My. Jaw. Dropped. I am ecstatic to see that the AR Showcase has reached as far as the Youtuber spectrum now! What an honor! – Hub Writer Josh Provines

Run!

“I was having a walk with my friends late night through a path everyone used to avoid. Though adviced not to head there at night, we decided to check it out. Not long after, we realized a shady little object to be levitating in front of us. We wanted to have a good look as to what it was, so we headed towards it. There it was! A Misdreavus with a frightening smile on its face. We could do nothing but just RUN. We never went through that area again.”

Location: Nainital, India

Photographer: Nitesh8902k

Anyone Home?

“One of my favorite and pretty hidden local Pokéstops, an old hand carved from rock grain mill, dating back to the early 1900s. After crawling into the mill, I took a series of pics of just spawned Parasect looking into the opening. One of my easier shoots, time and location both worked well in my favor!”

Location: New South Wales, Australia

Photographer: sara22au

Sneaky Swinub

“I took a trip to Minnehaha Falls for community day. It’s pretty majestic to put it shortly and I just thought to myself I’d really like to snap a photo of a shiny swinub inside this frozen waterfall. To my surprise among four other Swinub at this location. One of them was shiny! The hard part was getting up there inside the cave-like area. After some trial and error climbing this frozen hillside. I finally made it inside and I was able to snap this picture! I feel this is exactly where I would see one out in the wild. I’m ecstatic I got to experience this in person. I legitly felt like a Pokémon trainer chasing after this Pokémon. So I wanted to share this photo and even if it isn’t showcased. I just want to thank Niantic for making this awesome game that promotes good fun and health. But also gives me a chance to relive that nostalgia of my younger days booting up Pokémon Blue. Keep up the good work!”

Location: Minnesota, United States

Photographer: Xavier

Lake’s Magical Warden

“We went to Georgia for vacation. While doing research, we stumbled upon a magical looking lake. So we took its location via GPS and decided to go by car. It was a bumpy ride going there and it felt like we’re going nowhere. Finally, we arrived. As soon as we got out of our car, we felt chills running down our spines and creeping into every bone of our body. We were walking towards the lake when we heard a loud splash up ahead. It was there that we saw it. It was standing gracefully. We were overcome with awe and captivated by its fantastic appearance. Once we came back to our senses, we tried to grasp what we were looking at. We stumbled upon a dog-looking creature sparkling like crystal with white, ribbon-like tails flawlessly floating around it. We realized that this phenomenal creature is the warden of the lake. It protects, purifies and defends the lake, keeping it beautiful and peaceful. I immediately took a photo before it would get mad at us and voila! Enjoy the image of the lake’s magical warden. (Thanks to A1iMB and DeaNatural)”

Location: Georgia, United States

Photographer: 2AmspeC2

Answer From The Other Side…

“I woke up in the middle of the night, sat up in my bed, quite didn’t know what had woken me up only that I was sweating & shivering. I tried to slip back in my bed but was having trouble falling back to sleep, I stayed there like half an hour but to no avail. Then I took out a blanket, wrapped it around me and went outside for a stroll, as I was walking into the night, I was feeling very uneasy, a constant feeling that someone was looking at me, following me in the darkness, I stopped 2-3 times checked my surroundings but couldn’t see anything unusual, shrugging the thought off I kept walking, the moonlight was trickling through the lifeless branches of the wintry trees, a soft night breeze blowing and barking of stray dogs now and then was keeping the night alive. I was now walking past a 50-year-old abandoned storehouse, when I heard someone call my name, I looked around to find no one, suddenly I felt something grabbed me from behind, startled I leaped forward, as I looked behind I saw a thick dense fog floating in mid-air, I froze in my place as I saw it floating towards me …. just then I saw it, coming down from shadows, it was Dusknoir it gave out a rumbling noise & opened up its belly and I could see the fog swiftly trying to move away from it but Dusknoir was fast it sucked up the fog within a minute. He looked at me for a minute and then vanished in the wintry night. Days later I found out Dusknoir actually takes away unrest souls to the spirit world when they are lost, I don’t know what happened that night but I sure was glad I was safe and had a mild feeling of gratitude towards Dusknoir…”

Location: Uttar Pradesh, India

Photographer: Agnimitra Sutradhar

Side Note: Night-time photos have to be some of the hardest to get right, but this photographer managed to get an exceptional shot despite that. Having the moon as the centerpiece with a perspective from down below makes for a perfectly spooky photo – Hub Writer Josh Provines

An Ancient Flying Beast

“It is a rare thing to ever encounter the ancient flying rock beast known as Aerodactyl. So take the chance while you have it. Sometimes it is the Pokémon that is the subject, sometimes it is the editing of the photo. Sometimes it is the foreground. This time it is the combination of a beautiful sunset and a rare Pokémon.”

Location: Karlstad, Sweden

Photographer: Bejemannen

AR Master Entries

This segment highlights the Photographs taken by our very own AR Masters, those that we have deemed to be elite in the field of AR Photography.

Ghost Busted

“I had been holding onto this Duskull for WEEKS because I knew I wanted to do something more than just my usual AR photos. I kind of stumbled upon my inspiration accidentally one night while farming Pokéstops. I stopped in a parking lot and saw the bars on a building I had seen a thousand times before. But this time, it struck me as being a perfect, spooky setting for Duskull. I actually attempted this photo on several different nights before I finally decided to really go all out and break out the tripod to get the two photos required to blend this shot perfectly.”

Location: Hawaii, United States

AR Master: Ryusui

Hub Family

“I took many pictures this last event for the new years Pokémon I went around trying to come up with a few AR pictures then all of the GOHub family changing their pictures to what their Chinese zodiac is and it gave me the idea to do all of them to show my love for all of the GOHub reps. 😁”

Location: Connecticut, United States

AR Master: Rogue

Shadowmon

“At first, I was skeptical about the release of GOSnapshot. Photographing all those unique Pokémon from your inventory would take away the adventure of finding a wild Pokémon and sharing it. Well, that’s partly true. While I still value a wild Dragonite AR photo over a GOSnapshot, the feature gives us a lot of new possibilities! For example, Pokémon now have real shadows, so I wanted to try out this Charizard and ended up with this photograph which wasn’t possible without the new feature! For many new ideas to come!”

Location: Brussels, Belgium

AR Master: Ash Ketzchup 

AR Master Photo Research

To highlight the diversity in AR Photography, Professor Willow has tasked our AR Masters with some special Photo Research. Last month Professor Willow asked the AR Masters to go out in the wild and Photograph PINK Pokémon.

Her first day as a nurse

“I was walking around waiting for community day start and there’s I thought it would be cute to have Chansey in front of a school like she was the nurse it took a little time to get it in the right place I’m happy about I got all of the school in the picture it took a little time to put the hat on to but it’s one of my best AR shots”

Location: Connecticut, United States

AR Master: Rogue

Into the Deep

“When Professor Willow asked us to get photos of a pink Pokémon, I knew just the one to submit. Being in Hawaii, Corsola was the perfect fit for me. This photo was taken at our local aquarium, The Maui Ocean Center. I knew I wanted an underwater photo of Corsola but had no idea how to achieve it. This became the perfect compromise.

Location: Hawaii, United States

AR Master: Ryusui 

Honorable Entries

This segment is meant to show off the AR Photographs that didn’t quite make it for one reason or another.

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Final Notes

This showcase has sent me through somewhat of a roller coaster of emotions, first GO Snapshot was released, exponentially growing the number of entries I saw come in by an immense amount. Second, I was extremely surprised to see popular Pokémon GO Youtuber, ProdigiesNation, take a shot in the showcase and submit his very own photo (I don’t fanboy often, but I might have screeched a little when I noticed it). Finally, the reason this showcase is so important to me is because this will be final showcase in this format that we will see, because of GO Snapshot and the number of entries expected to arise with every month that passes, the AR Masters, the GO Hub Team, and I have decided from now on to make themed monthly entries!

Putting it simply, this has to be one of the most notable showcases I have worked on in quite a while. I am extremely happy to see how far the showcase has reached, and how far it will go as time goes on.

AR Photo Showcase Changes

• AR Photo entries will now have a required theme, meaning if your photo or attached story does not link well to the theme for the month, it won’t be chosen!
• The showcase will (from now on, I hope) be published on the 1st day of the month, in it, you will find the theme for that month.
• AR Photo entries will now be closing one week prior to the publication of the showcase.
• If you want a heads-up on next month’s theme, take a look at our Discord page so you can start taking photos!

Links

• To submit a photo for next month’s showcase, fill out this Google form! Entries will be closing on March 25th at 3 PM CDT.
• Want to talk to the AR Masters? Go to the #Ask-the-AR-Masters channel on our Discord!
• If you want to see pictures from some of the photographers above, take a look at the #AR-Pictures channel on our Discord!
• Want to see how the pictures this month compare to the previous months? Follow the AR Photo Showcase Tag!

Take some great photos, have some great fun, and above all else stay safe, Trainers!