PeloPogo Creator Bio

G2G: First, can you tell me your in-game Trainer name, level, and your favorite Pokémon? Is there a reason it is your favorite? Also, what do you do in your daily life?

Pelo: PeloPoGO is my IGN, and I’m a level 40 Team Mystic player. My favorite Pokémon is Tauros.

You remember when you were a little kid and someone asked you what your favorite animal was? Well, the American Buffalo came into mind a lot, because it just looks epic while charging in packs. Also, I remember that episode where Ash is like: “Tauros, I choose you!”, and a pack of Tauros just annihilates the other Pokémon by charging at it. 

In my daily life, I’m an International Business Student, and I work too.

G2G: What got you into Pokémon/Pokémon GO? Were you into Pokémon before GO was released? What do you like the most about Pokémon in general? Do you have a favorite feature in PoGO?

Pelo: I don’t know exactly what got me into Pokémon, but it’s a collection of reasons. Five y/o me receiving Pokémon Gold and a purple GameBoy Advance, watching the anime, watching the attacks on Pokémon Stadium 64, and mostly, playing with Tomy Pokémon figurines.

I have this fond memory of going to my favorite toy store (that looked like a castle) with my dad every time I got a good grade, just to pick one out of hundreds of Tomy Pokémon battle figurines. I still collect these figurines today! I never got to complete a game though, mainly because I never had gamer friends, cousins, or brothers who could play with me, tell me tricks, or trade with me. I also never got to deciphering how to wake up Snorlax, so I would level up my starter to 100 with wild encounters and it would almost always ignore me lol. I got Fire Red too, but didn’t finish it either. And then I saw Pokémon GO being released.

I just wanted to complete my long dream of becoming a REAL Pokémon Master, and here I am now lol. What I like most about Pokémon, is basically the monsters. I love them, they make me imagine this amazing dreamy world with them. My favorite feature in Pokémon GO is, of course, AR+. It’s what keeps me playing. That and my Pokédex completion.

G2G: What made you start creating/sharing Pokémon GO AR photographs? Was it just something you wanted to do, or is there more to it?

Pelo: I’ve become an avid traveler with my dad, and when traveling, he loves taking photographs. Also, he always brings more than one camera, so sometimes he would let me hold one and I’d enjoy taking pictures with it.

I’ve always watched Trainer Tips (Nick), and I remember him saying in an episode how he loved to take pictures in AR while traveling, and that he considered it a kind of “end game”. That’s when I decided to try it. The combination of these two spark joy in me and that’s how it went down!

Up until this day, I’ve traveled to 17 countries with AR+. Sadly, some of the places I’ve traveled to it’s hard to play Pokémon Go because of network issues so I couldn’t take as many pictures as I wish I did.

G2G: As we can see on your work, you do both edited and unedited AR photos. Which one do you prefer the most to make? And which one do you like the most to watch yourself?

Pelo: I enjoy both the same. I always take AR pictures with the purpose of posting them like that, but since the AR fam happened, I’ve learned some techniques that are too fun not to do sometimes. When you feel inspired, you should just let it flow!

I love looking at both contents, but I do have a more special love for AR photography with only light and color corrections or small edits. Not completely raw, but also not heavily edited.

G2G: Is there anything else you want to share?

Pelo: Yes! There’s this thing we call the AR fam, which I mentioned here above. It’s responsible for most of the fun of doing this AR photography.

The AR fam is basically a group of Instagram AR photography creators that just randomly started speaking to each other, messaging, collaborating, teaching each other things. After that, it became a DM group where we’ve all become close friends and share both AR and personal life.

For me, the AR fam is everybody with a passion for AR photography, and I feel a certain connection to all even without knowing them. This connection has gone super deep and far, as well as leading me to meet members of the AR fam in Japan, Brussels, Chicago, and more! I hope to travel to get to meet as many of them IRL as I can!