Starting in a Small CommunitySusan Stripling Photography began as a part-time Tallahassee, FL-based wedding photography business in 2001. By 2002 op-erations were full time and by 2003 the studio’s geographic reach was extending to nearby beach communities. “In the first two years I stayed close to home, but soon couples planning their beachside ceremonies in the neighboring panhandle started calling,” Stripling says. In 2005 Susan photographed her first wedding in the Caribbean, which then lead to a steady flow of additional destination work.

Stripling shares that she got into wedding photography after

casually shooting a few photos of a commercial building for a friend. A fellow office worker saw her images and liked them enough to ask if she covered weddings. “I thought it sounded like a fun challenge so I said ‘sure.’ ” She photographed her first wedding six months later.

“In the beginning, shooting in Tallahassee and playing it safe was fine. I had my limited bag of tricks and was capable of producing images that were good enough. I photographed most of my bride and groom portraits in simple settings using open shade. I photo-graphed most of the reception using bounce flash.” According to Stripling, these basics helped create fine photographs. But for her

susanstripling

The Lure of the Metro

own needs, fine was not good enough: She wanted great. Stripling soon began honing techniques and further educating herself. “I needed to know my gear inside and out. I had to learn how to use a camera in all situations, whether bright midday sun or in a badly lit reception venue.”

She rose to the challenge and soon found a new love for work-ing on techniques she had previously avoided. “I taught myself as much as I could and then turned to workshops plus second shooting,” she offers. “Acting as a second shooter lifts the burden of responsibility. I found I was able to try more new things and push to see differently.”

Exposing Her Look Stripling says, “It’s imperative to deliver a varied set of images to

clients. If all of the photos are in the shade or just in the sun, or reflect only one look or theme, that’s limiting. For example, with everything at the reception photographed using on-camera flash, where’s the variety?” A favorite technique of hers involves using a Nikon SB-800 Speedlight on a monopod held by her assistant. “I can vary the range with new looks for the first dance, parent dance and toast images.”

She continues, “When I began photographing weddings my style was rather overexposed; very crisp whites, deep blacks and overall the look had a bright cool tone. With time, I became more attracted to, and started cultivating, deeper and richer looks. Im-ages grew to be a bit darker and more elegant.” Stripling also looks back and feels as if she tried a little too hard to fit in and emulate other photographers’ work. “I was far too worried about standing apart and following the right trends. I was not creating something heartfelt or original. Now I shoot to please myself. I don’t get caught up in being too influenced by what the rest of the industry is doing.”

She enjoys photographing with the Nikon D3 and a bevy of Nikkor lenses. “I use specific pieces of equipment throughout the day at different times. For example, while the bride is preparing, I generally work with the 85mm f/1.4 and something wide, generally my 35mm,” she says. “Ceremonies run the gamut. The 14–24mm is brilliant for wide-angle shots of the entire scene. I love the sharp-ness. For formals of bride and groom together, my go-to lens is most often the 70–200mm f/2.8 and I will shoot all the way out at 200mm. The reception lens of choice is the 24–70mm zoom. It’s great for dancing shots, being astoundingly sharp and very versatile. The capabilities of the Nikon bodies and lenses are truly revolutionary.”

Between 2006 and 2008 Stripling covered only four local cere-monies. The market in her Florida backyard was not terribly com-petitive, but the opportunities were limited. She realized the need to expand, which led to new avenues, shooting everything from wildly extravagant to simple, low-key events; from beach venues to hotels and everything in between. As a result, her portfolio is rich with a cross pollination of images from numerous venues displayed in color, black and white, sepia tones and a myriad of artistic enhancements. Stripling loves to chronicle the bride and groom moment by moment—from engagement session, to time spent dressing for the day and through to final moments on the dance floor. Images are imbued with contrasts and plays of color. “I find that my background in theater has helped develop a unique photographic style,” Stripling says. “My early education in color, lighting and sets was more helpful than I thought. After all, what is a wedding but the most lovely kind of production?”

Bliss at the BeachBrides don’t stay put these days—the destination ceremony is

in vogue more than ever. Stripling adds that she does about 90 percent of her work on location. “The first destination wedding I shot was in Anguilla in 2005. It was a ceremony for 100 guests held outdoors on one of the most beautiful beaches.” While the venue was stunning, Stripling laughs about the challenges she bumped up against in paradise. “The couple decided to hold their portrait session at 1 p.m. I was too new and green to know that I should

By Martha Blanchfield

New York metro wedding and portrait photographer Susan Stripling has gone through a lot of change in the past few years. She’s relocated to a major city,

adjusted her business pace, is developing new ways to market and is

learning to navigate New York society.

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have educated the clients to change that time. It was staggeringly hot with nowhere to retreat from the heat and glare. The completely white sand was blinding and the guests were pouring out sweat. I love working with hard light but this offered a tremendous challenge!” She persevered and later looked back at that destination wedding as an immensely valuable learn-ing opportunity—both photographically

and in understanding how to step in and guide a client when needed.

With more and more beachside and des-tination weddings under her belt, Stripling began to master techniques to handle the impossibly harsh outdoor lighting. Instead of attempting to run from the sun she learned to place her subject between her-self and the light, to create hard silhouettes against the sky and to even use the midday

sun as the main light on her subject’s faces. Along with learning to shoot in these

challenging situations, Stripling also per-fected the art of working on the road. Her Think Tank Airport Security bag is metic-ulously packed with everything placed and held into position. She prefers the Think Tank Photo gear system for its durability, stability and excellent features including locking zippers and cable lock to help safe-guard all gear. Stripling works from a stan-dard list of items every time she packs to leave the house. Upon arriving in her hotel she cable-locks the gear bag to an immov-able piece of furniture (often the pipes in the bathroom) and places a camera body, lens or two, and all CompactFlash cards in the hotel safe. After the wedding she keeps the cards on her person every time she leaves the hotel room.

Stripling also streamlined a mobile digi-tal workflow used on her laptop once back in her hotel. She immediately downloads to a MacBook Pro and backs-up to several 320GB external hard drives (which remain in the hotel safe). The next step is a second backup of those same drives to an Intel Mac. She then mails a drive to her produc-tion facility in Florida for yet one more back up. Her assistant imports all RAW images into PhotoMechanic, processes in Adobe Camera Raw, then tweaks them

further using PhotoShop CS3. With every-thing edited, the image files go online to a PickPic gallery for viewing and reordering. “Out of everything I own my PickPic cart is one of the most invaluable. I would recom-mend this service to anyone looking for the best shopping cart system.”

Little City to Big CityIn 2007 a commercial building in Tallahas-

see was purchased and business operations moved. The new 5500-square-foot space housed the studio and became a long-term real estate investment and rental property. Little did Stripling anticipate that the next year she would make a decision to relocate to New York City. “The most challenging, yet interesting, career adventure has been the move,” she smiles. “I left my produc-tion manager behind in Florida, leased out the space to an up-and-coming Tallahassee photographer and made a significant de-cision to scale back. I was taking on too many wedding and portrait assignments and found I needed space to breathe.

“I craved getting back in touch with why I loved wedding photography in the first place. A person can get so wrapped up in meeting deadlines and taking care of customers that there becomes less and less time to allow the creative soul to thrive. I was also traveling 28–30 weekends a year.

This became an enormous strain and I was losing the fun. I felt I needed to give clients my full heart, but work was becoming more and more of a challenge.”

Today, the hub of Susan Stripling Pho-tography operates from a dedicated office in a Park Slope home in Brooklyn, NY. She keeps in touch with her studio manager, Inga Finch, back in Tallahassee, daily. Even with thousands of miles between them, Stripling and Finch keep the business on track. Finch handles the studio’s produc-tion tasks: RAW correction of wedding and portrait images, reprints, customer service and image file send-out, plus vari-ous operational business responsibilities. This frees up most of Stripling’s focus for networking and marketing to New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania customers.

“My business’ FedEx and postage costs have gone up, but the move has been great,” she says. “We’re still fine-tuning the workflow—the bulk of which goes to perfecting best practices for exchanging untouched, edited and final images back and forth through a combination of email, FTP and CD/DVD mailing. We do plenty of backups and keep a tight digital paper trail. Having a super production manager has been key to my business success.”

An important must for Stripling, now that she’s home-based, is to keep NYC

operations housed in a single room sepa-rate from where she and her daughters spend their days. “It’s a wonderful space with wooden floors and huge windows that offer tons of light. I can go in and close the door when I need to work. At the end of the work day I again close that same door and keep away from the office.”

Marketing and MarketsFirmly planted in New York, Stripling is

envisioning new business goals. She wants to build a small boutique portrait busi-ness that caters to parents she’s met in her Brooklyn community. She’s decided to scale back her number of travel weddings, and she’s looking forward to continuing pursuits educating photographers at national con-ventions and private workshops. “I am just slowing a bit, not stopping!” Stripling laughs. “I took a brief break to calculate the move, set up shop and explore this new market. I’m delighted I made the change.”

As for marketing both here and there, Stripling comments, “My blog and website are my best sources of advertising. I’m about to combine the two to streamline an online presence—not to mention make it easier to maintain. I’m also aggressive-ly pursuing getting published in bridal magazines. I do not invest in ads. The best marketing, of course, remains word-

AD1/2 ISLE

of-mouth. Referrals from other photog-raphers and industry professionals are a huge help.”

To market to and capture the heart of the metro bride, Stripling is spending a lot of time networking, reading and sim-ply observing. For her portraiture work she’s initially exploring opportunities in her immediate neighborhood. “This is a to-tally different market than Tallahassee. The homes are different, there are different wall spaces and configurations, and the clients seem to want smaller and more special-ized products and prints. The shoots are more urban and home-based.” And a final component of the overall marketing mix is to preserve relations with existing Florida clients. “I miss my friends there and will do all I can to continue serving that market.”

Reaching Out To PeersWork is about preserving a balance, and

Stripling knows it’s essential to maintain rapport within the photography commu-nity and among peers. “I teach and have been invited to speak at Digital Wedding Forum conventions, as well as Professional Photographers of America guild events. I have given private seminars and look forward to presenting my MasterClass at WPPI 2009.”

As a photographer Stripling does have a few pet peeves about the industry, some of which she may comment on during her WPPI 2009 presentation. “I’ve noticed that more than ever it’s really easy to be-

come a wedding photographer—and, in fact, pretty easy to become popular. All you really need is the hot new action set, a popular template website and trendy blog and you’re on your way,” she sighs.

“I feel that the hype of being a wedding photographer is what a lot of newcomers are attracted to. I don’t think they spend nearly enough time educating themselves about the science and principles of photog-raphy. It’s as if they’re putting far more time into learning to be good marketers (which

of course is important), and less time learn-ing to be good photographers.”

Susan Stripling will be teaching a MasterClass at WPPI 2009 titled “Substance and Shine: Creating a Business To Last.” The program will be presented on Wednesday, February 18 from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. in Room 203 of MGM’s Conference Center.

Martha Blanchfield is creator of the Renegade Photo Shoots (www.renegade-pr.com) and a freelance mar-keting and public relations consultant.

www.neilenterprises.com