What is your DWF Username: Hannah Suh

What is your Full Name: Hannah Suh

What is your business Location: San Francisco Bay Area

What is your website URL: www.hannahsuh.com

What is your Facebook page URL: http://www.facebook.com/hannahsuhphotography

How many years have you been in business: 5 years

Was there life before photography or has this been a lifelong passion for you? How did you become a professional photographer?

I’ve always been into photography but always as a hobby. Growing up, I never knew that photography was a viable career option. My parents wanted me to be a lawyer, and I never personally knew of an adult who worked as a photographer so the idea of being one myself never occurred to me. I took my first black and white film class when I was in the 4th grade and I thought developing film was the most magical thing. I always had a camera with me, would take photos for the yearbook, acted as a school “Historian” and would take photos and create a slideshow at the end of the year. I even did my final high school project on photography. I joined the website Deviant Art when I was 16 years old and that was my first real exposure to a community of photographers and artists. I went to USC to pursue a career in the film industry, found that I sucked at it, and switched majors from print journalism, fine art, then Sociology. During all this switching about, I had people ask me to shoot their weddings, and so I did! I found DWF when I was a Sophomore in College and that was when I seriously began to work on doing wedding photography as a career.

What’s been your biggest business challenge? How have you faced that challenge?

Not knowing ANYTHING about the business side of photography. I mean, I didn’t know the business side of *anything*. I started my rates at whatever people wanted to pay me. I hobbled together whatever information I could on operating a legit business and just struggled along for the first few years. I didn’t have regular office hours, because for one thing, I didn’t have an office. I would surreptitiously respond to emails during class lectures, and edit photos at night. And during Finals? Forget about it, my early clients would hardly get a peep out of me. It was a pretty crappy operation. It wasn’t until I graduated in 2008 that I started really putting things into order. I re-did all my contracts, got myself Tave to keep me organized, got an office and office hours, got myself a business banking account, etc. I think DWF was invaluable for me during those early years, when I was just trying to figure out what the hell I was doing.

What’s the most effective way you’ve found to market your studio?

I moved from LA to San Francisco after I graduated college, and so I had a whole new market that I had to wedge myself into. I only knew 2 people in the area, so I couldn’t rely on referrals from my immediate circle of friends and family either. I know people have issues with the site, but Yelp REALLY helped me out during those first few months in a new territory. I booked 10 weddings my first year in San Francisco just by utilizing Yelp. And also reaching out to other photographers in the area was immensely helpful. I owe a lot to my current success to the photographers who were willing to let me come second shoot and afterward by sending me referrals.

How has the DWF helped your business? How do you use the DWF? I think I mentioned this in one of my previous answers, but DWF has seriously been an invaluable resource for me, in so many different ways. First and foremost, DWF introduced me to a great community of photographers. A lot of those photographers offered me my very first second shooting gigs when I started out and that early experience was critical for me. I think being a wedding photographer can be a pretty solitary gig sometimes. You don’t have an office full of coworkers like other more traditional jobs and so it’s great to have this huge community of photographers all sharing and giving advice, tips, and even just chatting about random fun things. I’ve been able to turn to DWF whenever I’ve had client issues, or when I needed advice on taxes or album companies, or pretty much any other question that I might have regarding running a photography business. That kind of collective knowledge and sense of community is priceless.

If we needed a photographer today why would we book you? What makes you unique?

Well for one thing, I never went vintage. That’s pretty unique! ;) I decided a few years ago on some key words that I wanted to describe my work and I tried really hard to stick to those words and not allow myself to be swayed by new trends (although I can’t say that I’m immune, it’s just so tempting to jump on bandwagons). I keep my photos clean, vibrant, and romantic. And I think I have a well roundedness to my work that comes not sticking stridently to one school of thought as far as wedding photography goes. A lot of my work is photo journalistic, but I also really enjoy taking detail shots, the posed lifestyle-esque shots that brides today are so keen on, and as someone who comes from a large and picture-crazy family, I don’t mind doing lots of family portraits as well. And I really try and do all this while keeping my eye on the ball, which is to create timeless photographs that don’t age horribly, and that clients will love for decades.

What is the one item used in your shooting or editing workflow you can’t live without? What makes it indispensible?

I LOVE photomechanic. I cannot imagine culling without it, and culling is probably my least favorite thing to do in the whole post-production process.

What advice would you give to an aspiring photographer?

Make friends! Those photographers that might be viewed as competition can totally be your allies in this business.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why? The ability to stop time. Although if I did that, I might be perpetually frozen in time, reading one book after another with a tub of cookie dough ice cream at my side.

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