Latest / f/22 - Photographer Interviews by VSCO / S2.E8 – 24 Years of Weddings with Susan Stripling, Canon Explorer of Light
Transcript
- VSCO Team: And it is such a marketing monster that everyone getting into the industry right now has to be a good photographer and literally has to be a digital marketing genius. And that's asking two big things. I've actually found that boredom and burnout in my own work also happens when I'm bored and burnt out in my personal life. So when I start feeling bored and burnout at work, I try to ignore work and go do more fun things in my personal life. What's kept me going for so long is an innate competitive. ⁓ Desire to beat myself. I want to make better work this year than I did last year. All right. Welcome back to F22. I am here in Las Vegas with Susan Stripling, ⁓ amazing wedding photographer. I actually have been following your work for ages. Yeah. We'll we'll get into that. But ⁓ welcome to the show, Susan. So happy to have you here. Thank you. Glad to be here. Absolutely. ⁓ so I'll say my bit in a second, but just for people that don't know you. Give your introduction. please brag a little. you've got a lot to brag about. All right. Susan Stripling. I've been a photographer for 24 years. I live in New York. I'm a canon ⁓ explorer of light, which is really exciting. I'm an ambassador for Autorama, which is also equally exciting. Yeah. I've been entering print competition for years. I'm a grandmaster at Icon. I've done a lot of stuff. So I've been published in a lot of places, and it's pretty. Awesome. It's been a deeply rewarding career and I'm really glad to still be at it. I I feel like I'm in the temple at the top of the mountain and I'm I've met the sensei and like This is it. There's this is it. There's nowhere for him to go from here. ⁓ this is F twenty two is over. So before Visco, I was a wedding photographer and you were one of the people that was inspiration to me. ⁓ I think you were canon and then you Nikon and then you're canon again. I love it. I love it. Canon forever. We're staying there to be clear. Okay. Cut that out. You can keep that in this time. ⁓ so ⁓ you mentioned several of the awards and accolades and all these things, which is amazing. Yes. ⁓ I'm curious if you feel like does that help your business? Is or what what is that? No. Yes. Let me clarify. Okay. If you are working it on industry stuff, like my relationships with Canon, my relationship with Adorama, building notoriety in the industry, the industry knows what these awards are and they know what they mean. But for prospective clients, they don't know what an icon grandmaster means versus my mom voted me best photographer in Jersey City. Yeah. Like it it just, unless they're in the industry. Okay. The awards give you resume. Right, right. The awards themselves don't mean anything to the average client. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So yes and no. So it helps you in the industry. It does. That's helpful to know. Yeah. ⁓ so you know, I mean, I I was a wedding photographer a long time ago and you were even before me then, and you're still going. You've been doing this for a long time at a very high level. I I'm just curious, like, how has your approach changed? Has it evolved? Yeah. How and ⁓ f candidly, ⁓ physically, how do you still do this? Like I feel like I was dying in my twenties doing this. Not well. I'm not doing it well, you guys. I am held together by caffeine and duct tape at this point. Okay. No, I like I said, I've been doing this for twenty four years. This was the only for a very long time, the only job I ever had professionally. Yeah. So I've kind of never known anything else. Okay. So there's kind of that. There's like the illusion of not knowing what a normal job feels like. Right, right. ⁓ I feel like what's kept me going for so long is an i innate competitive desire to beat myself. ⁓ interesting. Right? Like I want to make better work this year than I did last year. I want to do better next year. I want to do better next year. Great. For me personally. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ but what's also really interesting about weddings is you're not going to the same job every day. Everybody's different. Every wedding is different. Every Everything is different. So there's kind of an element of surprise, and I mean that in a good way. Yeah. That sort of keeps you going because it's repetitive, but it's not. Yes. And how is my body holding up? Heck if I know. ⁓ I swim. That's pretty much it. I'm a swimmer. Work out. Yeah. That's good. I'd like to say work out by like that. We swim, that's all. That's awesome. ⁓ another question I had was about style. ⁓ I feel like My memories of your style from when I was following you, just trying to figure out how to shoot weddings to now. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like there's a pretty consistent through line of this very cinematic style. So do you feel like you have needed to adapt to the times or are you just like stay timeless and do my one thing forever? So it's interesting because I like to nod to modern style without s like compromising who I am. So I come from a theater background and everything I light is. Very theatrically motivated. Right. But I look at what other people are doing. Like we've got kind of a resurgence of editorial lighting, direct flash. And I'm like, well, how can I do that? But how would I do that? Yes. So there's the through line of all of my work, but then you can see it change through the eras just a little bit. Right, right. Yeah. So you're you're you, but you adapt as needed. I try. That's good. We try. Yeah. It gets harder the older I get. Because I say things like the kids these days. ⁓ I feel like y'all are doing great work. So keep that. Seriously. Right. I could not be happier with where we are as an industry. Newer photographers, like people just coming into the industry, people early on in their careers are doing things that we could have never at the start of our careers. Like I'm so impressed with the artistry. Uhhuh. It's y'all are wild. Yeah. And like shooting film at weddings, like That was ⁓ we're doing that again. Yeah. It's coming. It all comes back around again. Yes. And actually I I had that question about Yeah. So what do you feel like is different about starting out in wedding photography now? Like what do people that are doing it now face that's different from when you were starting, when I was starting? Well, we were really lucky in that there was only kind of one way of advertising. It was word of mouth. Yeah. Word of mouth, or maybe like your local wedding show ⁓ or like the one ad in the one local wedding magazine you had. We didn't have social media at all. barely and it is such a marketing monster that everyone getting into the industry right now has to be a good photographer and literally has to be a digital marketing genius. And that's asking two big things. We just had to kind of get pictures in focus and find a film lab the film lab that could develop our film. Yeah. And that was about it. Bro. Yeah. It was those kind of were the days. So for twenty four years, I I imagine You now have the most well oiled wedding machine. ⁓ how do you run your business? How do you keep everything working? How does how does that look like? Yeah. And I mean I'm not like here to be a workspace commercial, but legitimately workspace. Okay. Workspace is my studio manager. So people you you know, you get a you get a inquiry, take take me from there. You get an inquiry, I respond through workspace. Okay. I don't automatically respond. I like to tweak my responses, but I respond through there. Yep. I have templates, but We work them through. Yeah. ⁓ I track all of my finances. I track all of my referral sources. Wow. Which is major. I run reports at the end of every single year to see where the work is coming in, where the work is going out. ⁓ I use it to track my workflow. So every type of event that I do has a specific workflow. Right. I use automations based on what's in my jobs. Wow. I automate different things in my works. I I've been a deep user for a really long time. So that is literally. Like it's a digital studio manager for me. Mm-hmm. And that's where everything lives. Like if anything happened to me tomorrow, you just log into my workspace and you've got everything you need. Yeah. Yeah. And then on top of that, like the newer AI tools like imagine editing and things like that, that helps make everything be faster. Pulling, skin editing, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, that saves a lot of time. Everything that skims any time off of my business just makes everything a little lighter. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is there anything that you used to do, used to feel passionately about and now you're like, nope, can't be bothered. Somebody else do that or ⁓ yeah, like everything. Well, I it was really hard for me to release any of my editing. Yeah. Because I'm like, ⁓ if I don't edit it myself, but now I realize like when I use something like Imagine, I am editing it. Right. Because I taught it how to edit for me. And it's editing based off of my style. Right. So I've literally made a little bot of myself that lives in my computer and does my work for me. That's the dream. And it makes things faster. Yeah. So it it's it's just working smarter. Yeah. Everything that you can to shave seconds off over time. It just adds up. And I mean, the the AI conversation is everywhere. I mean, you're talking about it, so I gotta ask. Yeah. It sounds like, well, I won't put words in your mouth. What's what's your perspective on on using these tools? I have a really complicated relationship with AI. Because I feel ethically crappy for using it. Like if we're being really honest, like we're looking at the price of what memory costs now. We're looking at what it's happening to water. Like I don't feel great about it. Yeah. So it's a constant, honestly, like personal inner struggle of balancing how I can use it to help. Right. Versus overusing it when I don't need to. Yeah. ⁓ and I just think it's a really important conversation that we just keep having because it still is relatively new. ⁓ so new. Yeah. So how can I say right now what it's going to look like in a year or five years? I just know I need to keep an eye on it. Yeah. Yeah. That's And be but if the robots want to take over, they could also learn to shoot weddings for me. And then we would be killing it. Yeah. Yeah. Could teach you to associate shoot for me all day long. ⁓ that would be amazing. Yes. ⁓ okay another question I had was pricing. So you're at a high level. I imagine you're not cheap. ⁓ for somebody speaking, yeah. Yeah, yeah. For somebody that's ⁓ wanting to maybe raise their cost, raise raise their value. Any any thoughts about how they can go about doing that? Yeah, like first things first, like you gotta know your numbers, right? Like I have a spreadsheet that I put together that anytime I want to change my prices. I tinker with it. Like what am I paying for every single element of putting a package together? Yeah. You gotta make sure you're profitable first. Right. Like you know your cost of doing this. Correct. So then I will inch things up. So like let's say I have a package that's like 10 hours for X amount of dollars. Well, maybe next year I'll leave the price the same, but I'll drop it to eight hours. ⁓ okay. Okay. So I move things in tiny, tiny increments. Right. And what I usually do is like if I make a price change, if I book a couple of weddings, then I'll try a new price change. Okay. And but you can always go backwards. Like you could try I've tried big things before and then they didn't work and nobody was interested in it. So I moved it back again. Right. Just itty bitty little increments ⁓ makes it easier for you, but it also makes it easier for your referral source. Yeah. Because you don't want to price yourself so hard out of your referrals. Right. Not right. You do. Yeah. My friend hired you and they said it was this and now it's double. Like what? Like six months later, now it's double. Yeah. That's it's you just have to figure out how to work around that and can you? That's good. Yeah. ⁓ another question was just around I guess boredom. Like well, at twenty four years. I mean, I felt it. I only did weddings for like five years. Yeah. And just at some point it just felt like I'm shooting the same thing over. Yeah, you you try to make it creative and try to bring your own elements in. But how do you avoid or how do you how do you deal with just sh am I shooting the same thing over and over again? I'm losing interest. I'm losing passion. You know I get bored and I get burnt out. Yeah. And sometimes I'm like, ⁓ my gosh, I'm at this venue again. It looks exactly the same. It's the exact same timeline. Yeah. I have to try to remember it's everything is new to my clients. Right. I've been there a hundred times. They've been there once. Right. But I've actually found that boredom and burnout in my own work also happens when I'm bored and burnt out in my personal life. ⁓ So when I start feeling bored and burnout at work, I try to ignore work and go do more fun things in my personal life. Okay. Hang out with my girlfriends, do more stuff with my family, like pick up a weird new hyperfixation hobby. Go to Michael's, start a craft. Right. There you go. That is the most dangerous thing, my friends and I will do is go to Michael's and be like, what do we want to bedazzle today? Yes, yes. ⁓ but the happier I am as a person, the easier I find it when I get bored. Right. There's less to drag down. Yes. I guess. But honestly, like understanding that if you do make an art form your work, sometimes it's gonna bore you. Yeah. And that's okay. Yeah. It'll come and go like a wave. Yes. I think the dream is, ⁓ I'm gonna do this thing that I love and make money from it. And it's just gonna be. And be happy and At least my experience has often been the reality is now I've turned this thing that I love into a thing that drains me. Well, and the part that I love the most is such a small part of the pie chart of everything I have to do to keep the business going. Yes. And so you're like, Yes, I love shooting and I'm super excited to go to weddings, but calling and downloading and editing and backing up and doing my social media and sending my taxes off and like all of the other things you do. Yeah. All I want to do is shoot. Yeah. That's all I want to do. Yeah. But unfortunately we have to run a business. Yep. Yep. Unfortunately. Tragically. Yes. ⁓ just finally, ⁓ I'm curious for for people that are up and coming now, what advice would you give them? I mean, what what do you wish you knew when you started or or what do you see now just you know from your high view that that young people or people that are just getting started in the industry, what should what do they need to know? I've got two things. Okay. Okay. Number one, it's not personal, it's just business. Like this is Your business is deeply emotional and deeply important to you, but you have to understand at the end of the day, it is a business. You can love the art, you can be super passionate, but you have to be able to walk away. Yeah. And when things happen in your business that are bad and they will, it's not a reflection of you as a human being. Yeah. Right. And number two, chase like the happiest life you can possibly find outside of your business. Yeah. Go to theater, look at movies, go to museums, find art inspiration away from photography. I started scuba diving and now I'm like really into underwater photography, which I will not monetize. And if you see me doing it, I need you guys to hold me to it. But like do things just for the weird joy of them. Like go see a weird 3 a.m underground basement play that somebody invites you to. Like do the weird things. Yeah. And they will make you happier and they will make your work richer. I mean I you kind of said this a minute ago and it sounds like basically what you're saying is like Fill the well of your own soul and you have that to draw from for the business, for the things that drain you a little bit. Yes. And those kind of help balance each other. Yes, definitely. That's amazing. So be happy. Seriously. Be a happy person. Yes. Gosh, Susan, thank you. This has been amazing. Such a gift. If people want to see more of your work, if they want to connect with you, see more of where where should they go? Susanstrippling.com. Beautiful. Come on over. Do it. You can look at some pretty stuff. Yeah. You could send me an email. Again, whatever makes you happy. Awesome. Well thank you all and thank you to Harlow Lighting for the amazing lights and we'll see you next time.