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Susan Stripling
Susan Stripling is a New York City wedding photographer who has been photographing weddings since 2001. She works mostly in NYC and travels for destination weddings worldwide.
Her background is in theatre, and it shows in the work. Susan builds a photograph the way a lighting designer builds a scene, and she is best known for this theatrical approach to light. Real moments and gorgeous light are the through line of twenty-five years of weddings.
She is a Canon Explorer of Light and a Grand Master of the WPPI Icon Awards. She also once won an award for photography at the Georgia State Fair when she was 15. All of these feel important.
Susan has taught at WPPI, PhotoPlus, PPA, and CreativeLive, and founded The Wedding School, an education platform for working wedding photographers. She is currently Director of Brand Marketing at Adorama.
She lives in New Jersey and works out of New York City because she really, really needed a yard.
Booked Isn’t Enough: How to Build a Profitable Photography Business
Most pricing advice was built for a market that no longer exists. Couples are contacting more vendors, comparing more openly, and taking longer to dec…Most pricing advice was built for a market that no longer exists. Couples are contacting more vendors, comparing more openly, and taking longer to decide. This session is about what to charge in that market, and how to build a business that actually …Most pricing advice was built for a market that no longer exists. Couples are contacting more vendors, comparing more openly, and taking longer to decide. This session is about what to charge in that market, and how to build a business that actually pays you.
Susan Stripling will walk through the real math together with attendees: what a wedding costs before you earn a dollar, how many you can realistically shoot, and what your price has to be f…Most pricing advice was built for a market that no longer exists. Couples are contacting more vendors, comparing more openly, and taking longer to decide. This session is about what to charge in that market, and how to build a business that actually pays you.
Susan Stripling will walk through the real math together with attendees: what a wedding costs before you earn a dollar, how many you can realistically shoot, and what your price has to be for those two numbers to work. Then, how to say that price out loud without flinching.
You will learn how to build your price from your own costs and capacity instead of from what everyone else charges, how to read an inquiry and know what it's worth before you reply, what to say when someone tells you that you're too expensive, how to structure your packages so your average goes up without adding work, and how to pay yourself, cover taxes, and survive a slow year.
Bring a laptop or a notebook. Attendees will be running numbers, not looking at pictures.Show MoreClick the title to see all detailsShow More
Susan Stripling
Find Beautiful Light or Create It with One Flash | Susan Stripling
Every wedding has rooms with no windows, hallways with nothing on the walls, and portrait time at noon in a field with no shade. Susan Stripling has s…Every wedding has rooms with no windows, hallways with nothing on the walls, and portrait time at noon in a field with no shade. Susan Stripling has spent twenty-five years working in them.
In this two-hour walk, Susan reads each space out loud befo…Every wedding has rooms with no windows, hallways with nothing on the walls, and portrait time at noon in a field with no shade. Susan Stripling has spent twenty-five years working in them.
In this two-hour walk, Susan reads each space out loud before she raises the camera, showing where the light is actually coming from, what the shadows are doing, and where a couple belongs inside it. When a space offers nothing, she builds the light with a si…Every wedding has rooms with no windows, hallways with nothing on the walls, and portrait time at noon in a field with no shade. Susan Stripling has spent twenty-five years working in them.
In this two-hour walk, Susan reads each space out loud before she raises the camera, showing where the light is actually coming from, what the shadows are doing, and where a couple belongs inside it. When a space offers nothing, she builds the light with a single flash. Attendees will photograph a real couple throughout and shoot in every space the group works.
Attendees will learn how to walk into an unfamiliar space and find its best light quickly, how to read direction, quality, and color before raising the camera, how to use shadow deliberately instead of avoiding it, how to place and move a couple so ordinary light looks intentional, and how to build light with one flash when a room offers nothing.
Bring a camera, a lens you know well, and a flash if you own one.Show MoreClick the title to see all detailsShow More
Susan Stripling