Susan Stripling – A class of her own!

4 minutes ago

If you can make it in New York, you must be Susan Stripling!

“It’s the most competitive industry of the nicest people I’ve ever met.”

Susan Stripling has been photographing weddings, portraits, and theater for almost twenty-five years. Susan’s work has been published in Inside Weddings, Martha Stewart Weddings, Grace Ormonde Wedding Style, Modern Bride, Town and Country Weddings, the New York Times, New York Post, Rangerfinder, PDN, and in ads and advertorials for Nikon USA, Epson, and Canon USA.

She’s won multiple awards at the prestigious ICON International 16×20 print competition including the Grand Award in Wedding Photojournalism and the Grand Award in Weddings.
She holds the prestigious Grand Master Status at ICON as well.

Susan has been an educator for Photo Plus, WPPI, PPA, Mystic Seminars, Portrait Masters, and Creative Live.
She has been named one of the top ten wedding photographers in the world by American Photo Magazine.
She is also the founder of The Wedding School, which strives to bring real, honest education to wedding photographers worldwide. In her spare time, besides spending time with her incredible family, Susan is a voracious reader, lover of all horror movies, and inexplicably sleeps with the lights on.
https://susanstripling.com/

What drew you to wedding photography, and how has your theater background shaped your approach?

I actually came to photography quite by accident. Before that I went to school for theater, moved to New York, did a handful of auditions, and realized I didn’t want to perform professionally.
Loved the art of theater but hated the business side of it. A few years later, a friend of a friend asked if I’d shoot their wedding, and something just clicked. I realized that a wedding is essentially a theatrical production – there’s lighting, costumes, drama, emotion, and storytelling.
Everything I loved about theater, I found in wedding photography.

What’s funny is that I went to school thinking my theater degree was useless, but it turned out to be the perfect foundation. Even that one lighting class where my teacher explained the “hot spot” of a spotlight – I use those exact principles when I’m lighting weddings. The choices you make in your early twenties come back around in unexpected ways.

It is always a joy to be invited to photograph a wedding at a clients’ private home. The bride from this wedding had a family home in the Hamptons and the wedding was held on the beach behind her home. The tented wedding reception took place on her side lawn and was a wonderfully intimate, joyous party. Photographing Hamptons weddings in the summer are a great joy since the weather is almost always guaranteed to be gorgeous! While it rained and the sky was grey early in the day when the bride was ready to walk down the aisle the clouds parted and the sun began to shine. The weather was beautiful during the ceremony and then began raining again, creating a wonderfully cozy feel to their reception. This incredible wedding was also host to some of the most heartfelt, delightful wedding toasts that I have ever witnessed. This photo is of the bride’s father as he toasted his daughter and her new husband. I photographed this picture with a 24mm lens to create a wide scene and really show the entire reception tent. The balls of light were so bright that when I juxtaposed the father of the bride against them I was able to make a perfect silhouette of his head against the lantern. I made sure that I was angled perfectly to place his face precisely in the middle of the paper light. This is one of my favorite images that I photographed in 2009 and it was an overwhelming honor to have it win the 16x20 International Print Competition Wedding Photojournalism category at WPPI. The picture also went on to win the Grand Award in Photojournalism, one of only a handful of Grand Awards given out at the competition. Being awarded by my peers in such a prestigious competition was incredible and continues to inspire me to create memorable, compelling images for my clients and their families.

“A wedding is essentially a theatrical production – lighting, costumes, drama, emotion, and storytelling.”

My theater background has been invaluable. I spent years learning how to understand lighting, how to work with people, how to read a scene and know when to capture the moment.
When I’m teaching or speaking publicly, I have zero fear because I spent so many years on stage learning how to manufacture scenes and fake emotions.
Now I just get up there and talk as myself, and it feels natural.

A black-and-white close-up of a man in formalwear exhaling a cloud of smoke into the dark air. The smoke curls and drifts dramatically in the light, forming soft, abstract shapes around his face.

A black-and-white photograph of a bride standing on illuminated stairs, her long veil flowing behind her. She holds a bouquet and is softly lit from the side, creating a dramatic, elegant silhouette in a dark interior space.

How did you transition into teaching, and what inspired you to create an online school?

I still can’t believe people want me to teach them things, because I’m still learning myself.
But it’s been incredibly rewarding to be asked to speak and share knowledge.
For a while, I actually built an online school for wedding photographers – a learning library called The Wedding School. Eventually I sold it to the company that owns WPPI a couple of years ago, so I’m not involved with it anymore, but it was such a meaningful project.

I brought in other teachers, and it was just so nice to create this hub of education for photographers.
I remember coming of age in photography at a time when I didn’t have access to good educational resources.
So I wanted to be that person and create the things I wished I’d had back then.
I feel a really strong pull to give back to the industry because the industry has literally given me so much. It’s absolutely the least I could do.

A black-and-white photograph of a wedding ceremony indoors, with a group of people seated around a table listening to an officiant who stands silhouetted by a bright window. The bride and groom sit side by side, smiling and looking toward the speaker. Soft light from the window creates strong contrast, giving the scene a quiet, intimate atmosphere.

How has AI impacted your work as a wedding photographer?

I’m not scared of AI in wedding photography because weddings are genuinely hard to fake. Yes, headshots and family portraits might be affected by AI, and I’ve definitely noticed my headshot and portrait business has slowed down. But weddings are a full day of coverage – ceremonies, family photos, couple portraits, receptions. There’s so much complexity and so much demand for authenticity that I feel relatively safe for now.

That said, what really bothers me is when Instagram accounts post AI-generated wedding inspiration without disclosing that it’s AI. I remember seeing a photo of a couple hanging out of a train door kissing against a snowy mountainscape, captioned “winter wedding goals” – and the bride had seven fingers. When you present AI images as real inspiration, you give clients unrealistic expectations about what’s actually possible at a wedding.

I am always looking for something new every time I photograph a wedding. Whether it’s an interesting new portrait location or a new way of photographing light I feel that it’s my job to make something different and unique for each wedding client. At this November 2010 wedding at the Merion in Cinnaminon, New Jersey the bride had requested portraits of she and her groom by the river in East Brunswick’s Bicentennial Park. After completing the portraits in this location we were walking back to our limo to head over to the Merion and I saw the most incredible light under the bridge we were parked by. Most photographers would walk right by a dirty overpass but I wanted to take the chance to make a unique portrait of the bride. I am always so thankful when my clients trust my vision and know that I have a plan when I ask them to walk under a dirty bridge in their wedding gown! I positioned the bride so that her face was directly in the shaft of sunlight and turned her body so that the breeze blew her veil in the precise direction I wanted it to go. My assistant stood just off to the side to unwrap the veil from around the bride when the wind got too intense and to help it flow properly. My only instruction to the bride was to “play with your veil.” While such a request might seem vague and unfocused I find that giving my clients basic instruction leaves it open for interpretation. I completely understand that twirling around under a bridge, in the wind, with your veil wrapped around your head and your eyes closed might not be the most natural-feeling thing in the world so I always strive to make my clients as comfortable as possible and understand that most people don’t feel natural in front of the camera right away. This image ended up being one of my favorite images I made in 2010 and it was because my client trusted me that this photograph was made possible!

“When AI is presented as real inspiration, it creates unrealistic expectations.”

AI is a tool, and there are genuinely wonderful uses for it. I’m a huge advocate for using AI to take notes in meetings, recap conversations, read emails – anything that helps me be more creative and productive.
I use AI for editing tasks, like removing a light stand or an assistant from the background using generative fill. But I don’t use it to create things that aren’t there. I use it to clean up images, not to fundamentally alter them.

The only thing I make a point of doing in-camera that other photographers do in post is double exposures. I’m stubborn about it, but I like the challenge of creating them in-camera rather than in Photoshop. It’s my personal artistic challenge.

I love every single thing about this portrait and the bride in it. In 2013 I traveled to Cape Cod to photograph a wedding at a private home by the water on the Cape and it was wonderful to explore somewhere that I’d never photographed a wedding before. I got to the home early that day to scout the location and was immediately drawn to a towering thicket and the narrow tunnel that cut through it. I knew that I wanted to use that space for some portraits and I hoped that the beautiful light would carry on through the day so that I could use it beautifully when the time came to shoot in that location. The bride and groom saw each other for the first time that wedding day at 3:00pm and in June the light is still strong, bright, and almost directly overhead. I know that if I used that location for a portrait the light would be coming down hard right on top of the bride’s head. I had the bride tip her head downwards so that the pose was more serene and also so that the light would cover her entire birdcage veil. I absolutely love this portrait. I entered it into the 2014 WPPI 16x20 International Print Competition and was thrilled with my final score! It also hung in the background for the 30 Days of Wedding Photography course that I taught for Creative Live in the spring of 2014.

What’s your approach to business in wedding photography?

This might sound funny, but I actually started this business to have a business, not because I felt pulled to be a photographer. I had two young kids at home and wanted something I could do part-time to bring in extra income. Of course, it’s never part-time – it’s a full-time obsession.

But here’s the thing: I taught myself business and marketing simultaneously with photography. I love the business side of it because I have both sides of my brain firing. I have the creative, theatrical side of me that loves being on stage and creating beautiful images. But I also love putting numbers in order, organizing things, seeing the numbers line up, predicting budgets. Wedding photography scratches both itches.

At this 2012 Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers wedding the bride and groom rented a vintage New York taxi to take them around the city for their portraits. They requested some pictures with this cab, and I was only too happy to oblige. Whenever I have a request to take a photograph of the bride and groom in front of an item, vehicle, or building I try to approach it in a slightly new and different way. We had been at the High Line taking photographs of the bride and groom together, and were getting ready to head back over to the Lighthouse for their ceremony. The cab was waiting for us down at the curb. When I looked down on the cab from the High Line staircase, I knew I had an opportunity to make a creative photograph of the scene before me. I placed the bride and groom next to the front of the cab, and I climbed the stairs back up onto the High Line. This image was shot through the metal fence of the High Line. I love it that the pattern of the dots lead your eye directly to the bride, groom, and cab. I was thrilled to be able to give the bride and groom something other than your standard picture of them just standing in front of the car.

So many photographers hate the business side and want to hand it off to someone else. But you need to understand your business before you delegate it. I do my own bookkeeping – I don’t do my own taxes. That’s what CPAs are for – but I know exactly what my numbers look like. But I know if I’m being profitable. It’s important for me to understand my own finances. And that knowledge takes the fear out of the business.

New York is a competitive market, but what’s amazing is how cooperative and kind the photography community is here. We help each other out constantly. It’s the most competitive industry of the nicest people I’ve ever met. People will yell at you on the sidewalk for being slow, but they’ll help you carry your baby stroller down the subway stairs.
That’s New York.

A bride and groom run hand in hand along a sandy beach, smiling as the wind lifts the bride’s dress. The ocean behind them adds a sense of movement and carefree joy.

I used to photograph a lot of destination weddings, and a Pelican Hill wedding was always at the top of my “must shoot” list. Rated the “#1 Resort in the United States” by Conde Nast Traveler, this amazing Newport Beach resort epitomizes everything you think about Southern California luxury. Stunning beaches, beautiful lush greenery, jaw-dropping sunsets, and charming warmth abound, and I loved shooting here for the first time in 2014. I was immediately captivated by the olive trees, the lavender, and the absolutely killer views of the Pacific ocean. It was also amazing to work with a fantastic team of vendors. Alicia with Details Details kept the day running smoothly and with great grace. Paul Norton Hair and Lesley Thornton Beauty created the bride’s gorgeously elegant look. Elysium Productions was the wedding cinematographer, and I am always in awe of their beautiful films. West Coast Music provided the reception entertainment, and White Lilac, Inc. did a mind-blowing job with the floral design of the day. The staff at Pelican Hill took extraordinary care of my clients, and were so incredibly nice to us, as well. It’s always great to work at a venue who treats the other vendors like friends! Despite the drizzle on the wedding day, the bride and groom were in great spirits, and were willing to foray off the beaten path for their wedding day portraits. I especially appreciate their not laughing at me or thinking that I was crazy when I laid face-down in a sand trap to take this portrait! This image, entered into WPPI’s prestigious 16x20 print competition in 2015, received a score of a 90. A score of 90 to a 94 means that the image is “Outstanding…exhibiting exceptional skills in all areas.” I could not have been more thrilled with this score. I wish the image had gone on to place first, second, or third in the category of Bride and Groom Together, Wedding Day, but the score of 90 was so fantastic that I don’t entirely mind not

How do you handle the physical and emotional toll of wedding photography?

Wedding photography is brutally hard on your body and your mind. When a wedding starts, everything else goes away – if I have a cold or a headache, it just disappears until the wedding is over.
But the emotional and physical hangover afterward can be awful if you don’t take care of yourself.

I go to the gym, I’m a swimmer, I stay active. I make sure I drink enough water and get enough sleep.
If I slack on self-care, I feel terrible for days after a wedding, especially in the summer.
I’ve also learned that I can’t work the same way I did when I was 30. Back then, I could shoot a wedding, drive five hours to Boston, and shoot another wedding the next day.
Now, if I drive 30 minutes home from a wedding, I need to lay down for another day. You have to listen to your body and not take on more than you can handle.

A woman faces the camera with a soft, calm expression, her hand resting gently against her cheek. She is wrapped in a translucent veil or fabric that appears to flow around her, creating a dreamy, ethereal atmosphere against a dark background.

“wear earplugs at wedding receptions. Seriously.”

One thing I always do: wear earplugs at wedding receptions. Seriously. You’re basically going to a crazy loud concert every weekend, and I have photographer friends in their 50s and 60s with hearing damage because they never protected their ears. That’s an easy one to prevent.

I work with a small, tight team of the same people over and over – about five or six trusted assistants and second shooters. These are people who are also my friends, who know me, who understand when I’m stressed it’s not at them, and who know when I need a Diet Coke and a hug. Having a good team is essential.

A close-up view of a bride’s feet in elegant heels beneath the lace hem of her dress, reflected softly on the floor. Another person kneels to fasten the ankle strap, capturing a quiet, intimate moment of preparation before the ceremony.

A bride and groom share their first dance at the center of a grand glass-roofed hall, surrounded by seated guests. Above them, a large chandelier-like installation hangs from the ceiling, creating a dramatic, elegant atmosphere.

“JPEGmini is the last stop on the train before I deliver anything.”

Tell us about your JPEGmini workflow

JPEGmini has been the last step in my workflow for years – literally as long as I can remember.
When I shoot a wedding, I edit everything in Lightroom, create virtual copies, turn those into black and white versions, and export everything out. The very last thing I do, no matter what I’m shooting – whether it’s headshots or a full wedding – is dump that final folder into JPEGmini.

It’s the last stop on the train before I deliver anything to clients. I don’t want to be resizing on the way; what I want is – to have everything exactly as I want it, and then compress it all at once. I even do it with my personal images – it’s become this unconscious final step.

The beauty of it is that there’s absolutely no loss of quality. I don’t even want to know how you do the magic – I just want to use it. My files are massive these days with all the megapixels, and I don’t need files that large. JPEGmini makes everything smaller and faster to download for clients, easier for them to manage, and it saves me an enormous amount of storage space in my backups. It’s honestly one of the best decisions I made in my workflow.

My clients love it too. Downloads are faster, they don’t need massive storage, and they get beautiful images. I mention it in every workshop I teach when I talk about workflow. It’s literally the last thing I do, and I can’t imagine not doing it.

Two people stand face to face in silhouette on a hillside, softly backlit so their profiles glow against the dark landscape. Behind them, a dramatic sunset sky fades from deep red and purple clouds to pale blue, creating a quiet, intimate mood.

In a dramatic black-and-white close-up, two hands reach toward each other in mid-air. One hand wears a ring and emerges from a sheer, floral-textured sleeve, the light catching delicate details while the background fades into darkness.

Tell us about your family and how they relate to your work

I actually have very few photos of myself, which is funny because when I need new shots for my website, I have to schedule it and put it in the calendar. Me and my boyfriend photograph each other for our websites and when we go to fancy events or networking things, but mostly we just stay behind the camera. It’s a safe place to be.

My family? To them I’m mom, daughter, kid. Me with a camera in my hand is second nature, but corralling them for photos has been historically so funny because I’m like “Hey, this is my job! People pay me for this! Round up, people!” We were recently on vacation for my parents’ 50th anniversary and only Mom and Dad showed up on time for the family photos I was taking! We had to drag everyone else out of the house – and I’m so glad we did.

Philadelphia winter weddings are so beautiful. There is something so special about the gorgeous architecture of Philadelphia under a blanket of white snow. At this Philly winter wedding, the bride got ready with her bridesmaids at her parents’ house in the suburbs before heading to the church for her wedding ceremony. When it’s raining or snowing outside, I always ask my clients if they’re comfortable going outdoors for portraits. I don’t ever want brides or grooms to go out in inclement weather if they’re not okay with it! This bride was totally willing to endure the snow for a few beautiful portraits, so we stepped into the street with her bridesmaids for a few quick images. I am so grateful and thankful to her and those ladies for braving that snow! What started out as a few simple flurries rapidly turned into a snowstorm, but they were willing to go out anyhow. If it’s snowing on your wedding day, and you want to go outside, let’s do it! If you’re not comfortable with being out in the wet snow, don’t worry about it. We can still make beautiful images indoors! The most important thing to me is your comfort, and I never want you to do anything that you don’t want to just for a few portraits!

I saw on your website the FAQ “What if you die?”

I actually have a funny section on my website’s FAQ that people find hilarious. The question is literally: “What if you die?” And the answer is: “I will not be coming to your wedding. I’m dead.”

People think it’s the funniest thing I’ve ever written, and it gets a lot of attention. But here’s why I included it: when you’re a solo business owner, clients are hiring you, not a company. They’re hiring me, Susan. So the awkward question everyone wants to ask but doesn’t is: what if something happens to me? What if I break my ankle? What if I get sick? What if I die? What happens to their wedding coverage?

I rewrote that FAQ so many times trying to find the perfect diplomatic way to address it, and finally I just decided to say exactly what people are thinking. Make it funny, but be direct. The real answer underneath the joke is that I’ve thought about this obsessively. I have contingencies. I have a second photographer for exactly this reason. I have backup plans. I know who has my passwords, who has my calendar, who would take over if something unforeseen happened to me.

“Humor makes it easier to talk about the hard stuff.”

What clients really want to know is that you’ve thought about the what-ifs and that you take your job seriously enough to have plans in place. The humor just makes it easier to have that conversation. People read my FAQ and tell me, “We really hope you don’t die,” and I’m like, “You read it! You actually engaged with my FAQ!” It hits as both a joke and helpful information, which is exactly what I was going for.

The truth is, as a solo photographer, you have so much more to worry about than whether your photographer might die. You’re juggling a hundred vendors, a million details, and you’re stressed about everything. The last thing you need is to also be anxious about random contingencies with every vendor you hire. So I try to address the elephant in the room, make it funny, and let them know that I’ve got this covered. It’s my way of saying: you can trust me, and I’ve thought through the hard stuff so you don’t have to.

A bride and groom stand facing each other on a wide stone staircase, framed by towering columns and classical architectural details. Soft, moody light emphasizes the scale of the space, making the couple appear small and intimate within the monumental interior.

A winter Oheka castle wedding is truly a sight to see. Oheka is majestic enough, with it’s sprawling lawns and pristine architecture. But to see Oheka rising up from the long driveway, snow swirling around it’s exterior and blanketing the great lawns, is truly extraordinary. It takes a brave bride to plan a winter wedding in the northeast, since you never know when a snowstorm will derail your wedding plans! If it all works out, though, and you get a sweet dusting of snow on your wedding day, it really can add something special. This winter wedding at Oheka castle in Huntington, New York, was sweetness from start to finish. The bride and groom are the most lovely, kind, charming people. The venue was intimate and warm, a great contrast to the snowy outdoors. The light was that brilliant winter light, so sharp and brittle, and so very crisp. Right before the ceremony was set to begin, the bride, groom, bridal party, and families were sequestered in the Oheka library to wait. The guests were being seated, and the wedding ceremony was about to start. The bride was sitting in the most brilliant patch of light, that crystalline-perfect winter light that I adore so much. She was adjusting the bow tie of the little ring bearer, and the scene was perfect.

What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you at a wedding?

Oh, I have a fantastic story for this. I was at a venue with a fake pond and a bridge over it – a photo op location. I was trying to get a reflection of the couple in the water, so I looked at the edge where there were some rocks. I thought, “I’ll put my foot on this rock, crouch down, and get the perfect angle.”

The rock was slippery and unstable. It went right out from under my feet, and I went completely underwater. I had two cameras and two lenses on my body. The second I realized I was going all the way under, I had this thought: “Well, I guess this is happening. I could just stay down here.” But I came back up.

Both cameras stopped working immediately. The clients are standing right there on the bridge. Their entire family is waiting behind me to do family photos. And I am soaking wet – head to toe, dripping water, with algae hanging from my clothes. I just laughed it off and said, “Well, that’s embarrassing. Let me let my cameras dry off a bit.”

I grabbed my backup cameras from my assistant, we shot the rest of the couple’s photos, we did the family portraits, and I went to my car to change into a dry sweater. My assistant asked if I was okay, and I said, “Oh, I’m not fine. I think I broke my knee or ankle.” We finished the wedding – me limping around, still soaking wet in places, my boots squelching when I walked, trying to dry my hair with decorative hand towels in the bathroom.

Every year I choose a select number of images to enter into the WPPI 16x20 International Print Competition. Judged every spring at the annual convention in Las Vegas the print competition pushes me to create stronger images that tell a clearer story. This image won First Place in the Wedding Details category in 2014 and I am extraordinarily proud of this photograph. I was photographing a bride getting ready at a synagogue on the Upper East Side in Manhattan and I was struggling with finding a good location to take a clear, beautiful picture of the bride’s wedding dress. I saw these gorgeous arched windows in the synagogue and wished that I could put the dress in the window - and then I saw the balcony. Very, very carefully and with the help of my assistant I climbed the stairs to the balcony and hung the dress in the window. Was it dangerous to climb up there? Possibly. But was so, so very worth it.

After it was over, we went to urgent care, and I found out I’d sprained my knee. They wrapped me up and sent me home. But here’s the thing: I had another wedding the next day. I called my second photographer and asked if she could bring her sister to be an extra assistant. Her sister’s entire job was to make sure I could get around without the clients seeing I was hurt, because I didn’t want them to stress out.

The worst part of this whole story? The bride worked in sales for Canon, and I’m a Canon ambassador. So I didn’t just fall into a pond in front of my client – I fell in front of a client who works for the company that sponsors me. I wonder if anyone ever clocked when I sent those cameras in for repair that it was right after her wedding.

Every time I see a video of someone falling into a baptismal font at a church, I’m like, “I did one better. I fell into a full-on lake with algae.”

A bride laughs as her mother adjusts her wedding dress near a window. Soft natural light highlights their faces and the details of the gown. The mood is warm, joyful, and affectionate.

A black-and-white close-up of two hands reaching toward each other, with an engagement ring visible on the bride’s finger. Soft light highlights the textures of skin and lace on the sleeve. The moment suggests connection and tenderness.

It is always a treat to photograph a wedding in a location that I’ve never shot at before. In 2011 I traveled to the Dominican Republic and photographed a wedding side by side with my husband - something we had never done before and haven’t done since! The bride and groom commissioned both of us to document their day and it was a wonderful wedding from start to finish. After their wedding ceremony on the lawn of their private villa the bride and groom walked with their guests to their reception location at another extraordinarily beautiful home. On the sweeping grounds of that property was an infinity pool that appeared to vanish into the dramatic Dominican Republic sunset. I asked the bride and groom if they’d mind pausing by the pool for a portrait. In order to get the correct perspective to make the photograph look the way I wanted it to I knew that I would have to get down as close to the water’s level as possible. I chose to photograph the scene with my 24-70mm as wide as possible in order to make the bride and groom look small and the space around them look vast. I instructed the couple to simply walk right to left on the size of the infinity pool. I always think that pictures of people pretending to walk look fake and uncomfortable so if I need action in my photographs I want my clients to actually be doing something active! While watching the bride and groom walk from side to side I studied their bodies’ movements so that I would know exactly when to click the shutter. I wanted grace and fluidity in their arms and legs as well as a natural expression on their faces. I also wanted to wait until they were in the middle of the frame so that they would be the central focal point of the image. I don't often put my subjects in the exact center of the frame but I chose to do so in this photograph because I felt that it added an impact to the composition. With the warmth and the drama of the sky above them reflected in the water below them I knew that I had something special! Had I photographed this same portrait from a different height or with a different lens it wouldn’t have resulted in the same final photo. The end result is a fantastic environmental portrait that truly illustrates the beauty of the destination wedding location that the bride and groom chose for their wedding day.

What I learned: if you think you can step on something, you probably can’t. Don’t get near the water. Unless you want a really good story, which apparently I do. Because a year ago, I got certified to be a scuba diver. So maybe that pond incident sparked something in me. Now I have an underwater camera housing sitting on my shelf, and I’m about to go diving in Mexico in a couple of weeks. I went from falling into a pond to wanting to intentionally be underwater.

The real takeaway is this: if you haven’t done something dumb at a wedding, you will. You’ll fall, you’ll drop something, you’ll say something stupid. It’s all about how you handle it. My clients now joke about the pond incident with me. They still don’t know I got hurt. Nothing affected their day. But I learned to keep a full change of clothes in my car trunk at all times, just in case, because we’ve established that I can’t be trusted.

Oheka Castle has such marvelous locations for wedding pictures. One of those locations is the stairwell in their main lobby. Featured in such places as Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” video, the TV show Royal Pains, and movies such as Citizen Kane, Oheka’s ornate lobby is a site to behold.

Build nearly one hundred years ago by Otto Hermann Kahn, Oheka still remains the second biggest private home ever constructed in the United States. It boasts one hundred and twenty-seven rooms, over a hundred thousand square feet of space, and is one of my favorite locations to shoot wedding photographs!

After being abandoned for years in the 1980’s, Oheka was eventually purchased by Gary Melius, a developer. Under the careful instruction of historians and architects, every detail was meticulously rebuilt. It took two years. Oheka Castle can be found on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also one of the Historic Hotels of America.

Many wedding clients love having their wedding pictures taken on the Grand Staircase at Oheka Castle. I can totally understand why! The ornate metal railings are truly beautiful. The split staircase is elegant in its’ symmetry. The light that pours into the lobby from the two tall front doors is really gorgeous. Oheka’s lobby has a quiet grace about it, and it’s a great site for wedding portraits and photographs.

We often create family portraits in this location. The middle landing is a great place to pose your bridal party, bridesmaids, groomsmen, and family formal portraits. This location makes for a great, iconic Oheka look to your formal wedding day portraits.

At this particular wedding, we found ourselves in the lobby at exactly the right time! The light was streaming through the window to the left of the staircase in a way that I had never seen it do before. It was such a fleeting experience, as it was gone not ten minutes later!

Final Thoughts

What struck me most about Susan is the contrast between who she is and how she works. She is open, funny, generous, and deeply human – and her photography is the exact opposite: razor-sharp, controlled, technically flawless. Her command of light, timing, and composition is exceptional, far beyond excellent, and never accidental. And yet, that precision never feels cold. It feels alive, attentive, and deeply connected to the people in front of her lens.

Susan is proof that true mastery is not just technical skill, but the ability to hold discipline and warmth, rigor and vulnerability, in the same frame. She also reminded me how essential it is to build a team that feels like family – people who support you, know you, and hold you when the work gets heavy. That rare balance is what makes her stand in a class of her own.