Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

Category: news

  • State of the Business Address

    Tap…tap…tap. Is this thing on? Hi friends! (And family? Mom? Are you still reading?) I just thought I’d write a quick post to mention a few things about the state of my photography business and thus the direction of this blog. You may recall, I announced at the beginning of 2013 that Chris was stepping out of his position as my second shooter. At that time I also decided to only book smaller weddings since I was starting to feel the strain of working seven days a week most of the year. Alas, even smaller weddings, events, and a few portrait and commercial clients still kept me quite busy! With two jobs, I worked more weekends than I was comfortable doing. So in order to simplify things, I am now only working as a second-shooter for other photographers as needed so that I can spend the rest of my free time with Chris, travel more, and to do lots of projects around the house. I consider this step a really positive thing! I have been incredibly fortunate to run a successful business for six years, and while the amount of work was exhausting, the experience is priceless and so worth the time and effort. I learned exactly what it takes to own a small business, and about all the cogs and gears behind the scenes that make it work. And who knows? Maybe someday I’ll pick the business back up, or perhaps apply the knowledge towards another business altogether.

    So where does that leave the blog? Well, I started blogging aimlessly waaay back in 2003 on Blogger. (Side note: I think I accidentally deleted that whole blog?! Thankfully I had already saved the content as PDF files on my computer, in case I want to recall what I ate for lunch on April 17, 2004.) Then in 2008 when I decided to start up a photography business, I transitioned my blogging to business-related topics and posts about my fantastic clients’ weddings, portraits, birthday parties, etc. So I think now I’ll just come full-circle and go back to blogging aimlessly, mostly about travel, house projects, and cooking adventures. In any case, I’m recommitting to blogging more regularly and my goal is to post new content at least once a week on Mondays. (“And on Wednesdays, we wear pink.”)

    And here’s photo evidence that I’m probably meant to write in some capacity. I enjoy blogging, it’s a creative outlet for me, and writing has obviously been a natural inclination of mine ever since I was in diapers:

    typewriter_blog

  • Published!

    Truth: there’s something really neat about seeing your name in print alongside one of your photos in a major publication, and this is the first time I’m seeing just that! I know my photos have been in the paper and in magazines before, but not with my name (e.g., engagement/wedding announcement photos, second-shooter photos representing another studio, etc.) and I’ve had photos published online, but this was the first time I’ve had a photo printed in the Washington Post with credit to Susan Solo Photography. Pretty darn cool, and yes I went out and bought a copy. 🙂

    2014-02-09_0001

    And here’s the link to the online copy of Nicole & Colin’s beautiful wedding day story in the OnLove section. It was such a pleasure to photograph both of them, and to meet the wonderful from the Washington Post.

  • Changing Focus

    Hello friends! And a very Happy New Year to you! My 2013 started off with one of the worst colds I’ve had in a long time, but I am on the mend thankfully. I feel like I got that out of the way, and now the rest of the year is going to be amazing!

    And with that, I have some news! In addition to the new blogsite layout, things are changing a bit here at SSP, and I want to share my thoughts with you.

    Chris and I have been doing wedding photography for five years now. In some ways, I can’t believe it has gone by so quickly! And other times I think, five years – wow, it seems like a lot longer. We have met so many incredibly wonderful couples and have had some amazing adventures that could have only been experienced through our photography business. That time we photographed a wedding right in the middle of a huge blizzard. That time it rained (okay, this happened more than once). That time it was over 100 degrees (this definitely happened more than once). That time we photographed a beautiful wedding on New Year’s Eve and counted down to the new year with our wonderful couple’s friends and family. That time the officiant didn’t show up and the amazing wedding coordinator stepped in to perform the ceremony. That time we ate dinner in a tiny broom closet (a closet!). That time the venue was crawling with spiders everywhere I turned, but I stayed brave. That time we photographed a wedding in super cute and tiny Decorah, Iowa. That time we photographed a wedding in Hawaii!

    So many clicks of the shutter, so many miles on the car. Checklist-checking, prepping the gear, packing the gear, carrying the gear. Driving, standing, walking, running. Directing, posing, staging, observing. Early mornings, late nights. Importing, exporting, backing up. Editing, editing, editing. Album designing, email answering, social media posting.

    Oh and did I mention that we both have other full-time jobs? At one point I realized: I’m spending nearly all of my free time capturing other people’s memories instead of making more of my own. Yes, Chris and I were fortunate enough to have had some wonderful adventures here-and-there over the last five years – mainly our trips to Alaska, St. John, and Colorado. But when I look back at the amount of time that I was working vs. the amount of time I wasn’t working, it’s quite an imbalance. The typical workweek for most people  is designed with two days off (exception: parents!), but with two jobs and a never-ending-to-do list, I have been working seven days a week most weeks. The time commitment with weddings plus our other jobs leaves us with little to no free time and we miss our weekends, so…

    We’ve decided to take a pause on offering full-scale weddings for a while.

    Never say never, so I won’t say that we aren’t doing them at all, but we’re taking a much needed pause in order to simplify our lives a bit. I truly do LOVE weddings. Yes, it’s a lot (a lot a lot) of work, but there is something so special about The Big Day that always draws me back in. I’m truly honored when we’re chosen to share that day with someone and when we’re trusted to capture those important moments. So I personally will still be available for a few smaller weddings, and to second-shoot for fellow wedding photographers, and of course for portraits here and there, which I also love! Chris, however, is hanging up his BlackRapid double camera strap for the time being. He will still have a hand in the business though – he is my brilliant technical support.

    Thank you to all of our fantastic couples from 2008-2012! We feel so very blessed to have crossed paths with you in such a special way.

  • The New Blogsite

    Ta da! What do you think of the new blog + website (a.k.a., blogsite)? I’ve been wanting to change things up for a long time and I knew what I wanted to do, but just hadn’t found the time to do it until now. My main requirements were twofold: I wanted one consolidated place for people to see my work (which means only having to update one site!) and I also wanted to be able to blog more about other stuff besides my work without having something super random right on the front page.

    So now, if you’re here to see my work, great! You can find it in the Weddings and Portraits menus. If you’re here to read my blog, that’s up there in its own menu, too! And now it’s easier to go straight to various sections of the blog, like if you’re specifically here to watch me learn how to cook, for instance. There are still a few tweaks I need to make here and there, but for the most part this is the new look. I hope you like it!

    And just to add an image to this post, here’s a photo I took in St. John this past August (and have yet to blog the images!), just as Tropical Storm Issac had left the island:

  • Stay Tuned…

    Okay, so I admit I have been a bit of a slacker when it comes to blogging the past several weeks. I have been catching up on editing, album designing, and planning for 2011. I also even did a little much-needed resting and visiting with family over the holidays. But now it’s back to business once again! And even though this is sort of my “off season” for shooting weddings, I am still working: bookkeeping, portfolio updating, planning, and still more album designing. But what to post on the blog if I’m not shooting as much? In the tiny bit of free time I hope to have, I’ll be working on a few non-photography related projects (our house is in dire need of some TLC) and I plan to share those things here! I also have a few things in the to-blog backlog. So if you’re here because you’re a long-time blog reader, THANK YOU for sticking in there even though I didn’t have fresh content for six weeks straight. (Hanging my head in shame.) Stay tuned – I promise I will at least have a few personal posts up here and there over the winter. And if you’re a prospective client, please do peek through the archives for my most recent work a few weeks back!

    And in the name of having a little visual content for a blog post, how about a random image that has nothing to do with this post. It’s my new nephew, Andy! He’s a baby Weimaraner (5 months old here). I got to meet him while visiting my family in Colorado over Thanksgiving: