NYC Wedding Photographer
Susan Stripling Photography
Home »
Susan Stripling Photography

NYC Wedding Photographer

I have been a NYC wedding photographer since 2008, though I was not new to NYC weddings when I moved to this great city.

I started my career as a Tallahassee, Florida wedding photographer. I shot my first wedding in West Palm Beach in 2001. From there, I shot all over the 30-A area, from Pensacola to Destin, Tallahasee to Jacksonville, and everywhere in between.

In 2008 a huge life change brought me to New York. I was now a NYC wedding photographer!

If this were a television sitcom, this is when the record would scratch and the frame would freeze. You'd hear me via voiceover say something like "I'm sure you're wondering how I got here", and then we'd be right into a great flashback.

Engagement Photos on the Brooklyn Bridge

Becoming a NYC wedding photographer

I was a NYC wedding photographer before I even moved to NYC.

I shot my very first wedding in NYC in the early 2000's, right after beginning my career as a wedding photographer. I was referred to some friends of friends of clients who lived and worked in Manhattan.

"Would you travel to NYC to shoot our wedding?" they asked. Of course I would! A few months later I was on a plane, shooting my very first wedding as a NYC wedding photographer.

I was immediately overwhelmed.

Being a NYC wedding photographer was not the same as being a Florida wedding photographer. There were so many things that I didn't have to deal with when shooting the idyllic beach weddings I had so become accustomed to!


Those things included:

  • Utterly insane, baffling amounts of traffic
  • Jaw-dropping crowd sizes
  • Dirt, dirt, and more dirt
  • ...what IS that smell?
  • Going to multiple locations on the wedding day, all which required travel
  • ...and so much more

New York Wedding Photography


"I'm good." I thought. "I'm heading back to Florida, and I'll probably never shoot in NYC again."


Wrong.

New York Engagement Photo Locations

Just a scant year or so later, I was referred to another friend-of-a-friend-of-a-client and on a plane from TLH to ATL to JFK. I was back in NYC again, shooting another wedding.

This time I felt something strange stirring inside of me. I wasn't scared of the traffic. I didn't mind the crowds (as much). I wasn't daunted by the smells, the noise, or the bustle of the city.

This was when my desire to move to NYC and become a NYC wedding photographer really took root.

Brooklyn Bridge Park Engagement Shoot

Starting my career as a NYC wedding photographer

At the time of shooting those two weddings, I had no idea that life would bring me back to NYC as a permanent resident in 2008. But life is weird like that, isn't it?

I am so happy that the weird twists and turns of my life led me right back to the bustle and insanity that is New York.

After a few awkward years of getting to know each other, I can confidently report that NYC and I are now BFF's, where before we were barely passable frenemies.

As a NYC wedding photographer, I see and experience things that I never saw or experienced in Florida. Some of those things include:

  • Taking wedding day portraits on the High Line while a naked man ran from the police
  • A three hour traffic jam en route from ceremony to reception
  • A six foot bubble bursting in a bride's face in the middle of a huge park
  • Walking through the doors of a normal-looking building to find myself in the most spectacular hidden ballroom that no one would ever know was there
  • Being in a chauffeured Escalade with a bride and groom and having it break down and belch black smoke all over the Brooklyn Bridge, summoning police boats and helicopters to the scene.

Portrait Locations 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge

NYC is the craziest, weirdest, dirtiest, loudest, and most hectic place I have ever lived. Being a NYC wedding photographer means you have to be ready for anything, at all times. This insane city is my home, and it's where I choose to run my business.

And I love it.

SO MUCH.



Filename: bridal-portrait-2.jpg. 1/250; f/1.4; ISO 160; 85.0 mm.

New York (NYC) Photographer
Susan Stripling Photography
58 2nd Ave #17A
Brooklyn, NY 11215

(917)209-8425
[text or email preferred]
susan@susanstripling.com
Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2023