We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Hannah Langford. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Hannah below.

Hi Hannah , thanks for joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

Being a photographer was not in my mind of possible careers when starting college in 2017. I ended up buying a basic, beginner camera from target on Black Friday my sophomore year of college, and I loved taking photos of all of my friends. At most events, I would bring my camera and just take pictures any opportunity I could. I would try to take my “business” seriously at that age, but with being in college. in a sorority, working full time and trying to keep up with relationships and family time, my photography would come and go. I enjoyed it so much, but certain times of the year would be overwhelming with other activities to do, so I didn’t have much time for it. When Covid hit in 2020, school went fully online as I was finishing up my junior year, and I decided I wanted to take photography more seriously! When I start something, I want to be the best I can at it. So, I worked really hard and watched videos and tutorials. I bought education programs to learn more about my camera and photography. In April of 2020, I started offering senior sessions at my college for a huge discount in hopes to not let my little hobby die off. I started putting in more work, investing in better equipment, and started pulling in more clients! In April of 2021, I shot my first official wedding with little experience. It was a friend from college, and I gave a huge discount, but I started realizing that this was my passion, and what I wanted to do. I did all my research and made sure to come to the wedding with the most confidence in myself. That year, I ended up booking a couple more weddings, while engaged and pregnant with my son, graduating college and quitting my day job. Everything was falling into place with having my son, and me quitting my 5 year long waitressing job, and I decided to go full time with my business in August of 2021, just two months before I gave birth to my son. Knowing I was having a child, really pushed me to quit my waitressing job and really focus on my photography business! In 2021, I ended up photographing almost 200 events/sessions, and in 2o22 I have surpassed that number. In 2023, I have almost doubled how many weddings I normally book each year, and it’s crazy to think that this started just in 2020! I truly love what I do every day, and I feel that my clients really see that. It is such a rewarding job to photograph such memorable and special moments within so many lives.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My approach to photography is pretty simple. When I am working, I always think “these are the photos that these people will show to their family members, children, grandchildren etc, years and years down the road.” That thought really motivates me to photograph the session, wedding or whatever it may be the best I can! One of my favorite things I did when I was a kid was go through my parent’s old boxes of photographs from when they were younger. Seeing them as teenagers and young adults, and then seeing pictures of me when I was younger was so much fun for me. I want to make sure that other families and kids have that opportunity and to be able to look back on precious photos from this time in life.

I really love to do it all with photography. Yes, I have my niche which includes weddings, couples and elopements, but I do more seniors than any other session, lots of family sessions, events and all sorts of other things! I will truly never say no to somebody because I want that person to have special photos where they truly feel confident and love what they receive.

I feel like within my business, I make such good and honest connections with all my clients. I love seeing families grow as I photograph them in different seasons. I love being able to photograph my newly married couples who reach out wanting me to take pregnancy announcement photos, and them saying that they only want me to photograph these moments in their life. I pride myself on being a genuine photographer who truly loves each and every single on of my clients, and I’d like to think they would say the same!

When I was younger, around 18, my sister and I got photos taken professionally for my mom for her birthday. I was so excited and the photographer was amazing and so sweet! But, I was disappointed when we didn’t get as many photos back as I assumed and whole chunks of the shoot not within the final gallery. This has always been a motivation for me within my own business. I have always given my clients more then enough edited photos within their gallery. My mindset for this is simple, knowing that a photo that may be slightly different than the one before, could be the client’s absolute favorite photo. I definitely send back way more photos than I probably should, but I care about my clients, and if the photo is of my quality, I will edit it and make sure it is in their final gallery!

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

I live in a very small and tight knit town, and this really helped my jump into photography and establishing a strong clientele. I first started charging so little for photoshoots and growing my clientele this way. Once I felt like I could raise my prices, I would do so, and my clients loved their images and experience so much, they would still come back, even with the price increase. Social media has also played a huge part in growing my business. Doing giveaways to attract new followers and clients is a great way to get some clients that you may not have had before. My clients are truly the best and the reason my business is so successful today! I get so many new clients saying that they heard about me from a friend/ past client, and that’s why they chose me to photograph their session! I have built so many good connections/ friendships with my clients, and they truly are the reason why I can do what I do!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

In college, I ran my own sororities social media, and the proceeded to run the Panhellenic social media, which is the council that governs all of the sororities in the college. With this position, I got to go to a huge conference and sit in on lectures, really discussing the importance of marketing your brand. So, with my own personal photography social media, I knew I wanted to be smart about it. A lot of my couples, brides and grooms, and seniors all find me through instagram, which is who I post often. A lot of my families, maternity and newborn sessions come a lot through Facebook. Once I started noticing this, I really took advantage of that and made sure to post more of the specific session on each platform. No, I don’t have 100 thousand followers on social media, but I do have a little over 2 thousand, and I feel like we tend to forget how big that number truly is. I like the think about if I had an event and my number of followers came, which would be over 2k people, and I would think how insane that is. So, even with a smaller amount of follows, I still ran my social media for those few hundred people to see and enjoy just as I do now for my 2 thousand. I want to share not only creative and beautiful images on social media but also relatable images, and know that any person can have these moments!

Contact Info:

• Website: http://hannahlangfordphotography.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hanlangphotography/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hannahlangphotography/

Image Credits
Hannah Langford Photography