Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sydney Dahl. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Sydney, appreciate you joining us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Many people think that my job as a photographer is to simply take photos. Across the industry, we all have different styles and ways of conducting business, and some people do believe that their sole job as a photographer IS to take photos and capture memories. I think that statement could not be further from the truth. The reality is that the photos should not be the main focus as a photographer, but instead the photographer should be entirely focused on the clients: their experience, their emotions, and their story.

As a photographer, I believe my main priority and my biggest job is to provide an unforgettable, comfortable, authentic experience for my couples. The photos are simply a byproduct of the incredible time we have together. My goal is to take the focus away from the camera and the pressure of capturing great photos, and instead turn the client’s attention onto their story and their relationship. How do I do this? I ask intuitive questions. I have them hold each other as they would normally, and I don’t force them into fancy poses. I invite their emotion and joys and sorrows into our space so that we can capture their relationship as it is in that moment.

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 name is Sydney. I am a 23 year old adventure elopement and wedding photographer that happened to start a business in high school. I was never the person that “always knew they wanted to be a photographer” and instead, this passion and career fell into my lap by happenstance. I picked up a used camera at 15 and never looked back. I shot my first wedding at 18, and I am currently in my 6th year as a wedding photographer. I now travel the country to shoot weddings for wild, adventurous couples who crave something different, and who value their experience together over throwing huge parties to impress.

In recent years, I discovered my calling was to celebrate love surrounded by nature, and accompany couples on their adventure of a lifetime. Today, my business is focused on capturing love in epic places like national parks and forests, or any place they feel free and wild. I am proud that I have successfully marketed and started booking elopement clients out west despite starting out as a traditional wedding photographer.

Tailored to you and your story. Every experience with me is unique and different, as my work and our time together is inspired by nature and your own organic moments. I am the perfect photographer for the couples who value spontaneity and the in-between moments…

BUT, it’s not just epic photos. I am here to:
+ Help you through the planning process, find vendors, and help you create the perfect day that feels like YOU.
+ Provide custom location recommendations (and backups) and be your adventure guide as you choose the perfect spot to say “I do.”
+ Help to secure all required permits needed to get married or shoot in public areas.
+ Work with you to create the most epic, perfect timeline that fits the vision of your dream day.
+ Be your hype woman and allow your love to be the focus of the day.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

This is such a fun question. My biggest takeaway from being a creative business owner is that when you fall into routine, you lose your creativity. Creativity is what fuels the authentic, emotion-filled, galleries that I deliver. I have struggled with this loss of creativity in the past as my business started to become transactional. For example, the couple asks for my wedding packages, I send them, they book, I shoot, I deliver. My job became such a routine, that I lost my creativity and started to burn out. This is when I knew I had to make a change and pivot my business to combine my passion of being in the outdoors with my passion of telling stories rather than just “taking photos.” I noticed a huge change in the type of client I was attracting and how much more excited and pumped up I was to show up for work everyday (hiking, kayaking, going on adventures with couples in amazing places while capturing their love).

So all of that to say, my goal and mission in my creative journey as an elopement photographer is to always approach each couple with a new blueprint and process leading up to their wedding to avoid the “soul sucking” routine.

To do this, I send questionnaires and hop on zoom calls to get to know the couple. I invest my time and energy into getting to know their love story and how I can accurately be their storyteller. I do ample amounts of research to find the perfect locations in nature for them to say “I do.” And you know what happened once I put this goal in my head? I formed relationships and bonds with my couples, which made me that much more excited to be with them on their wedding days. My clients are never transactions anymore. Every single love story is different, and I am allowed to see different perspectives and details, and I am able to be creative and create art on every wedding day in order to best tell the couple’s story through images.

My mission will always be to show up and capture an elopement in a way that highlights their love and the nature around them, so that they can look back at their album and really see and feel their wedding day all over again every time their flip through the photos.

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

I am going to be honest here. I hate social media. It can be such a dark and lonely place full of comparison and bad news and drama, but I have to use it to be successful as a Gen-Z photographer. I can’t believe I just called myself that, but we all know how us young people are addicted to social media.

I started my instagram account 2 years into my business. I was truly too scared to put my work out for everyone to see, but the outcome has been incredible. I currently have almost 3,000 followers on instagram, which is not a crazy amount compared to many others, but to me that is 3,000 people that have chosen to follow along on my journey and support my work. I used to get almost all of my clients from instagram and word of mouth. Recently, most of my clients come from google ads, but I’d love to share how I first built my audience on instagram.

I posted…a lot. Like every day! I interacted with and shared other people’s work. I followed clients and kept in contact. From there, I started to use hashtags and geotags on my posts so that people could find me by searching specific tags like #minnesotaweddingphotographer. Most of my clients came from those hashtags! Instagram is basically a baby google for photos. I kept interacting and being active, and the followers grew. Today, I don’t put much effort into my Instagram, because my clients don’t come from there anymore. Instead, I show up when I can and don’t put much pressure on being perfect on social media anymore. Once I started to use social media as a connection tool and not a way to gain followers or clients, it is not draining anymore and I actually like using the app.

My biggest tips for building an audience on social media:
1. Create a content schedule. Decide when you want to post and have those posts and captions formatted so that all of the pressure is off.
2. Use hashtags and locations to reach your dream clients.
3. Formulate every post or story as if you are talking to your dream client.
4. Hire a virtual assistant if you hate social media, like me. I currently outsource some of my social media, like pinterest, to a virtual assistant (shout out to CP Productivity), and it has changed my life and opened up so much time for me to work on other passions.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sydneybreann.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sydneybreannphoto/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sydneybreannphoto
• Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/sydneybreannphoto/

Image Credits
Me (Sydney Breann Photography)