Today we’d like to introduce you to Emma Leal.
Hi Emma, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
Photography is truly the only career I’ve ever known, and I feel so lucky to have fallen into something that, 14 years later, I’m still so passionate about and really love doing every single day. After graduating high school in 2010, I got my first DSLR camera which I’d been begging for. I immediately started asking my friends to do photoshoots and started taking everyone’s senior photos. This went on for several years while adding families into the mix as well. In college, I shot my first wedding on my own and felt so at home doing that, but ABSOLUTELY had so much to learn. Shooting weddings is so much more work and requires so much more knowledge about the wedding industry, not just photography than most people realize. From there, I worked for several different wedding photographers assisting and second shooting, learning all about weddings and how to properly shoot & prepare for a wedding day. In 2014, I went full-time with weddings and started to fill my calendar with my own weddings after feeling confident enough in my abilities to have my own wedding clients. My favorite thing about my photography career, and just being a photographer in general, is that I’m able to change and evolve as much as I want to! I’ve found that I’m constantly changing and tweaking my style to become better, more into the current styles and trends that people are looking for while keeping my work timeless and classic. The direction my photography takes me has evolved so much over the years as well as my life changes. When I was engaged, and the year I got married, it was SUCH a fun year for me to shoot weddings because that is exactly where I was at in my life, and I felt such a connection to the couple getting married, knowing exactly what was important to capture on their day. After getting pregnant & having my kids, I became so drawn to shooting maternity and newborn and now LOVE focusing a lot on my family clients. That’s something that is so fun for me about being a wedding photographer as a mom who loves shooting maternity & families with young kids is that I get to capture my wedding clients through their journey of life together as they get married, have children, and grow their families.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Overall, it’s been a smooth road because this is really all I’ve ever done, so I knew I had to make it work because what was my fallback plan? I only want to do this. So, I’ve made it work. Not to say that there haven’t been hard days. Financially stressful days. Scary days where I question where my work will take me – but as I’ve gotten more successful in my business, I feel that the confidence in what I do and how many people I’ve been able to serve and capture memories for the worries and fears fall to the waist side. I always want to make my clients happy – so the pressure of making sure everyone loves their photos is always there, but always worth it!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a wedding & lifestyle photographer focusing on weddings, maternity & family. After becoming a mom myself in 2020, I made the decision to work locally only to always be close to home. As much as I loved traveling for weddings before I had kids and being able to shoot in such unique and cool places, I have loved the change I’ve made for my business by staying local to SoCal for weddings. I think there’s a demand for photographers who stay local since there are so many photographers who are always traveling and not always available locally. I am able to shoot more sessions & weddings back-to-back by staying local, and also always able to come home to my kids at night. I feel proud that I’m able to put my absolute all into my business and my clients while also putting my all into my family and my kids. I was really worried when I was pregnant with my first that my business would slow down or I wouldn’t be able to take on as much as I did before, but I’m fortunate that this has not been the case (with a lot of help from the amazing family and people in our kids’ lives as well!) My perspective has shifted a lot, but in a way that has helped me see the real importance of beautiful photography, capturing such fleeting moments in our lives.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
A lot. I feel super lucky, and don’t take it for granted. I’m lucky to have a supportive family and husband who has always believed in me to pursue photography and never downplayed it being my professional full-time career. I also feel lucky to live in an area where I had such easy access to the wedding industry and wedding vendors to connect with when stepping into this business. The venues & vendors here are top notch, and having such amazing people to collab with in my early years made the process smoother and more fun!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.emmahopp.photography
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/emmahopp
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emmahopp.photography
- Other: https://g.co/kgs/97Dfcwa
Image Credits
Sydney Noelle Photo
