Community Spotlight

Susan Hagstrom has been a professional photographer for 15 years and is the woman behind the camera for Snapshots by Susan. We were fortunate to discover Susan a year ago when she featured WORKSPACE for a Small Business Saturday post on her Instagram page @igbostonsouthshore. https://www.instagram.com/p/CMowHWLL3jf/

Since we made the connection, we have hired Susan three times to shoot each of our locations. She has a great eye, knows what will catch people’s attention on social media, and is a fantastic value. Prior to starting her own business, Susan was busy taking care of her three children and also had part-time jobs substitute teaching and writing for the Hingham Journal. 

We sat down with Susan to find out more about her life and discovered that not only is she a remarkable photographer, she’s also a pretty remarkable person. If you’re in need of a photographer for a personal or professional shoot, do yourself a favor and check out Snapshots by Susan at www.snapshotsbysusan.com or contact Susan directly at susanhag@comcast.net. You will not regret it.

What's your favorite part about being a photographer?

It’s very difficult to pick my favorite part about my job but seeing my work in print or online is definitely a thrill. I find capturing special family moments for clients to be very rewarding as well.

What would be your dream job?

Right now I do a little bit of everything, and sometimes that’s fun but I think my dream job might be to work as a second shooter for an established wedding or event photographer. Then I’d get to have all of the fun but none of the pressure!

What personal or professional accomplishments are you most proud of?

Professionally, I’m proud to have established a business and keep it going and growing. I’m proud to have submitted my work to many local competitions and have been recognized at many of them throughout the years. I’m proud that I continue to learn and work to accomplish new goals. The pursuit of being a good, or dare I say great, photographer is a never-ending process!

Personally, I’m proud of many things but something of note is that I have been the captain of a Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund team for nine years. I formed the team to honor a good friend of mine who died from Multiple Myeloma but had wonderful treatment at Dana-Farber. In the past nine years, our team has raised over $230,000!

How do you think your family and friends would describe you?

How would my family and friends describe me? Oh god, I don’t know. I guess they’d say I’m funny. I hope they’d also say I’m a loyal friend and a loving wife and mother.

Tell us about something you struggled with early in your career and how you overcame it.

Being a photographer, I struggle every day. Every assignment must stand on its own merits, regardless of what has come before. Of course, early on I had to build my confidence and I have done that but even now, I’m never fully confident until I present a client with their images and see their approval. How do you overcome struggle? You meet it head-on and just keep going!