Today we’d like to introduce you to Regina Hyman.
Hi Regina, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I fell in love with photography as a child, running through 35mm film constantly. I always new I wanted to be a photographer. Something about being able to capture a moment in time and knowing you can save that memory forever has always been fascinating to me. I attended photography school at the Hallmark Institute of Photography in Turners Falls, MA. Immediately after graduating I packed my bags and moved to Orlando to follow my dreams of becoming a Wedding photographer for Disney Fairytale Weddings. I worked for the Disney Fine Art Photography team as a contract photographer for nearly seven years. In that time, I photographed over 1 thousand Disney weddings as well as special events.
During this time, I also was in pursuit of the ultimate dream, which was to have my own business. I gradually built up my own photography business while I was still working for Disney until the day came when I decided I was ready to go full time into business for myself. During this time, I also was blessed to marry my best friend and forever love of my life, Gary! He has always been my biggest supporter in life and he was also ready to leave his full-time job as a Hotel Manager and join me in business. We set out to create our own dream of being able to work together and enjoy every second of this life on earth together. We both love photography and have an extreme passion for weddings and telling love stories through the lens. We have been working full-time together in our business since 2012 and loving every second of it! Sure there have been some stressful times, as there is in any business. However we wouldn’t change a thing, we work hard at something we not only love but loving doing together.
We enjoy making other people happy and knowing that what we do each day has a lasting impact on their lives. We cherish the relationships we build with each of our clients and we are forever grateful they chose us to be their photographers. We have grown our business in different ways over the years and through trial and error, we continue to grow and learn. We also had a photo booth business for five years, which was a success in the beginning until the wedding trends changed, so we sold the photo booth and just continued to focus on photographing weddings. We have expanded to also offer cinema packages and we have an amazing team of cinematographers that work for us. We love being able to collaborate with our cinema team and be able to offer the client everything they need to capture their day perfectly through their photos and cinema. The Pandemic was a very scary time when suddenly all of our spring/summer 2020 weddings had to be cancelled and half of our fall weddings as well. However, we remained determined throughout this entire pandemic that we would not let this destroy us, and not only would we survive but we were determined to thrive!
We can proudly say that we did survive and our business is continuing to grow. It has taken much creativity and a different approach in marketing as the world has changed so much over this past year. We are thankful that we have brought on a wonderful team of Associate Photographers that are working for us on weddings as well. This way, Gary and I can be shooting a wedding and we can also have our Associate Photographers out shooting a different wedding at the same time along with our Cinema teams being able to cover multiple weddings as well. We have kept our team small for now as we are firm believers in quality over quantity. We want to be sure that each and every client will have a high-quality personalized experience with us and our team. We are so grateful for all that we have and that we both made the decision back in 2012 to take a leap of faith in leaving our full-time jobs to pursue this dream. It is worth all the hard work and we can truly say we love what we do.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The wedding industry is continuously changing. There are always more and more photographers entering the market and of course that brings more competition. We have focused our business on not just promoting locally but also promoting ourselves as worldwide destination photographers. We will travel anywhere to photograph a wedding and we absolutely love to travel! So this has broadened our opportunities greatly. Over he years, we have photographed in 9 different states as well as Internationally in Canada and England. Social media is probably one of the biggest game-changers in how the industry and marketing has changed. Often times now protentional clients are more likely to view your Instagram rather then your website. These changes have taken some adaptation on our end as we did not grow up in an age of social media and when we started out in business social media was not nearly as prominent as it is now in the world. However we are continually developing, learning and growing with these ever changing trends.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
We love people and getting to know them. Building personal relationships with all of our clients is a high priority in our business. From the time a client books we are working on building that relationship all through their wedding planning process so that when it comes to the wedding day they can feel like we are their friends and part of the family. By doing this it not only leads to a better experience for the client but it is also enjoyable for us. We are able to capture the true essence of our clients and their relationship by the fact that they feel comfortable with us and can be their true selves in front of the camera. We make sure that our clients enjoy the process of having photos taken. We believe not only in providing beautiful photos that will last for generations to come but also in providing a fun experience that will last as a memory from their special day.
Prior to a wedding we make sure to memorize all of the wedding party and immediate family members names. This way we can refer to them by their names and it makes everyone feel so comfortable with us, which leads to great photos and a personalized experience for not just the bride and groom but also for their family and friends. Another thing that sets us apart from others is that we edit all the images ourselves. We do not out source the editing as many other photographers do. We feel that since we captured the photos and know the client, their personality and what they like, we we can provide the best quality of editing on their images. We do everything we can to make each interaction with our clients a personalized and memorable experience.
What are your plans for the future?
We look forward to each new year to come and the opportunities ahead. We are excited for some of the new wedding venues we will be photographing at this coming year which always sparks new creativity within us! Of course we love to travel so we are excited for all the new destinations ahead and the wonderful people we will meet along the way. One of the things we love most about what we do is that we stick with our clients for life. After their wedding day we are still a part of their lives and we look forward to seeing their life and family grow. We always get excited to photograph a past bride and groom as they have children and become a family. There are no major changes in the future of our business as of now. We just strive to always be our best at what we do. By doing so we know the future will have many more great things to come.
Contact Info:
- Email: reginahymanphoto@gmail.com
- Website: www.reginahymanphoto.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reginahymanphoto/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reginahymanphotography
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ReginaHyman34
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/reginahyman/
Image Credits:
Regina Hyman Photography & Cinema
