HANA
MEET
What Drives My Work
Creativity has always been a driving force in my life. From a young age, I explored various forms of self-expression through learning instruments, singing, songwriting, writing stories, and of course, photography. The joy of creating has always fueled me. Launching a business allowed me to step into uncharted territory where I could merge my passions, personality, and unique perspective of the world into a meaningful career. What I love most is the endless variety. No two locations, weddings, couples, or love stories are alike. The ever-changing nature of this field keeps me inspired, challenging me to push boundaries and discover new ways to tell stories from behind my lens. It's a privilege to share these moments with incredible people and to craft something that feels both unique and authentic.
Creativity
What Drives My Work
At 8 years old I entered a photo contest that I somehow ended up winning. I knew absolutely nothing about cameras or composition, but something in me recognized that a lot of my life was going to be spent behind a viewfinder. Eventually, my parents gave me a camera of my own, and I carried it everywhere. I wasn’t thinking about art or even storytelling. I just loved the way the world looked when I paused long enough to really see it.
If you had asked me what my dream job was throughout childhood and adolescence, it would have been to be a travel photographer. But if you asked me what I realistically wanted to be, the answer either varied or was simply, 'I don’t know.' I grew up in an area where the college-to-corporate funnel was the standard, and so the more 'realistic' career paths were the only ones I ever considered. The only photographers I knew were through YouTube, so I genuinely didn’t realize it was something regular people could build a career around. In my mind, it was the kind of job you had to be famous to succeed in. And so, photography stayed quietly in the background.
When my post-college plans fell through 3 months before graduation, I was left wondering what the heck I was going to do with a degree I didn't even want to use. This happened to coincide with the rise of TikTok, where I started to notice people building careers in photography. Not celebrities, not exceptions. Just people. While working my first job in marketing, I began to photograph on the side. I said yes to every opportunity, every shoot, every small moment that helped me learn. Bit by bit, I carved out space for the dream I had almost forgotten, and a year later I took the leap of following it full-time.
A lot of photographers talk about falling in love with it later in life. For me, it was the opposite. Photography was my first dream. I just didn’t know I was allowed to pursue it. And because of that, getting to do this for a living is something I will never take for granted. Every client who trusts me with their story makes this life for me possible, and I strive to carry that gratitude into every frame.
