Story of the week

HP’s 10th Birthday Part 1: From the Beginning

Most of you know the story already, so I won’t go on too much! But it’s a pretty special thing to finally have the chance and purpose to properly reflect on the last 10 years. Life gets so busy and it’s easy to let things speed by without taking it all in. So in a nutshell: a 27 year old Hannah arrived home from 2 years of living in Edinburgh and working at Venture Portraits and having the time of her life! I had previously lived in Ireland and worked on cruise ships traveling the Mediterranean and Caribbean, all up totalling about 6 years overseas. It was time to come home! The goal had always been to set up my own little portrait studio ever since a careers day at school when I was 14 and was inspired by a young lady who made a presentation and spoke of her own photo studio. Something in me clicked (pun intended) and that was that! I managed to get into a bachelor of photography at JCU, Townsville and completed the course from 2002-2004. I was still only 19 when I graduated! So even though we are celebrating 10 years for the business, it’s really 20 years since I started uni and really taking steps to make my dream happen… I love that it has been a long process and there has never been anything else in the world I would rather be doing! So… May 2012, I started the process of securing a business loan, purchasing a camera, computer and studio gear and finding the house to rent for the studio in a great area. I hit the streets with a sample album and introduced myself to every local business I could, attended all community events, began networking, using social media and setting up the website. Despite my efforts, when I opened the doors on August 3rd 2o12, I had precisely zero customers in the first month! Slowly but surely it began to build, mainly because of some incredible people that took me under their wing and really helped spread the word (I will have some dedications in these 10 weeks don’t you worry)… We moved into our little shop on the corner in December 2013 and stayed for 5 amazing years! This is where I met Charlie, the cat, Nic my husband, and Olivia, the best studio manager in the world. After a wedding and honeymoon, I needed a change so we moved to Annerley for 3 years and Angela joined the team! And now, as you know, we have landed in our favourite spot yet – our dream “forever studio” and nearly two years in, it is definitely the perfect place for us and George the GSP has also joined us. So that’s it in a nutshell! Please follow our social media posts as I will be sharing some interesting and funny highlights from the archives. This is incredibly cathartic for me, but I also hope it sparks some memories for you too and inspires you to sit down and reflect. A decade is a long time but it goes by in a flash!