Through the Lens of Love. Capturing An Everlasting Capsule: By Claire Hadler!
I met Claire Hadler two years ago and have been captivated by her outlook on life and love ever since. Claire has an innate ability to effortlessly capture moments of love, life, and light - details that many photographers often miss. She is humble and carries herself with such grace, which allows her to be fully present in every moment. Her attention to detail, intricacy, and intimacy is something that cannot be replicated by any other photographer. Her photographs create a vast mosaic of love for life, woven together so beautifully.
Below, I had the opportunity to delve deeper into Hadler’s process, exploring her visions, inspirations, and creative approach.
Uncovering Claire’s personal life and understanding of how she fell in love with photography was intimately beautiful. Here’s what she had to say!
Your work feels deeply intentional and intimate. What personal values or life experiences most influence the way you document love stories?
Growing up, my parent’s and grandparent’s photo albums were frequented by my little hands very often. I felt like I could get to know them in a deeper way by witnessing frozen moments of their lives from years ago. Photographs connect people across generations. So this is what I think of on a wedding day. I am not only creating images for my couple, their family, or their friends, but also for future generations that are not here yet to witness these moments. I deeply resonate with calling my photographs “heirlooms” as that is exactly what I strive for them to be. Heirlooms meant to be passed down, and these heirlooms are reminders of the unexplainable emotion that exists on a wedding day.
When did you first fall in love with photography? Was there a defining moment when you realized it was something you wanted to pursue seriously?
I have adored creating ever since I was a little girl. What started as drawing picture books and making American Girl Doll stop-motion videos on YouTube eventually turned into being the highschool yearbook photographer and spending weekends taking photos of my friends. I will always have deep craving to create, and in this time of my life, I relate most to creating through the medium of photography.
I fell in love specifically with weddings in college. I live for the buzz of the day, the rare air, and the emotions that float through every part of the day. Creativity has always been something I adored, yet because of pressures from the world, I never thought I could turn something I loved into a career. Practicality was preached to me for as long as I can remember, and failure always seemed to loom over the careers I dreamed about.
However when push came to shove, I would much rather have tried and failed than being stuck in a bleak profession. So I tried. And here I am, six years into my business, ByClaireHadler, and over two years of going full time & creating my dream job and little life on the island of O’ahu. Your dreams are so achievable, and I will encourage anyone to fight for them to become a reality.
Hadler’s thought and creative process is something truly magical. The intimacy and love she feels and shows to her clientele is rare and meaningful!
You emphasize that meaningful photography begins long before the camera comes out. How do you emotionally connect with a couple ahead of a shoot, and how does that connection shape the way you capture their love?
Everyone would probably agree that to tell a story well, you need research, background, and context. That’s exactly what I try to understand long before I ever walk into a wedding day. A couple’s love is so much more than them. It’s the love that came before them, whether from parents, grandparents, lifelong friends, or new friends. I begin building that understanding by truly getting to know my couples through phone calls, in-person meetings, a session before the wedding, countless voice memos, and intentionally learning their family dynamics and relationships.
Walking into a wedding day is like entering an alternate universe where nothing about my personal life matters. I step into this rare day where a couple has all of their favorite people in one place, something that may never happen again. I lose myself in their people, their joy, their history, and their love. That emotional immersion allows me to be honest and accurately convey what their love looks and feels like.
At the end of the day, a wedding gallery is a big puzzle put together by hundreds of pieces (photos), that swing you right back into the moment of the fleeting air of a wedding day.
How do you approach capturing love as something timeless - an “everlasting capsule” of a moment - rather than just a single snapshot in time?
In the wedding industry, it is so easy to get swept up into trends, popular poses, and design choices that are bound to change with time. While none of these elements are inherently bad, my goal as a photographer is to send my couples off with images that feel timeless and deeply personal, often moments we could have never planned.
Most of my favorite photographs come from paying attention instead of posing.
I once caught the bride’s father and the groom’s father helping each other get ready, lint rolling each other’s suits, which eventually turned into them jokingly lint rolling each other’s bald heads. Something I could have never planned, haha! Of course, I’ll be there to direct and get lovely portraits with ease, but wow, I also deeply adore those unconventional, unpredictable moments that reflect the love, humor, and humanity of the day.
Love can be subtle, quiet, and fleeting. What are the small moments or details you’re most drawn to that you feel best express love visually?
Oh so many. As mentioned above, playing “fly on the wall” is my favorite thing to do. I step back and let moments happen. This makes way for me to snipe those tears that will quickly be swept away. The hand squeeze that will last only one second. The head thrown back in laughter. The bare feet dancing in the rain. The moments are endless, and gosh that’s what makes my job so fun!!!
As you can tell, Claire Hadler is truly sunshine in human form. Her love radiates from her being and soul, pouring directly into the work and art she creates. Her talent is pure magic. Her eye for timeless detail is rare in a world constantly shifting with trends and cycles. A storyteller like Hadler is a gift -someone who captures not just images, but the very essence of life and love.
With all my love,
Brejette Nepa
