Meet Brandi Allen of Kansas City

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandi Allen.

Hi Brandi, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
At 18 when asked what I wanted to do or what I wanted to be after high school, photography was never in the picture. But a semester of Intro to Photography and a few art show awards carved the beginnings of a new path that I’ve chose to follow time and time again.
All throughout high school I had worked at a diner, saving up anything I made for whatever was to come in the future, and once I enrolled in the photography class in school I dove head first and spent a large chunk of my savings on a beginners camera. With the teacher I had, I listened to her lessons, took her advice, accepted her criticism, and in return she let me see my work hanging in a gallery for the town to see. I knew then that a passion for this medium had grown inside of me. I had first started with still life then soon moved to humans as my subject, photographing classmates and family and friends, then family of those friends. After high school, I did a lot of traveling with friends– hiking in Colorado, sleeping in a car to catch the sunrise at the Grand Canyon, roadtripping through the entire state of Florida –and so travel then became my next inspiration in photography. I met the love of my life during that time and once we began taking trips together, you could find me in whatever state we were in with a camera in hand. I knew that I wanted to document my life the way I experienced it.
I grew this huge passion for photography during my early adulthood, but when it came time to hire a photographer for our wedding, it was just not on my to-do list. All I wanted was a date, a place, and all our family and friends there. Back in 2019, it was about a month out from our wedding day and my mom decided to ask a friend (who did sports photography) to come an take a couple photos during the ceremony, and we have had those photos printed and hanging in our living room to this day. Then fast-forward a year later, in some way or another, I had the opportunity to start photographing weddings. When I first started second shooting weddings in 2020, I thought there was only one way to photograph a wedding and I needed to learn that specific way. Specific angles, specific poses, specific lighting. But wedding after wedding, I realized that there is no one way. Every wedding photographer is different, and will photograph a wedding based on how they see it, and how they convey it. Over time I’ve reflected on what life has presented me: love and loss, happiness and surrealness, motherhood and witnessing childhood as an adult. As each day goes by, I continuously learn from my reflections and use it towards the way I observe the subjects I’m photographing. I never want to stop growing in my photography.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Would I love it this much if it had came to me easily? Hard to say.
I became a mom in 2022, and since I still work a full-time job outside of photography, I sacrifice a lot with each wedding or session I choose to photograph. I don’t get all 52 weekends to spend with my family, and some days I feel extreme guilt for choosing that, but I know they are proud of me for doing what I love. My husband and I are working towards getting to the day I can put my full focus into photography rather than just weekends and evenings, but it just takes some time.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’ll just say that I am a photographer. A photographer at weddings. A photographer with couples. A photographer for families. I’m going on 10 years of photography being present in my life and I’m proud that I get opportunities to document the lives of others. I want my perspective and thoughts to always have an impact on the way I photograph, because once you take those out of the equation it’s all just technical and anyone can technically take a photo. You really don’t know how special a photo will be until you are digging through a keepsake box just to find it. And as much as I love photographing the lives of the people I get to meet, my favorite subjects will always be my husband and daughter, and the ways we get to live life.

Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
In the wedding industry, I see my mentor being a cumulation of all the photographers I have ever second shot for. There have been so many, and I enjoy seeing how each of them present themselves at a wedding. With any passion, I suggest you meet at least 10 people who are going after the same thing. It helps you gain perspective on your “why”.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://brandiallenphoto.myportfolio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandiallenphoto/