Meet Annie Shannon | Accessible Intimate Wedding & Elopement Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Annie Shannon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Annie, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
I wouldn’t say I came up with the idea. I am a Christian and I firmly believe God is the one who inspired this idea for my business. I was a missionary over seas and when I came back I had nothing but a camera to my name. I quickly discovered my passion in photographing intimate weddings and elopements, but something else was missing. When I was taking a marketing course, I discovered that who I was marketing to was not my ideal client as I have severe asthma and can’t hike miles. When talking to my coaches, I was encouraged to learn into it, that God could use me despite asthma, and thus, photographing accessible weddings and elopements has become part of my business and I love it!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
What sets my work apart from others is not just my photography, but rather my service as a whole.

Every photo session is tailored to the story as well as the needs of the couple I am photographing.

Whether it be that I scout for a location that is wheelchair accessible, a trail that is easier to navigate, that I code alt text in to every photo for a client who is seeing impaired to enjoy the photos or that I hire a sign language interpreter for my hearing impaired clients, I do what I can to make the photo session, or wedding photography experience more enjoyable to them.

I will say, it’s challenging, I have never seen anyone specialize in making photography accessible before, so this is new territory and redoing my website, all the materials I give couples when they book me is time consuming, but it’s so worth it.

Being able to combine my art with serving people is one of the biggest blessings in my life and I hope and pray that my work inspires:

1) people with all needs and abilities to tell their stories so that they too can inspire others

2) business owners to make their business more accessible

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If someone was visiting from out of town, first thing I would do is invite them out to my farm for authentic Mexican food made by my in-laws and to see our animals. The next day, I would take them to Denton Square to see all the little shops and enjoy some Mexican Hot Chocolate from Zera Coffee. From there, I would give them the choice between the Fort Worth Stockyards, or the Museums in either Fort Worth or Dallas because if you come to Denton, might as well visit the bigger cities too! In Dallas we would go get some of Val’s Cheesecake because Val is a dear friend of my father’s and he makes the BEST cheesecake, no contest. If we ended up going to Fort Worth, we would go to the closest Babes Chicken House. On Sunday we would attend church together at my home church, C3 Denton and have lunch at Thai Square.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are a few people who have helped me get where I am today:

Jillian Zamora- who taught me how to run a candid photo session

J.W. Daniels- who taught me how to use my camera and Lightroom

Lauren Apel- who inspired me to try photography

Evie McLeod and Lindsey Roman- the founders of The Heart University. Their courses and podcasts as well as their intentionality have pushed me to pursue a serving others based business model.

Website: www.AnnieShannon.co

Instagram: https://instagram.com/annieshannon.co

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/annieshannonco

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/theannieshannonco/

Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC62tMYHwGgytKdUqSyOGx1A