Meet Shannon Cotten | Owner/Photographer at Tall Cotten Photography

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

Hi Shannon, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
This is a special one for me. Before being a photographer, I worked in an insurance office. I loved my job and I loved the ladies that I worked with. Photography was my side hustle, doing it on the weekends and occasional week days. Photography was my passion. I knew that this is what I wanted to do forever. I spent a lot of time in prayer, asking God to show me some signs of when to take this full time and tell my boss to stop giving me a pay check every week without fail. I was shown lots of signs, but I just was too scared. Then, my husband and I found out that we were unexpectedly pregnant with our fourth little one. We thought we were done having kids, but surprise! So this was my official wake up to make the leap. I left my insurance job 3 weeks before he was born and started taking on sessions again when he was 5 weeks old, and I haven’t looked back since. I never in a million years would have imagined that this dream that I had would turn into a full fledged career and allow me to be able to help provide for my family while doing something that I absolutely LOVE!

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.
Photographers are everywhere. It’s a saturated market, that’s no doubt. So it is not easy to stand out in the crowd. I have learned to truly embrace community over competition for every sense of those words. When I first started out, I talked to any photographer that would talk back to me. I asked questions. I offered to help them so that I could learn from them. Not all were receptive to that. So that is something that I pride myself in doing. I love helping and teaching. I don’t want anyone to be afraid to ask me questions. There are clients for everyone, and if I am not the style that someone is looking for, that’s okay! There are many other photographers that may be. I also enjoy having relationships built with other local photographers to be able to send referrals to and they send referrals to me. If I am not available on the date that a client needs, I want to be able to send them to someone else that has a similar style as me and I know they will be taken care of. So, I think what sets me a part from the crowd, is my ability to work well with others and also my use of light and big, bold colors.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
First we would have to start out for breakfast at our local small town cafe, The Roost. My favorite thing there is the avocado toast with an over medium egg added on top. I would try to time our trip based around the first of the month so that we could then make the 20 minute drive over to Canton Trade Days and spend hours and hours at the GIANT flea market. I find LOTS of my photo props from here! The best part is at the very back, the ‘junk’ stuff. While I like all of the crafts and things on the inside, the junk has my heart! Of course we would have to have a giant cup of fresh lemonade there and try ALLLLLL the food from the vendors. Maybe we should skip breakfast this day, so we can have extra room for the food at First Monday. Ha! Then, before heading home we could go to Tara Winery and enjoy some local wines while overlooking the vineyard and beautiful plantation home on the property. If there’s room in our tummies for more, they have some great seasonal foods and desserts. To end the night, my favorite thing is to just do a little back porch sitting. I could never live in the city because there’s no greater escape to me than to simply go sit on my back porch and take in the silence.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My parents are a HUGE part in my success. I come from a long background of creatives. Just in a different genera of creativeness. My grandfather, Dewey Groom, owned The Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, a famous night club in the 70s. Anyone who was anyone played at The Longhorn. Names from George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline and many, many others. My dad, Junior Knight, was in the house band and played steel guitar. He married the bosses daughter even though people said it wouldn’t work. Here they are 43 years later! I dabble in music, but my creative side came out more in the form of photography. My parents always pushed me to pursue my dreams and never stop learning and creating, especially my mom who is known for being a bit eccentric and taking the path less traveled. There’s also this other guy that lives with me and puts up with my crazy. My amazing husband Brandon. He constantly reminds me that investing in myself is a good thing to do. I am the most frugal person on the planet, so when he sees me eyeing a new lens, a new camera or even a new camera bag, he reminds me that it’s okay to spend the money for myself and my business. He is always down for my crazy ideas, even when I put him to work to help build a setup or pickup the next prop that I bought on marketplace. I couldn’t have done any of this without my amazing support system and to them I am forever grateful.

Website: www.tallcottenphotography.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/tallcottenphotography

Facebook: www.facebook.com/tallcottenphotography

Other: @tallcottenphoto on TikTok

Image Credits
The photo of me should be credited to Gentry’s Photography