Meet Raven Kendall | Photographer & Content Creator

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

Hi Raven, putting aside the decision to work for yourself, what other decisions were critical to your success?
I think what’s made my business so successful is making the decision to live by the saying “do it scared”. Instead of allowing traditional approaches to limit me on what I can do, I take a different approach by doing what truly motivates/drives me and sparks my creativeness regardless if i’m scared of the outcome/potential backlash I could receive. I approach every opportunity with the mindset that if I allow fear to take over, I’ll never experience new things or grow.

Please tell us more about your work. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about. How did you get to where you are today professionally. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way. What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?
I think what sets me apart from other photographers is that I don’t allow myself to be categorized into a box, I do a little bit of everything ranging from portraits, events, concerts, to weddings. I also don’t create surface photos just to get an income. In every photo shoot that I do, I strive to capture the raw and genuine emotion. I want my work to really tell a story, to be something people truly love and can feel the emotion through looking at the photo. I’m most proud of how far i’ve come in just three years, I never limited myself on the opportunities I accepted and that has really allowed me to grow and experience a ton. I ended up becoming a Tour Photographer/Content Creator for a well known TikTok group called Law No Order. This allowed me to travel a ton and meet a ton of people, which has helped me expand my work to a wider audience! It also led me to working with a ton of other “TikTok Creators” and really get my name out there. It definitely wasn’t easy, it was actually terrifying but the saying I live by is “do it scared” and by doing that it’s really helped me break out of my comfort zone. A huge lesson that I learned is to be careful of who you trust because not everyone has pure intentions and sometimes wants to use you for what they can get, a hard lesson but a much needed one. The only thing i’ve ever wanted out of this career is to really help people capture those special times wether that be family photos, couples, events, or just creative solo portraits that help build peoples confidence/help them see themselves in a different light. I want my work to tell a story and not just one that the people in the photos see but anyone who looks at the photos can see.

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.
I would start off by taking them to Laguna Beach to visit and shop. Visiting local art galleries like Marlon Holden and eating at Mozambique, The Cliff, and getting drinks at The Rooftop Lounge. Show them all the touristy spots in Los Angeles like Griffith Observatory, Franklin Canyon Park, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Beverly Hills. I would end it off by taking them on a little weekend trip to Salton Sea/Salvation Mountain to see the unique atmosphere and then to Julian to explore their little town/the beautiful mountain views and stop by Julian Pie Co because their pies are absolutely phenomenal.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Cody Smith definitely deserves this recognition. I actually met Cody through instagram but he’s a TikTok creator “Comedic Cody” that I watched and was a fan of. On instagram they have an option to do these “questions & answers” which allows me to post and have the folks that follow me ask anything they want and i’ll answer it. One of those questions was “if you could work with any creator, who would it be?” and I answered Cody because his content made me laugh and get through a really dark time of my life. Cody ended up reaching out and we did a photoshoot, which lead to another photoshoot that ended up being on his comedy tour. He’s helped open doors to some really amazing opportunities by advocating/recommending me for a lot of things. The support he’s shown not just in my career but personally has been amazing and something I never saw coming. Throughout all of this he has turned into one of my closest friends and I couldn’t be more thankful for everything he’s done for me.

Website: kendallgrovephoto.mypixieset.com

Instagram: instagram.com/kendallgrovephoto

Facebook: facebook.com/kendallgrovephoto

Other: Concert instagram is @ravenkphoto

Image Credits
All photos are mine except the personal photo (headshot) which is by Cassidy O Photos