About us

ABOUT US:

Brian and I first met at a party. Not the all out, drunken mess that you think of when you imagine some sort of frat party, but just a regular gathering of friends that was always super open invite that I happened to organize every week for about a year after I first moved up to Wisconsin. You see, I'm originally from Georgia and moved up here in late August 2002 to be a part of a 9 month program at the church that we are still an active part of. Anyway, Brian walked into this party with his sister and two of their friends. There was something different about him, something that I couldn't quite put my finger on, but I was strangely drawn to become his friend. Brian walked in, a super shy guy and sheepishly asked me if anybody would care if he took pictures. He had just bought a Canon 10D and wanted to try it out. I shrugged and said, "Sure."

He instantly became a hit at that party, taking all kinds of fun, candid photos and becoming more comfortable as he did it. There was a girl there that he was particularly interested in, one that he saw from across the room and knew that there was something different about her. That girl was me! The thing is, I'm not really into dating without a purpose, and that purpose should only end up in marriage. I'm kind of old fashioned that way. So even though I knew that he liked me, I didn't give in right away. Even with his now classic line, "So, what do you do when you're not...here?" The thing is, even though I didn't encourage him, I didn't discourage him, either. I gave him my phone number and got his so I could let him know about the next party that was going on, and a friendship was born. He showed up to church that Sunday and then kind of followed me around after that. We went to a coffee shop way later than we should have and hung out. Brian rode with the guys and I rode with the girls. Lisa, his sister, asked me if I liked guys with strawberry blonde hair and freckles. I told her I would get back to her on that. But, we still had fun and ended up hanging out every single night for months. Slowly, it ended up going from groups of us all hanging out to somehow we were the only ones still hanging out, and a deep friendship was born.

It was out of that deep friendship that I slowly started to feel more for this slightly awkward, totally random guy that could talk for hours on end about anything and everything. We talked about life, God, our hopes and dreams, our past, and slowly but surely, I realized that in all of his pursuing of me, I was finally being caught. It scared me at first. I didn't want a relationship. I wasn't looking for one. But there was something about Brian that kept me answering the phone when he would call, agreeing to hang out, and wanting to get to know more about him. Eventually, we decided to start dating, and three months after that, he asked me to marry him. We planned our wedding for May 22nd, 2005, just a year and three weeks after we first met. We have been best friends ever since.

Brian continued to take photos the whole time that we were dating and into our marriage. He would never show up without his camera and our whole dating experience is documented. We would go up to some of the clubs up in Milwaukee and he got noticed by a little startup company called ClubMilwaukee.com and got his first paying gig taking pictures of people on the dance floor and posting them to the website the next day. It really gave Brian the experience of getting right in the midst of the action and taking photos, and gave him the foundation for his reception shots.

Eventually, my roommate at the time started dating someone, as well, and they ended up getting married two weeks after we did. Because Brian was always taking pictures of them anyway, they asked if he would mind taking their wedding photos. He agreed to do it for a ridiculously small amount of money, but they were friends and it was his first wedding, so why not? He took 4000 photos that day and painstakingly edited every single one of them, but in the end, they turned out amazing. He realized that he actually really enjoyed taking wedding photos. He got to hang out with everyone the whole day and capture them in a way that no one else had been able to.

That summer, a lot of other friends of ours ended up getting married, as well, and he ended up doing all of their photos, too. Eventually, people we didn't know were contacting us to take photos. We realized that we needed to get things together and make something of this. So, we launched our first website made by our brother in law, and began to be recognized and booked for other events. In so many ways, we did everything backwards compared to the way that you're "supposed" to do it, but we didn't care. We made some amazing friendships and got some great photos.

Brian always took me along with him to the weddings. It just kind of made sense. I was there to help him change lenses, keep up with family shots, and be the behind-the-scenes person who knew what was going on and kept him informed. One day, I was with him at a wedding and he was taking pictures of the bride and groom driving away in their getaway car, a fixed up Volkswagon Beetle that the groom's father had been working on. Brian was getting some shots from the front of the bride and groom kissing, but I saw a different story from the back. You could see all their facial expressions and I liked my angle better. I was starting to see things in the same way that Brian did, and I really wanted to get my perspective, as well. So, I grabbed his extra camera and captured those photos. In that one moment, my photos actually told more of the story than his did, and he decided from then on that I would always have a camera in my hand, as well. I still like to be the behind the scenes person, I just have a camera slung over my shoulder, as well, and will capture the candid moments in between. Brian is still there and is still the main shooter, but I am able to get those shots when people aren't focused on me. I get a second perspective, and I love it. It's what has taken us from just Brian Cowen Photography to Brian Cowen Photography - A Husband and Wife Team. We always have been, but now it's more official.

Now, 8 years later, we have over 250 weddings under our belt and loads of experience when it comes to weddings. We have traveled everywhere from Georgia, Florida, Massachusetts, southern Illinois, western Wisconsin, and even England on three different occasions. We have also been venturing out into doing more portraiture/lifestyle kind of photos. We love shooting families, maternity, seniors, and couples. We've also been known to do a few corporate headshots. What we realized through all of this is that we love taking pictures of people. We love the interaction that comes from that. We love to capture love and present it to you in a beautiful package that you can enjoy for years to come.