We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Abby Balluch a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Abby, thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

My partner, Marquies and I came up with the idea of Canna Brand by combining both of our passions; his being cannabis and mine being photography, we brought the two together.

All in all, when we met in 2014, I had consumed cannabis on occasion, but I was unsure about it and didn’t know very much. It all seemed to be so secretive. Back then, Marquies absolutely hated to be in front of a camera and wasn’t comfortable with it at all.

We educated ourselves about each other’s passion and we learned to feel as strongly about them as our own.

By bringing it all together, we wanted to help end the stigma through cannagraphy (Cannabis Photography). Photos of plants and people of all walks of life coming together through cannabis.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started my journey with photography as a child, always asking for the next new camera and taking pictures of anyone that would let me, once my first daughter was born in 2017, I started my photography journey and started working with other small businesses by creating content for their social platforms. I began taking on clients in 2018.

In the spring of 2018, I began working in the cannabis industry, at one of the first grows in PA. I began by scrubbing floors, trimming buds and packaging concentrates… I quickly moved up to the packaging supervisor position and began training as an assistant in the lab. Soon after that, I moved into the Fulfillment realm working alongside sales and ended up becoming the manager for that department. As we were still so new and growing, I got to dabble into product photography for the company I worked for. My images were used for marketing and to sell their products.

During this time, I was a small content creator and my daughter was a brand ambassador for many different brands… many people knew me as this amazing mom, but I felt like I was hiding a huge part of my life, my career and the medicine that helped me… so in 2019c I began advocating for cannabis on Instagram. I wanted to make a change and show people that good moms consumed cannabis too. I wanted to show people that just because you might not have liked cannabis before, there is always room for change.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Lucky for me, my business partner is also my life partner and father to our children. Funny story though, we actually met the week after high school graduation at my very first job, Buffalo Wild Wings.
We both worked in the kitchen and became inseparable every since.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Capturing other people’s lifetime memories brings me so much joy. Just knowing that in 20 plus years, what I created will continue to put a smile on their face and remind them of a moment in time, makes me so happy.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cannabrand.shop
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/abigailsydni
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Cannabrandclothing?mibextid=LQQJ4d

Image Credits
Photos by Canna Brand (Abigail Balluch)