Today we’d like to introduce you to Taylor Johnson
Hi Taylor, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story in photography started when I was a little girl. My dad always had a professional camera around and loved taking photos of our family and travels, as did my grandmother. I loved looking at photos of distant countries and cultures of people. I became obsessed with waterfalls and the smoothness photographers were able to capture. In middle school, my dad bought me my first professional camera. We immediately went out on a hiking trail for me to practice. I didn’t have any fancy equipment and I didn’t know anything at all about how to take the photos I loved to look at. The first several times I failed. Then, one day on a cloudy day, we went to Falls Park and I practiced on the waterfall in the park. It was the first time I was finally able to photograph a waterfall with that smooth professional look. I was so excited, we went out to my favorite spot at the time to practice more, Pearson’s Falls. I managed to capture the falls in the way I always dreamed. I submitted my photos to a middle school photography contest and won multiple categories! From that moment on, I knew photography was always going to be a calling of mine. As I got older, I dreamed of being a National Geographer photographer. I loved traveling, photography and everything nature. Throughout my time in college and after, I traveled extensively with my camera, documenting the scenery and my growth as a person. When I returned from my travels, I wanted to publish books on the photos I took on my journey. Within two weeks, I lost my main hard drive and my backup drive with over 30,000 photos. I was devastated and even after spending a lot of money, I still had barely any photos of my trip to show and definitely not enough to publish a book. I put my camera down, stepped away from photography and took some time to reevaluate what I wanted. A few years later, I had my first daughter. It is obviously a very life changing experience. I found my passion for photography again and while I didn’t pick up another camera again until my second daughter was born, I decided to invest in myself and start again. Instead of the extravagant trips and gorgeous landscapes, I began capturing twinkly little eyes and toothless grins. I found joy and love in preserving those moments. While I don’t travel any more, my love for photography has morphed into a passion of capturing people’s story, whether it’s for families, high school seniors, branding or headshots. Each one of these genres requires me to dive deep in to knowing who these people are and what’s important to them so I can capture that moment, that personality in a simple photo. I still take my camera with me to hike and get those amazingly smooth waterfall photos but now it’s more. Now it’s about helping grow someone’s business through story telling pictures or capturing moments in time that will turn in to generational heirlooms. That’s meaningful to me because I have that for myself. I want to share that with others.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not always been a smooth road. Loosing my photos was a major set back that led me to live years in fear of starting again with nothing. I lost my passion for a while and I know I shouldn’t have let that set back deter me from continuing. Also, coming in to an entirely different field of photography was a major learning curve I had to work on. Photographing people is different than photographing landscapes. That’s not necessarily a struggle but there were definitely many lessons along the way I had to learn.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a professional photographer and I specialize in photographing high school seniors, business branding, headshots and families.
My husband and I have also created something called The Upstate Santa Experience. It’s a 30 minute immersive portrait session with Santa. My husband and I build a fully interactive set for Santa to interact with the children. I capture photos that show the real magic and wonder children feel when meeting him. This past year we built Santa’s reindeer barn, tree farm and workshop. It took several weeks to set up but it’s worth to see the children’s faces light up when they think they’ve stepped in to Santa’s world. I’m really proud of all the hard work and effort we put in to putting the set together.
I believe what sets me a part as a photographer is focusing on the experience of it. It’s not just showing up at a location and clicking a button. It’s a lot more than that. I work closely with each client to learn more about them and what they want out of their session. I find out what they love about themselves and what they’re self conscience about so I can better suggest certain outfits or pose accordingly. I assist in selecting wardrobe and locations, professional hair and make up artistry is included and throughout the session my clients are expertly guided on posing whether they want a fully posed look or a lifestyle vibe to their portraits.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Spartanburg is such a cute little city. There are so many different places to do sessions at. Within Spartanburg you can get an urban, industrial, nature vibe all within a 20 minute range. It is easy to schedule shoots around the crowds so we are never having to contend with a madhouse of people ruining our pictures.
If I have to choose something I don’t like, I would say sometimes the cleanliness. The parks I’ve gone to, I sometimes have to give my clients disclaimers about trash or glass being all over the ground. Otherwise, I really have no complaints. I love this city and all the different vibes it has to offer.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.taylorjohnsonphotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taylorjohnson_photography_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/taylorjohnsonphotography1031
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylorjohnsonphotography/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@taylorjohnsonphotography
- Yelp: https://biz.yelp.com/biz_info/iVYa63h2NoEbp1B6YNViqQ
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorjohnsonphotography?lang=en
