Meet Taylor Hunter | Photographer

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

Hi Taylor, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I fell in love with the idea of journalism when I was in high school; I loved the concept of romanticizing someone’s experience, but I did not necessarily love the writing portion. When I realized that I could do the same thing with a camera, I was immediately hooked! My style of photography is documentary-inspired, meaning I take a candid approach by photographing raw moments as they are happening. I have found that this is how to capture the photographs that make people ‘feel’ the emotion of the photo, instead of taking “a pretty picture”. The goal of my business is to collaborate with people to help capture natural memories that are going to last generations.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I love referring to photography as art. What makes it so beautiful is the ability to turn “ordinary” stories into extraordinary art, just with one camera shutter. I have worked on refining my photography skills for about 7 years and came to this conclusion: every celebration in life is different to every person who celebrates it, so why would photography look the same for everybody? The whole reason goal behind my business is “photography that feels like you, because it literally is”. Cookie cutter just does not cut it anymore. The hardest part about stepping into my small business was the initial jump. It is a very intimidating thing to start something attached to you as a person, especially with very little business knowledge. My tip: you do not have to do it alone! Reach out to professionals in the areas that you do not feel comfortable about and let them do what they do! It is okay to as for help and in my case, it brought a lot of great friendships!

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 live in an area that is known for its outdoors! We would start by grabbing a coffee at Shaffer Coffee (a great local spot), then walking to Rudy’s Diner for breakfast. After some great thrifting, we’d pickup lunch to-go at Dumplins’ and head to the lake for a weekend on the water! I am a firm believer in supporting local businesses and fortunately, I live in a town full of great ones!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Many people tend to think that a small business in the creative field (like photography) is not a smart business plan on it’s own and cannot be successful, so they encourage these passions to stay a hobby. I have to recognize the two people who are the reason my love for photography blossomed. I am SO blessed to have parents who saw my passion behind the camera from a young age and whole-heartedly encouraged me to continue down that path. I have always been my own worst critic, but my parents and brother have always combatted that with love and support. I also have to thank my husband for encouraging me to take the plunge and start my own LLC; I would not feel confident without his constant cheer-leading and hand-holding the whole way. Of course, I do have to shoutout the countless friends over the years that have modeled for me and trusted me when I was so fresh in the business… practice makes perfect and there was a lot of it!

Website: https://tayannephoto.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tayannephoto/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/taylor.marden

Image Credits
Taylor Hunter | Tay Anne Photo LLC.