Meet Taylor Emery

We recently connected with Taylor Emery and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Taylor, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

I really love this question. I get my work ethic from my parents without a doubt. Growing up, my dad would work 6 or 7 days a week – early mornings to late nights just to provide for us and be sure we had everything we wanted and needed. My mom stayed home with my older sister and I my entire childhood until we were in 2nd and 5th grade. Even then, she was in the school district so she was able to pick us up from school and spend afternoons carting us all around to dance, soccer, swimming, you name it. Everything my parents did was for us. I think in starting this business my main goal was to create something not only I was proud of, but in some way, reflected my appreciation for all they had done. My focus on motherhood and families is no coincidence. I am so passionate about it because of the foundation I grew up with.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Totally! So I started this business back in 2022. I had always really loved photography. I was always taking photos on my phone of my favorite subject (my husband) and of all the places we have traveled together over the years. I had a digital camera growing up and took MANY terrible photos on there that I loved. I never really saw it as a path forward, though. I did what I thought I was supposed to. I went to college, studied marketing at LIM college in NYC, had many internships that I couldn’t wait to be over (even the really awesome ones) and graduated in 2019 feeling truly unsettled about my future. I got a job at a local startup based in Morristown, NJ and as we all know, a few months into working my first job, March 2020 rolled around. I was now working from home in my PJs everyday feeling unfulfilled. I bought myself a Canon Rebel T7 with the kit lenses and thus began an unbelievable journey.

I took photos mostly of nature and landscapes and in early 2022 I decided I wanted to expand to photograph people. I took any job I could really get my hands on. Birthday parties, baptisms, headshots, you name it, I was doing it! I said from the beginning that I did not want to focus on newborns because I was terrified, honestly. They are so tiny and fragile and I wasn’t in a position to pose little ones in tightly wrapped swaddles and lighting them with studio lighting, which was the only type of newborn photography I had seen at the time. I discovered lifestyle newborn photography which I saw as really authentic. I go to new parents’ homes and use natural light to capture the sweet and genuine moments that exist in the first couple of weeks of bringing a new life into the world. It is truly such a gift to be a part of these moments. I offer these lifestyle sessions in the form of maternity, motherhood and family sessions, as well, all while maintaining the goal of creating images that truly reflect where families are in their journey and the connection and uniqueness that each family has.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Empathy, Passion and Determination.

A tremendous amount of empathy is needed for this job. You are in people’s personal space and capturing them at a really vulnerable time. There is a lot that goes along with motherhood and while I am not a mother myself, my ability to empathize, listen and educate myself to be able to provide insight is a big reason my clients feel comfortable and open up to me. For someone just starting this journey, I encourage you to feel the weight of the work. I don’t feel as though it should bog you down and take you out of the moment, but you should move with intention and be a listening ear. These people are trusting you with an unbelievably special job and that should be understood.

It should go without saying that having passion for the work is huge. It is not as simple as picking up the camera and clicking a button. The work is really quite difficult and requires a lot of ongoing learning. I hope to never be done learning about this profession and all of its nuances. It excites me to create and I would really do it for free (if I didn’t have to you know, feed myself and put a roof over my head) and I think that is the barometer for if this is for you long-term. Ask yourself the hard questions early on. Do I love this enough to sacrifice security of a steady paycheck? Do I love people enough to communicate with them frequently before, during and after the job? Do I love learning about this thing enough to overcome challenges that will inevitably be faced? If the answers are yes, then the rest will come in time with hard work and lots of passion for the job.

Of course determination is huge and sort of goes hand-in-hand with passion. A lot of big and scary things come with people a self-employed person. Believing in yourself is of paramount importance. Other people can only clap for you so much, doing it for yourself becomes increasingly important as you become better and better. Outside noise and support is helpful to some degree but the ability to pull yourself out of waves of imposter syndrome and move forward even when it’s hard has been something I struggle with! I want other people to love my work, who doesn’t?! But silencing that a bit and asking “do I love the art I am creating?” and answering truthfully has been massive in my development. My best advice for when the sneaky moments of self doubt or lack of determination inevitably pop up is to throw yourself into educational resources and practice A LOT. It boosts confidence almost immediately and reminds you why you started this journey to begin with. You’ve got this!!

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

This could sound silly but the most impactful thing they did was show up. Like I said before, I am not a parent, but I think parents are really hard on themselves when in my head a lot of what parenting is is just being there. Your kid trusts you and loves you implicitly and won’t remember the “mistakes” you live with. Your kid will remember that you put them in soccer and dance class and swimming and then could be bothered to go to the games and the meets and even the practices! They still reach out to tell me how beautiful my photos are every time I post anything and cheer on every single milestone. It showed me that unconditional love is really just simple at the end of the day – it’s showing up when it is hard or inconvenient and rooting on your loved one.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://burkatphotography.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/burkatphotography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/burkatphotography
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/burkatphotography/