Meet Taylor Collins

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Taylor Collins. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Taylor, so great to have you with us and thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with the community. So, let’s jump into something that stops so many people from going after their dreams – haters, nay-sayers, etc. We’d love to hear about how you dealt with that and persisted on your path.

If I’m honest, I listened to the people that said that I would never be successful for most of my life. I’ve always heard things differently and could tell that I had a different relationship with music and sound than the people around me. This didn’t sit well with a lot of people, either, to say the least. Instead of believing in myself and finding my own path through music, I gave up on music when I was young and started pursuing other interests. I loved computers and technical things and that gave me a space to hide and be myself when I was a kid.

My childhood and adolescent years were painful and difficult; there was a lot of abuse and few people seemed interested in helping me. I just blocked it out the best I could by teaching myself to write code and scripts, to build PCs, and to cut and splice cables. Eventually this turned into teaching myself to use programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and After Effects. I barely finished high school and didn’t make it long in college, so I just continued teaching myself. I didn’t want to stay awake for days on end studying for Biology or English exams, but I couldn’t stop myself from staying awake for days on end learning about manipulating images or designing graphics. I worked as a graphic designer and editor for a few years, worked as an IT specialist, and then finally worked up the courage to buy my first digital camera and that completely changed my life.

I became obsessed with photography, and everything I had been doing up to that point had given me a huge head start on a lot of the necessities of being a photographer. I knew about file servers and remote access, I knew about backups and redundancy, I knew what kind of hardware and equipment I was going to need, and I could build this all myself. More importantly than anything else though, I knew how to edit photos and videos very efficiently and how to design my own branding. All I had to do now was figure out how to use the camera.

After a few more years had passed, I finally lifted my head up to look around. I noticed that all of the people who told me that I would never amount to anything were gone. The people who were intent on hurting me had fallen behind long ago, even though their words still rang out in my head, and I still believed their words in my heart. I eventually found myself in a position where I was photographing musicians, and I even befriended a few of them. I learned a lot about music and performing very quickly from constantly being around them, and I was in a great position to take the dive into music myself.

Every now and then I still hear familiar words that deliver a message along the lines of “you can’t do music, just give up,” even though the faces behind those words are different. I just smile and keep going, because I know who I am and what I am made of – and I know who they are and what they are made of, too. I always knew I was meant to make music, and despite my best efforts to avoid it, I ended up here anyways – and I couldn’t be happier.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I focus on creating an honest and expressive narrative for clients, and for myself when I am working on my own projects. I have a vivid color perception and see colors in places where other people don’t tend to see them. I take pride in designing an image from both the perspective of the composition and how the colors help facilitate the story that is being told. I love being a part of the action and getting to see it through a camera lens, and I pride myself on being reliable and being there to capture a moment when it matters most. I genuinely love helping people relive some of the best moments in their life through the photos I take. I like to think of photos as a portal back to a special moment – I believe this is what photography is truly about.

Music has always been a very visual experience for me too, and learning about music has helped me learn to blend it with images that I capture through my camera. I have developed some interesting techniques to do this and showcase it, some of which are publicly available and some of which will be in the future. At some point along the way I realized I could take the same approach to creating portals to memories people have had, but redirect the portals into abstract feelings or states that can be experienced by many people all at once, all with their own individualized interpretations – I believe this is what art is truly about.

I love what I do, and I’m glad I started believing in myself and that I finally stopped listening to the people who told me to give up.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. The ability to become obsessed and fixate on something until I had squeezed all of the knowledge I could from it. This doesn’t mean that I know everything about the fields I work in, it just means that I am persistent, that I question things, and that I try to figure out a good solution. I get things right a lot of the time, but I also get things wrong, and I definitely didn’t get things right very often at first.

2. The ability to keep my head down and work hard, especially when nobody is watching. People have a tendency to assume you are a genius because you can do something well, or can do something that is alien to them. I don’t know if I’m a genius. I don’t really care either or even know if it matters, but I do know that I work incredibly hard and the result of that work is what people tend to see. People don’t see you taking different versions of the same picture for hours on end to see how the different camera settings interact with how the image is rendered. People don’t see the hours on end you sit down and write out scales or sing different tones to learn about how they interact with each other. That stuff has to be for you and it has to be because you love what you do, and because you love working hard.

3. The ability to empathize and be compassionate to people. I know that I’m not the only one who has had a difficult time in this world, and because of those difficult times, I try and make things better for the people around me. You never know what someone is dealing with, and there are a lot of times when the quiet person with the happy face is dealing with something really awful. I just try to be friendly and kind, and I find that goes a long way.

I believe these are things that most people can do. You can start by dedicating an extra 10 minutes to something you want to pursue, and eventually that turns into an hour, and before you know it, that’s what you are doing every day. It doesn’t take much effort to be kind, but it can take some serious reconstruction of your worldview to look at the world as a beautiful place filled with people who may just need a friendly “hello.”

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

My best friend Charlie has been a strong influence in my life for nearly 18 years. We met in high school, we were both the kids sitting alone during lunch that nobody else wanted to hang out with. We both recognized pretty quickly that we didn’t really need anybody else in order to have a good time, and we’ve been having good times together ever since then. He’s been with me at the lowest points in my life, always showing up to lend a hand when the light was fading and I was losing hope. I’ve been there for him too, and we’ve done some crazy stuff together while pursuing our dreams.

My musical friends – Dorian, Max, Ian, Niki, Sarah, Lia, Jake, Ronin, Kyle, Everett, Trent, Connor, Jack, Carson, Hunter, Will – and many others. I don’t know if I would have ended up getting back into music if it weren’t for seeing them have a blast through my camera lens. Some of the greatest portraits I’ve ever taken have been of them. They have all been a huge inspiration to me and an infinite source of wisdom for all of the questions I’ve had along the way. They’ve come out to see me perform, and I love getting to see them. The world is a better place because of them, and we need good souls like them now more than we ever have.

Dr. T – You’ve helped me open doors with music that I never thought possible. There have been some instances where there was a wall with no door in sight, and I learned that I could just made my own door by tearing through the wall. If all teachers were like you, there wouldn’t be any conflict in the world. We would live in a world with love, happiness, and acceptance of each other. Music can change the world, and hopefully we can get to that world some day.

My sister – Thank you for the help you’ve given me, and the kindness you’ve shown to me. I hope that one day I can return it to you ten fold.

My mom and my dad – In more than one way, I wouldn’t be here without you. I am glad we have all been able to move past the difficulties we faced years ago, and I’m glad there has been peace that has settled in over the past few years. You gave up so much for me, and I hope that the things I do now bring you fulfillment.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ogonosu.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uwv_taylor/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@UWV_Taylor