Today we’d like to introduce you to Leigh Taylor.
Hi Leigh, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’ve always loved taking photos, but I got serious about it when I was in college. I was majoring in broadcasting, and in sophomore year I went to work for the student TV station. However, I didn’t click with any of the other students working on it. There was a photographer position open at the student newspaper, so I got that job, and there was no looking back.
I graduated from college and I then went to Ohio University for graduate school and majored in photojournalism. I loved capturing people in “real” moments and I loved the look, smell, and feel of a newsroom. I had a few internships around the country at various newspapers before I landed an internship at my hometown newspaper, the “Cincinnati Enquirer”. By the end of the summer, I was loving it, and I jumped at the chance when they offered me a full-time position as a staff photographer.
I ended up spending 11 years as a staff photographer, and I covered everything from Presidential visits to professional sports to small things like school board meetings and storytime classes for toddlers. I loved it, but I saw the opportunity to start my own freelance photography company when the “Enquirer” offered buyouts for its employees 8 years ago. I took the buyout, and have been doing freelance photography ever since.
I have had the opportunity to move with my husband and kids to Philadelphia for 2 years for my husband’s job, have lived in Switzerland for a summer and traveled extensively around Europe, and have had the chance to live in our lake house in northern Michigan for the last several summers and spend lots of time with my kids. I love doing freelance because I can set my calendar and can work as much or as little as I want, depending on what we have going on.
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. When I first left the “Cincinnati Enquirer”, I missed the community and collaboration a great deal. Luckily, I have joined women’s photography groups angottenet feedback and collaboration that way. Moving from Cincinnati to Philadelphia and then back to Cincinnati again was challenging for my freelance business in terms of getting and maintaining clients.
When we moved to the east coast, I knew no one and did not have work for the first year really at all. I slowly got my name out there, and after 2 years, was building a steady client base. We then decided to move back to Cincinnati, and it was a challenge to again build my clientele. Covid presented a huge challenge to my freelance business.
In 2019 and early 2020, my name was spreading among local Cincinnati non-for-profits and I was being asked to photograph a lot of their events. When Covid hit, all in-person events were canceled, and therefore there was no longer the need for a photographer. Events are slowly coming back though, and a lot of the old clients are reaching out again.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I have a very wide range of work because I have experience photographing a lot of different kinds of things. I can do studio work, family shots, work in schools, events, and lots more. My favorite thing to do is capture human moments, and there are lots of different ways to do that. My favorite recent photo shoot was for a charity called St. Vincent de Paul. The charity was giving away about 100 twin-sized beds and all kinds of goodies to go with the bed.
The volunteers set all the beds up with the bedding and all kinds of toys on them and then had a big reveal. It was delightful for me to see the looks on the faces of the kids and be able to document that for the charity. We all were very pleased with the photos. People feel something when they see my photos, and I think that is what sets me apart from others.
We’d love to hear what you think about risk-taking.
The decision to leave the steady work and steady paycheck of the newspaper was a risk for me. I went from having them provide and take care of all my equipment, insurance, etc. to having to take care of everything myself. I didn’t own a thing and have had to gradually build up my equipment. It was hard at first to not have a steady paycheck and to keep track of all my expenses, taxes, etc.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.leighbtaylor.com
- Instagram: @leighbtaylor
- Facebook: @Leigh Patton Taylor
