Meet Taylor Prinsen: Professional Photographer

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

Hi Taylor, what do you attribute your success to?
Connection/relationships. I am a photographer…so are hundreds of others in my city. But I am a human first and foremost, as are my clients. So getting to know my clients at a deeper level, and being available, open, and vulnerable for my clients to get to know me – THAT is what makes me successful. At the end of the day, I have the technical skills and I do high-quality photography work, but people hire me because they like me and feel like they know me. Some of this is due to social media – really, truly being myself on social media allows potential clients to see what it would be like to work with me. Some of this is referrals – past clients having a positive and fun experience working with me and letting their friends/family know that. All in all, I would say that connecting with others has been the primary factor in the success of my photography business.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
First of all, I’m proud that I’m still alive and supporting myself through my art! That’s a pretty huge deal, especially through a global pandemic and economic crisis. It definitely was not easy, I think specifically because at the end of the day, I am an artist/creative…I’m not an accountant, or a marketing expert, or any of the various “hats” I’ve had to put on over the years of owning this business. I ended up hiring help when I needed it: something very scary when you aren’t making a ton of money yet. But I knew investing in those things would benefit me in the long run. As far as my art, I’m really proud of and excited about my Boudoir photography that I have been doing for about 2.5 years now. Boudoir is so intimate and really let’s me get creative. I get to show women their bodies in a way many have forgotten about. Bodies are works of art and I get to help empower women through this work, something that was actually recently featured in Austin Woman Magazine. I also love getting to do Branding work for small businesses and entrepreneurs. I love getting to know the story of the brand or individual and get creative with how we can share that personality & brand voice with their potential clients! Getting to know my clients better, and subsequently becoming friends with many of them, is one of my favorite parts of the job too 🙂

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Hmm…hard question! I’m a born & raised Austinite, so I may be a tad biased, but Austin is kind of the best city ever. I live on the west side, so I would start our days with grabbing coffee (favorites: Better Half, Mozart’s, Swedish Hill, Manana), walk the hike and bike trail or do some strolling on South Congress or down Second Street district, maybe do a to-go lunch from Honest Mary’s at Zilker Park, then do happy hour at at Clark’s Oyster Bar ($5 martinis!), dinner at La Condesa or Red Ash on a weeknight, or Comedor (a MUST visit!) on a weekend, and end the night at Deep Eddy Cabaret (my old stomping ground). Sounds like a pretty solid week to me!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
This question is really interesting – I struggled to answer this because I really did do a lot of this on my own, against the advice of relatives or partners who thought this was just a “fun hobby” I did on the side but shouldn’t go full-time with. So I would say that I dedicate the shoutout to all of my friends and family who believed in me from the start: the parents of friends I shot senior pictures for 10 years ago; the client who hired me to do my first wedding; the friend who asked me if I wanted to quit my job and shoot a fitness retreat in Tulum, Mexico the following week; and my mom, sister, and best friends for always being my number one fans!

Website: www.taylorprinsenphotography.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/taylorprinsenphotography

Image Credits
Photo of me by Madeline Harper Benavides