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

Hi Taylor, thanks for joining us today. The first dollar you earn in a new endeavor is always special. We’d love to hear about how you got your first client that wasn’t a friend or family.

My very first paying client is very near and dear to my heart. Jasmine reached out to me about taking pictures of her precious family 5 years ago. We scheduled the session and I remembered being so incredibly nervous to take their family’s first Christmas pictures. Eden was a tiny baby and it was FREEZING. I charged them $45 and we shot for an hour out in the cold. I was so proud of those pictures and the fact that someone had thought I was talented enough to pay them for their art. Flash forward 5 years and I am still documenting their family. Jasmine has continued to book me over and over and grown with me. Those first pictures make me cringe to look back at, but it is such a special memory for my business.

Taylor, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Taylor Ecker Borgerding and I am a photographer. When I am not photographing families I am usually with my family, cheering on my Tennessee Volunteers or teaching PreSchool at Ms. Heather’s Educational Adventures. I fell into photography because I needed a job that would be flexible with my son’s therapy schedule. When my son was just 36 hours old he stopped breathing and was clinically dead for around 30 minutes. After graduating from the NICU, Knox needed a lot of therapy and my undivided attention. Around the time he turned 6 months old I was longing for a job and wanted to help my husband out with bills. I had taken a photography class in college and decided to pick my camera back up and play around with it. I started shooting for free and then began taking on clients. I soon upgraded my camera and really started focusing on my work and developing a style. I started getting to document peoples best moments and it was so rewarding. I fell in love with capturing all these moments of joy. One of my very favorite parts of my job is getting to watch these sweet families grow. I often get to document new babies, and then their siblings, and then watch them grow throughout the years. I absolutely love getting to catch up with everyone at sessions, cheering them on, praying for them, and watching these families be a family. Being able to control my own schedule, I was able to still dedicate the time to my son while growing my business. While Knox’s start was very scary; he is a perfectly healthy wild 7 year old boy now. I love that I get to have the best of both worlds being his mom and documenting other sweet families. I am so grateful for the support of my husband and family to help me grow my business into what it is.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I believe what helped me build my reputation is how much passion I put into my job. I truly care about and love my clients and look at them as my own family. I try to make each session very personable and chat with them about all the things they have going on. I enjoy getting to hear all about their latest adventures, sporting events, and achievements, just as much as they like to share them. Photography is certainly a “word of mouth” business and I believe the personable experience along with my work itself has a lot to do with my success.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn was that saying no and setting boundaries will kill your business. I feel like when photographers are first starting out and trying to build a business they feel like they have to take on EVERY SINGLE SESSION. I use to shoot weddings and I did not enjoy them. All of the stress of the day was a lot for me. However, I would take them on because I was afraid if I said no that they would find another photographer and my whole business would crumble. I could not have been more wrong. I have now set the boundary and no longer take on weddings, but I still have an entire clientele. I happily refer people out to other photographers when I feel like I am not a good fit. You can say no and still thrive in your niche that you enjoy. Boundaries are great and actually make you more successful.

Contact Info:

• Website: hctsphotography.mypixieset.com
• Instagram: hctsphotgraphy
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/hctsphotography

Image Credits
Image of me – Amanda Ashley Photography All other images – Here Comes The Sun Photography (My company)