In one of the most requested of the “Meet the Models” series, I invite you to meet Taylor!
I am not sure how Taylor and I came into contact with each other but I know the first time we had a shoot planned, she was unable to make it. We had planned everything out and day of shoot she contacted me and told me that her Grandpa was in the hospital. One of the flake reasons models use is the hospital/death of the elderly, car accident or sick and vomiting all evening into the morning. Hearing this, I hoped she wasn’t lying so I gave her the benefit of the doubt and let it be. A few months later she had reached out to me wanting to be a model at one of my workshops. I had contacted her a few days before hand and she had to decline as she was going to school four hours away. A few weeks later I contacted her and asked her about the shoot. She said she was still excited to do it and was looking forward to it. Now I know what you’re thinking; “Jay, you don’t give “flakes” a second chance!” But she was different, I had loved her look and her energy and knew if she was serious about shooting she would be well worth it.
With the shoot set for the first few days of October, I was excited and ready to shoot. From her emails she seemed to be excited and ready to work. She also seemed to have a laid back attitude and was open to whatever I had to say as far as shooting which in my experience is rare. Most beautiful women I have shot, have had an air of superiority about them, an attitude of they’re doing me a favor by allowing me to shoot them. If she showed up, I was excited to see how things went. Another thing that had me giddy with excitement was she was ok with shooting topless. This meant I had to bring my “A-game” since she was really trusting me to get the shot and get it right. Being this was her first shoot I knew I had toworry about connecting more with her and less the technical side of it all. I don’t remember if she showed up on time or not, I was just happy she showed up. She came in and was pleasant, soft spoken and had an amazing smile! She had a sparkle in her eyes and a brightness that followed her. I had only been taken aback by one other person so I remember everything about our first meeting. Confident, funny, eager, sexy, shy and silly are the best words to describe Taylor. During our shoot, we decided to go outdoors for a part of it. I pulled out my Canon 420 flash and noticed the batteries had exploded. I went to a big table I had and opened the back up. Acid started dripping from the batteries. I looked down and realized I was standing right over her pocket book. I ran around the studio looking for something to wipe it up with as she was in the bathroom. Of course as soon as she opened the bathroom door, I was trying to clean out her pocket book and startled, dropped her phone on the floor. She had a confused look on her face and went back into the bathroom. I cleaned everything up (it was acidic chunks) best I could and hoped she wouldn’t get a hole in her face from coming into contact with battery acid. We’ve had several shoots since this episode and no, there’s no extra fingers or eyes or holes in her face. She’s OK!
With the first shoot over, we agreed we had a fun time and that we would shoot again. I had wanted to shoot her in the mountains with nice fall colors in the background in a white sweater. She told me she had the PERFECT sweater for my ideal and we decided to shoot. The problem we had was her being in college four hours away. We had spoke off and on and kept up with each other via texts and still had to have our shoot. 2011 rolls around and she sends me a text saying she’s now living back in the metro area and had some time to shoot. I had taken the last few months of 2010 off as I usually do, to get the next years marketing and review my success and failures of the year. I had decided I wanted to go different with my lighting and looked forward to our shoot. The second shoot she said she wanted to try some nudes and see how that went. Of course I was on board and wanted to do a few nude shoots then submit her as I felt she would be PERFECT for MANY of the magazines out there. We agreed to shoot and we met at the studio I was shooting out of. Just as the previous shoot she showed up and rocked it:
After this shoot we had kept in some what contact, nothing major. We spoke off and on about shoot ideas and things of that nature. I had another workshop coming up, a Pinup themed workshop and she was beyond interested! She has a beauty that would work across many genres so naturally I jumped at the chance to get her on board. She got a speeding ticket on the way which she was frazzled about, but didn’t lose a step in her modeling. Here’s a few photos I got as well as a video of the event:
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Of course everyone at the workshop loved both ladies but Taylor stood out the most. I had spoken with her and tried to map out a career with her. I gave her a consultation and really tried to map out what it was she wanted to do. She’s one of few models that I had high hopes for and wanted to be part of her greatness at the ground level. She had informed me that a friend of hers told her that having nude images would damage her career, any career she wanted to pursue. I informed her this is NOT the case and is old school thinking. She relented and said she wanted only to shoot up to and including implied. I’ve said it on my facebook page before and I’ll say it here; you can’t go backwards! if you do, you lose out. Now she has the look that I can get useable images for ANYTHING and I liked hanging out with her so I agreed to the shoot.
Video of the madness: Click here to download
After the shoot was done, I had informed her of an ezine that wanted to publish images of her. They had ran another model of mine and was VERY interested in Taylor. She filled out all the required questions they had, but the ezine guy just disappeared. He stopped returning my emails and still has yet to surface even on his own website. A few weeks after, Taylor and I had a shoot setup. She missed the shoot, no call, no show, no text, nothing. I asked her what happened and she said “It was a free shoot so I figured it wouldn’t matter if I showed up or not” I was beyond floored! How disrespectful! How…ignorant. I responded to her that it was a free shoot and being I do so few, it was BEYOND important she show up or let me know that she wasn’t coming so I could have better used my time. She said was upset that I had never gotten her the publication and I informed her that sadly, I never promise publication until it’s actually ran. That the guy disappeared and wasn’t returning my texts. After it was all done and said with, we were “OK” but it was different. I sent her a note that I was heading back to her area and wanted to know if she wanted to shoot. She never got back to me so that was my answer.
Today, I’ve not talked to her in over six months. I hold no ill will towards her and would love to shoot her. Until she’s ready, I can only wish her continued success in all she does.