I originally started this project in 2023 after feeling a little creatively lost. For pretty much my entire career I had always created for other people, and very rarely did anything for myself. I wanted to make something because I wanted to, not because someone paid me to. A passion project.

One of my favorite types of project to work on is documentaries. Something about piecing together someone’s story in a visually interesting and engaging way is really exciting for me, especially if the subject is creative in nature. I knew that this passion project had to be something along those lines, which led me to Taylor.

Taylor and my wife, Rachael, grew up together as close friends. I didn’t know much about Taylor’s story, but her skill and passion for candle-making really impressed me and I knew that I’d really enjoy getting to capture what she does on video.

The original idea was just going to be a quick video (maybe 2 minutes long) just showing off her process with some snippets of her story sprinkled in. Nothing too fancy. But after spending time with her, hearing her story, and getting to really know why she does what she does, I quickly realized that 2 minutes was not nearly long enough. Her story deserved more, and so it transformed into the sort of mini-doc that you see today.

While putting this video together, I had the opportunity to collaborate with my friend Nate Manning, who is a talented musician and music producer in the Denver area. He created a track, which runs from 2:55-4:55 in the video.

For more of Nate’s work, check him out on Instagram at instagram.com/natejmanning

Filmed primarily with the Panasonic GH6, with a dash of GH5 and Canon C70.