Meet Kiersten
Smart mouth.
Soft heart.
Really good with a camera.
Hello.. I am Kiersten Taylor Selby.
Panama City born and raised. Photographer, business owner, mom of two, and a pretty unlikely success story.
I’m empathetic, sarcastic, emotionally invested in basically everything, and somehow very good at making complete strangers feel like we’ve known each other for years.
A small disclaimer before we get into this…
You probably don’t care and you definitely didn’t ask for this much information about me, but you clicked “About,” so honestly this is kind of on you.
The Backstory
Teen mom.
High school dropout.
Somehow, here we are.
I was a straight-A student growing up. Then my world got really dark, really fast.
A lot happened in a very short amount of time, and at 13/14 years old, I didn’t exactly know how to deal with any of it. I got angry, started fighting, got kicked out of school, and eventually dropped out at 14.
Not long after, I got pregnant with Mylie when I was 15.
There’s no pretty little bow to put on that part of my story. I grew up way too fast, learned a lot of things the hard way, and spent a lot of years figuring it out as I went.
But somewhere along the way, I built a really fucking good life.
Two incredible kids. A career I love. A business I built from nothing. And a life that looks nothing like anyone probably would’ve predicted for that 14-year-old girl.
The Wild Ride
A birthday gift
that changed everything.
I started out taking pictures of Mylie on my Android and posting them to the original Instagram. Friends saw them, started asking me to photograph their kids, and I realized there might actually be something there.
So I asked my dad for a camera for my 21st birthday in 2011. Photography went from interest to obsession almost immediately, and by 2012 I had officially turned it into a career.
Six months in, I won Best of Bay and things took off much faster than I was prepared for. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing as a business owner — but I knew I was willing to work until I figured it out.
Now, more than 14 years and nearly 600 weddings later, I photograph weddings for people I once photographed as high school seniors, and families I’ve been documenting for more than a decade.
Somehow this little camera became my whole damn life.
Little Kiersy, also known as Pumpkin.
Florida Girl, Forever
First Southern-born.
Florida girl through and through.
I’m the first and only Southern-born person in my entire family — the daughter of two 80s rockers from Philadelphia who somehow ended up raising a barefoot kid in Panama City.
I grew up half in St. Andrews and half in Bayou George. Salt water keeps me alive, palm trees make me smile, and sunshine fixes an unreasonable number of my problems.
I’ll happily get on a plane and disappear somewhere new whenever I get the chance, but Florida still feels like home in my bones.
Fourteen years later...
Apparently I have photographic evidence
that I’ve been doing this shit forever.
Nearly 600 weddings and counting.
Why It Became Personal
I know what pictures become
when someone is gone.
I lost my brother when I was 14. I lost one of my best friends when I was 23. Years later, I lost my mom when I was 31. And so many other loved ones along the way.
So when I say photographs matter to me, it isn’t photographer marketing. I know what it feels like to dig through old pictures just to see someone’s face again.
And weirdly, it usually isn’t the perfect pictures that hit the hardest. It’s your mom laughing in the background. Your brother making a stupid face. Everyone you love standing in the same room on some completely ordinary day nobody knew they should be trying to remember.
Eventually, a photograph can become a piece of someone you get to keep.
I carry that with me when I photograph people. Because years from now, something in these images may matter to you in a way neither of us could possibly know today.
This job is personal.
So is the way
I show up for people.
It always has been.
How I Show Up
Experienced.
Invested.
Very much in it.
I’m not there to stand in the corner and quietly push buttons. I’m a professional chameleon. I’ve never met a stranger, and I’m freakishly good at reading the room, keeping things moving, and making people feel comfortable.
I know when to guide, when to disappear, when to make someone laugh, when to fix something before anyone notices, and when to shut up and let the moment happen.
My version of luxury isn’t about pretending to be fancy. It’s experience. It’s intuition. It’s knowing you’re taken care of enough that you can actually be present for your own damn wedding.
The Human Part
A little sentimental.
A little unhinged.
Very much myself.
As a full-blown Sagittarius, I am probably one of the most empathetic, open-minded, anxious-but-capable, sarcastic, people-pleasing, polite potty-mouthed rebels you’ll ever meet. I care a lot. I feel everything. And I take that into everything I shoot.
I love my people hard, laugh loudly, swear probably more than I should, and have never been particularly good at doing anything halfway.
My Real Life
Health kicks.
Plane tickets.
A little debauchery.
Real life is usually some combination of the gym, whole foods, getting outside, and trying to live like a mildly unhinged 1960s housewife who cooks everything homemade, keeps an aggressively clean house, and puts entirely too much effort into taking care of everyone and everything around me.
Somewhere in there I’m also running a business, raising kids, keeping up with the animals, and trying not to take “I’ll handle it” so far that it nearly kills me.
But I started adult life really young, so I’m also pretty committed to actually living my own life now — traveling whenever possible, seeing new places, going to shows, staying out too late, drinking tequila, and balancing all of that wholesome behavior with a little fun debauchery.
Then there’s Mitchell — my favorite human, my partner in crime, and my very best friend, who works in the music industry and somehow happens to tour with one of my favorite bands.
So depending on the week, we might be ridiculously happy doing absolutely nothing at home, or I’m getting on a plane, ending up backstage somewhere, sleeping way too little, and turning his gig into an excuse to explore another city.
My Favorite People
The little life
I love coming home to.
Mitchell, Mylie, Teal, dogs, cats, and enough personalities under one roof to keep things interesting at all times.
Home is loud, funny, occasionally chaotic, and still my favorite place in the world.
Important Information
Things I love.
And things I absolutely do not.
Hell yes
- My people.
- Salt water + sunshine.
- Traveling basically anywhere.
- Live music.
- Sushi + Mexican food.
- Tequila + dirty martinis.
- Plants I absolutely do not need more of.
- Lazy rainy days.
- Clean sheet night.
- A ridiculously clean house.
Absolutely not
- Slow drivers in the left lane.
- Cold weather.
- Clutter.
- Littering.
- People blowing their nose at the table. Straight to jail.
- When my kids are jerks.
- People who don’t speak sarcasm.
And Now, You
You don’t have to be
good at pictures.
Most people aren’t. That’s why you hire me.
You can be awkward, nervous, loud, shy, emotional, chaotic, camera-hating, or have absolutely no idea what to do with your hands. I’ll meet you exactly where you are.
My job is to make the whole thing feel easy enough that eventually you stop thinking about the camera and start actually living whatever is happening in front of it.
Okay, enough about me.
Tell me who you are.
Tell me what matters.
Then let’s make something you’ll want to keep.
Let’s do this