 I'm Rusty Komori and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahua Boys Varsity Tennis Team for 22 years and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. This show is based on my books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game, which is about leadership, character, and creating a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today is one of the top most sought after photographers in the world and his clients include Jessica Alba, Zoe Saldana, Lucy Hale, Noah Centineo, Shay Mitchell, and Charles Melton, just to name a few. He is the one and only Hudson Taylor and today we are going Beyond Beauty. Hey Hudson, welcome to Beyond the Lines. Hey Rusty, how you doing buddy? Good to see you. Hudson, you have been doing such incredible photography through all of these years now. I mean it's truly impressive but I want to start off by first if you can share about what you did with your life growing up in Hawaii and what schools you attended. Oh that's a that's a fun one. You know I think my main school was beach. I wasn't quite an academic which is why you know an academic person which is why I think you know I went into the art world. I never did well in school. I would I would try and I would just get busy you know my brain would go off in different things you know the beach or or art but I did go to word of life. I graduated from word of life academy, loved that school, taught me a lot of good morals and whatnot and got me ready for for the future but I went to like three other schools before that high schools at least. Yeah but yeah. Hey Hudson, beach is a good place to go school at huh? Yeah it keeps you on your toes man it keeps you on your toes all the time you know yeah the ocean is my guru though and Hudson what's great I mean your family is so beautiful your son blue is so cute and I know your wife Serena because she and I were judges at one of the Miss Hawaii USA pageants and and I heard that she her modeling agency that she owns is is like global now is that right? Yeah it is it's definitely one of the the top mother agencies I would say you know even in the world definitely the nation she just put so much passion into the agency and people we started the whole agency just to help people honestly and it just happens we do it here in Hawaii because we love Hawaii you know so we like to grab a lot of people from Hawaii and bring them on the grand scale anyway we can so my photography kind of helps that and Serena manages it all she was an agent at Elite Models big agency in LA New York it's kind of a worldwide agency as well so she has you know she just knows how to run an agency which she yeah you add that with taking care of people and you got a good formula. No that you know that's so terrific to to see what she's doing and you were a model for around 10 years and Hudson what is the best part of modeling and what's the toughest part of modeling? You know that's kind of a catch point too because the best part of modeling is it always keeps you on the toes you know it's it's always changing evolving and you never know where you're going to be next and that's also one of the hardest things of modeling you never know where you're going to be next you never know if you know the you're going to get a flight an hour from when you just settle down from your last flight and and that's also hard but it's also a gift because it keeps you you know not bored so that's kind of the best thing but again just the travel being able to meet so many people and everyone just has you know so much different perspectives on everything and so meeting all these artists around the world it's just really really cool so yeah that's that's I think the best and and worse probably. No I think I think the traveling would be incredible I mean just to see all these different different countries and and Hudson what got you interested in photography? Oh yeah that's a question and it's kind of a longer I guess answer to it but when I was when I was a model I would I would keep fine I don't know I have like this deep thing in me that just like I know it sounds you know trying to pat myself on the back but it's it's actually true I have like I get like this vision of when I see somebody I just wanted to do it like just do better you know like and like so I asked I'm like oh my god you have so much potential so anyways when I was doing modeling I would find all these friends and they're like oh yeah I'm not really you know making a money doing this or I'm not really able to travel I'm not able to you know really get my goals and you know I don't like my agent I don't like this this this for that and I you know I I would always have a big heart for them I guess in that way so I would just help them I made a lot of friends so I would consistently introduce them to different agents and different friends and and they always just kept helping all my my friends and it got to the point where I started probably over a hundred models around the world just just placing them so with with different agents and different companies and now the way that works normally is that you get a finder's fee if you place them with like a big agency or something that you do really well and some of the people I did start work the you know did become super models and but I never asked for a dime for it so this went on for probably three four years of me just placing people around the world and and so that made me have a lot of really really good friends because people are like oh my god who's this guy just giving away money and giving away money and giving away his time was to help people and and then it got to this guy a lot of people know him here in Hawaii his name is Jay Alvarez great look and at the time I you know it was hard for me to help him more so than introduce him to like some big agents because he needed photos and I was like you know I'm pretty sure I could take like a photo better than than you know so and so photographer just like a basic just one photo as long as I get one photo for him it'll really help him so I so I picked up a like a disposable camera and and I went out there said look we're gonna at least I saw somebody shoot film and this is film so I'm gonna at least get you a basic photo so I started shooting a couple basic photos of him and the agents started using it as this front comp card so then three months into owning a disposable camera I told my wife I was like yeah you know I kept and again this is like blind confidence it's it's really weird I had no skills trust me I'd never done photography in my life and it was just the confidence pushed me forward as I looked at the the photos and all these other photographers shooting I was like okay it's like it's like a math problem in a way which I wasn't good at math but it was like you add you add clothes you add person you add good emotions and you got yourself a photo I could do that so I was looking at these billboards around the world like I could do that I just add this this this so anyways I I told my wife I'm gonna buy all the gear so I put like close to $20,000 down on like all this gear and stuff and thinking I'm going to be the biggest photographer and like that and and I started shooting photos and the good thing was it it did happen for me really really quickly really really quickly just because of how many people I already helped around the world that were also now willing to give back to me when time was needed so they you know gave me great models to work with and all that stuff but I guess credit to my my confidence at the time is I screwed up so bad so hard so many horrible photos to the point where I have people Instagram messaging like you should not post that I don't know about I don't know about you guys but unless it's a political thing I don't I don't know how many times you get you should not post this like this is just a photo of a person and you should just not post this because my Photoshop was all off everything was just I mean it was it was gross a look at of my my progression but it eventually started fine tuning and I I kept wanting to just get better and and again credit to my wife she she was like I think I could probably Photoshop that better than you because she knows art and I was a little bit and I was I was like no this is my thing so I had a whole little ego trip this is like six years ago I was like no this is my thing I could do it I promise I could do it and then so she would just be home Photoshopping in the background not knowing that like that I was kind of paying attention what she was doing and I just know she started doing really good like she started like like making things way better than I could so then something went up happening she ended being one of the best retouchers I've ever found all those all those covers you see all the photos she retouched we've I don't think we've only had retouchers on a couple big jobs that's just because of the sheer mass of how many photos needed to be done but she's edited all my photos so I really am proud of her for you know helping me I had a lot of great people to help me bottom line a lot of great people to help me that was kind of my journey of the beginning stages of photography no that's that's really fascinating to hear how how you made that transition from modeling into photography and and how you and Serena just make such a great team together and Hudson tell me about when you're working with Jessica Alba and Zoe Saldana for example yeah you know they they have their style I mean what how what do you do to try to compliment their style or to enhance their style well I think and this is this isn't what most artists do I've never really saw myself as an artist per se I I I've really focused on you know just trying to do my best for people and care about people um so that's number one is just you gotta care like you can't just like make up stuff you know um so make up stuff just for your own sake because right now you're working with teams so so bottom line if I start caring about you know like really care I'm the only people understand the depth of caring they're like oh yeah I care no I mean like really freaking caring you know like saying hey you know um you know Jessica Zoe like how how can I make you be seen in the best light not just my art which is I think the reason why I've done well is because I focused really on them caring about them so when it comes to Jessica Alba Zoe Saldana or just anybody um it's it's it's about potential potentiality whereas that I you look at them and you see what could be what could be if you gave them all the tools to become and so uh I focused really on yeah vision um and and making sure that that that the way I see them isn't isn't too far off from their essence uh yeah no that that that makes sense there and you know it it's like I mean you're working with them I mean you're trying to bring out the best in them and and I like what you said about caring and and Hudson now the younger generation I mean they're really really popular I mean Lucy Hale Noah Centineo Shay Mitchell Charles Melton I mean these these young ones I mean what how different is it for you working with them versus some other clients that you've worked with yeah um how different is it working with them just you know I mean I think it's it's interesting because um people I don't think give enough credit to the people who have done it before them um whereas that's uh you know I'm assuming that's the difference you know if you look at um I let's kind of break it down like the beginning stages you know the the 10 years old and that group and then them in the 20s and then the 40s and 50s you you look at it everybody and you kind of just see where they're all heading so so it's almost like a timeline almost whereas that you just see oh yeah yeah Jessica went through that Zoe went through that and uh and and you're gonna learn this and you and and through time and then you kind of just like I think that's the biggest difference is you just kind of break things down as timelines and and and knowing where they are in life I think that's a interesting perspective on working with people because then you know how to talk with them where they are in life so the young ones it's just you you know where they are in life and you kind of um it's a little more playful it's a little more fun it's a lot more sensitive because you know some some of them uh can have a lot of preferences way too early on and and you know a lot of uh the older group uh and I wouldn't say older but the more experienced the group they they've learned um how to streamline things if that makes sense but but it's uh yeah streamline yeah I think that's the thing that you notice as time progresses for people um but the young ones are just so much fun like Noah we went on a week long um uh trip to where do we go into um uh Sedona and uh we um pretty much like camped in the middle of the cabin which it was snowing and it um it was snowing in we're Grand Canyon um we're in a cabin in the Grand Canyon there's snow everywhere and that's where I got a couple of those photos um most random snow I've I didn't know it's snowed there so that was weird um but yeah just fun a lot of fun with that group that age group um and so it's so cool to see where they're at and where you know they're heading um that's that's an interesting thing no and and Hudson I mean it's a it's a talent for you to really bring out the essence bring out the best in your clients and really make them feel confident and and comfortable and I want to I want to talk with you about my books you know you I talk a lot about striving for that superior culture of excellence and that's really what you're about I mean you have a constant striving for excellence and I also talk about the importance of taking risk and I want to get your thoughts about how important it is for you and others to really take risks to become successful oh yeah I mean it's uh risk are are everything I mean it's you can't even you you don't it's it's like this weird um whatever you believe in universe god um all stuff it's some sort of weird like pattern that's um you know uh uh it was given to us to say that hey you're welcome to stay exactly where you are I'm okay with that like that's just what it's saying all times to to to us I feel like the the universe god is always saying to us is that yeah you're welcome to stay exactly where you are unless you want to do something different but I'm going to have to prepare you um and so so that's that's stretching you that's that's making you stronger one way or another to experience it at the highest level um so yeah I mean I've I've always taken all the risk I didn't I didn't really start collecting any sort of um uh any sort of my finances or anything together until like you know three years after um I started really like working because I just put it all back into the photography into travel into I mean into anything I could just to create something bigger which is all with all these you know mega mega companies have done Amazon Tesla Apple any of them they've all taken the biggest risk and they've got the you know the biggest rewards for it um so yeah I mean I mean you're nailing ahead it's it's all risk it's all risk um um but I mean you get I think most people aren't willing to risk stuff so so you're so once you're willing to risk stuff you're competing against a much smaller group for what it is that you're trying to get um and so I like I don't like competing I don't like competing against a lot of people so I rather just do the work and I'm in my own little little area over there you know just just doing me um and that's the way I keep from competing is is doing the work um and and taking the risk and and betting on myself over and over and over um yeah Hudson Hudson I I like hearing that uh big time and and how does it feel to have your photographs be on the covers of so many famous magazines throughout the world I mean how does that make you feel you know it's um it's it's a it's a beautiful thing I'm so grateful for everybody you know that helped me and and uh just everybody who's come together and it more and more so it's looking back at things where you really appreciate things um like really looking back um because you know when you're in the midst of it it's pure chaos um everybody like and this goes for anybody who's ever done anything great everyone's like oh yeah that person's a basketball player that NFL player this person's a artist this person's an actor actress you know and like that looks easy I could do that it's pure chaos what it's happening but uh uh but but um you know it the rewards looking back at it you know that you've changed some people and and hopefully inspired some people and hopefully people are looking at my stuff saying that it looks easy so at least they get the foot in the door and then obviously they're going to figure out the fire after but but at least it it it got them nudged in a direction of interest you know no that's that's so good I mean what I mean what an honor for for you to have that kind of success Hudson and and I want to ask you about what are the variables that that you deal with that you're trying to in order to create the perfect picture the perfect photograph what are the variables what are the details you think about behind the scenes um oh so yeah I guess I do have my kind of checklist in my own mind um I I'm already assuming and I already know it's not going to be how I thought it's going to be it's never the way you think it's going to be something I don't I I've never I don't think I've ever I've had thank God I haven't really had too many failures with shoots per se because obviously there's things you can learn from everything but I really haven't had that many like crazy failures with the shoots because they reflect fixes so I was able to you know fix things but but it just never goes as planned so my mental checklist I think is just understanding that number one is get your intent right okay the end of this end of the chaos it's it's going to look something like this however it's going to get there it's going to do that so I think intent is huge huge thing bottom line just fall forward like before getting into this this um um conversation with you uh my my intent was just it's going to go great I don't know what's going to happen like at the very end I was just like okay he's going to be excited that this all but but I don't know what's going on in between so number one is um I think all athletes do what they envision uh you know they envision uh um the ball going in or or the men's zone or whatever it is uh I envision you know people smiling at the end of it all I envision people um hugging me at the end um high-fiving me at the end um being thankful for for me showing up and and vice versa um that's that's number one I think is is you know having that intention um but uh the the things that I really focused on during the shoot is um it people usually find me like when we start shooting is to do something different in a way like normally when I when I find a person and they have like a thing they have like this it's a huge thing it's call it the model um the model uh the model face the model face with a it it's really interesting because they saw like maybe you know 30 years ago they saw a um uh ad and they saw a girl do like this or like they saw a guy do this and and then they and then they just mimic it so they mimic it right we all mimic each other but they don't understand that so these supermodels so what made them a supermodel is they weren't just brooding they were actually feeling the brooding-ness of everything like the inks they they actually felt all that and and so I think when I when I see this generation is they're just flooded with not just this generation just everybody just anybody that comes in front of my camera they're flooded with information and they're all just trying to mimic each other so when I when I meet somebody my goal is that they just at least tell me a real story um whatever that might be so that could be you know just this just them listening if I'm talking a lot and and then the listening they look like a human being in that moment not just the person's like just faces every all over the place you know um and and some people are just really good at where I never have to say anything or I'm just like yeah that person's feeling something not afraid to feel something but a lot of people I think nowadays they're just afraid to feel and they rather just do do things with their face and bodies and stuff so I make sure that we get our our our essence right first and foremost is this a real human in front of me can I bring that into the photo um and uh next uh you know I I think it's it's you know trying to calm down everyone to not try to for them to not just not just a one person to be the star on the on the set like I can't have the hair just trying to be the star and the hair person and then they're like and then like but then it doesn't match the makeup and then the styling decided to you know throw in their their two cents with the hair and makeup and then and then it goes and then it starts going everybody has to be on the same um vibe and and trying to create um the master goal nobody's a star we're all the stars and and that's where I think you know if we kind of come together and do that then we start start creating um better work um so that's another thing too but intent um intent if I were to just put it as a whole um I intend to to make people feel good about the end of it yeah and everyone has to be focused on the mission and the goal and everyone plays a key role in the success of the photo shoot and and Hudson what are what are some of the reasons why you are successful in as a as one of the top photographers um I think uh I care bottom line and again I I go back to that and even focus I've you've heard we've all heard it the you know in our entire lives like just focus focus like yeah I'm focused yeah I'm focused there are levels there's depths of of focus there's depths of caring there's there's um and and I notice when I'm like out of tilt and things are going like not as good it's because I was caring about the wrong things either myself my own my own um um uh you know um stress levels uh even that's a thing like on set if you're if I'm caring about my own stress levels on set then I've I've lost I've lost game I've lost the I've lost the the photo shoot um because now that energy's out there now that person's going to start caring about the cells because they know I don't care about them so who's going to care about them nobody so they got to care about themselves and then it becomes this disconnect um so and and I'm not perfect at this but I think I'm better than most uh at least I try to be um just really working on on caring about people so I think that's a big thing um and that's uh yeah honestly if I were to not shell everything in there I did be that um that it's the caring um the next uh I think one other thing too is um if anybody gets into the art world I try to tell them is that um you get paid for your aesthetic you get paid for your aesthetic so in other words um I you know I was able to do these things because I have an aesthetic of what looks real um I have aesthetic of what is um uh high quality I guess you might say and the only way you can do that um is understand um how quite honestly how simple humans are in a way we um if I start singing a song do I do I did it down did it do we might all start mimicking that later tonight um whenever this airs you know you might just hum it a little bit um we're that simple in that way and so what you're filling your brain with um is is also a thing um I I had a one of the biggest photographers in the world um um he was like number one two or three still alive um and he told me he said essentially that when you press down the button it's because it reminded you of something and if it's if you're being reminded of things that aren't of high quality then that's the work that's going to come back out so so my thing is is which aesthetic I really focus on my aesthetic so I don't look at like you know nothing too of a brand new photographers you know they're brand new great amazing I I can't really necessarily taken too much of that or else I'm and and I might start creating from that kind of space versus if I just look at like the biggest billboards in the world all day then when I click the camera when I click it it's because that person's mood on that billboard it it reminded me of something now a brand new photographer you know they they might be worried about is the photo looking good is is there might be a bunch of insecurities happening on stuff and that energy's floating around and then so I would be replicating that energy if I clicked it during that time remembering their work that makes sense so I I I'm very conscious of of flooding my brain with essentially the Picasso's of the world so that when when I am given the opportunity to have a camera in my hand I press it at the moment or at least know how to guide it to become a version of that moment you can literally you can mimic if you pick the top photographers work right now try to mimic it exactly I'm telling to a tee this photographer this other photographer told me to do it I don't do it but it's just a concept that's really interesting is I've done it before and and if you try to copy it to a tee no matter what even if you try to draw you know a Picasso or something to a tee no matter what it's going to have a different look no matter what the model is going to be different even if the model's Caucasian and still it's different there could be a different type of look in the Caucasian you know the model the hair could be could be brown it could be white whatever might be the hair slice might have just messed up a little bit right here if the girl is two inches shorter then it's going to look different and then it comes down to which photo are you actually going to pick are you really going to pick the the one that looks exactly like it or are you going to pick the one that has sort of your version of it so so I think it's important to just give credit to the artists who've done it before but we're mimicking art over and over and over because we're inspired and we just want to keep creating that with statement sports that's why people shoot the way they do you know all that stuff it's because they're inspired by somebody that they saw do it so so yeah so aesthetic I think that's that's a big key to focus in on Hudson I like hearing your insights and and you know just just hearing your what you're sharing I mean it's there's so much that goes on behind the scenes of a photograph and that's really I like how you shared all that and and and Hudson obviously that's why you're successful you care I mean you have that constant striving for excellence and I just really want to take thank you for taking time to be on the show today of course thank you so much for having me I really appreciate it rusty I mean god it's good to see your face again I haven't seen for a year or so at least so it's good to see your smile too buddy um yeah I appreciate you thanks Hudson and thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii for more information please visit Rusty Komori.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble I hope that Hudson and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs aloha