Meet Aaron Rodriguez | Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Aaron Rodriguez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Aaron, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Risk for anyone are very necessary for any line of work especially photography. Don’t be afraid to fail and don’t be afraid of what others think or might think. Take the leap of faith and bet on yourself. As long as you stay true to yourself, work hard, and are passionate about what you do, you will always succeed, and what you claim as being successful will follow. For me, I don’t like being told no when it comes to shooting a show/concert. Sometimes the venue doesn’t hear back from the artist or band or sometimes it’s just not allowed. Even though that happens I will message or text anyone I know who I think can get me in and ask them for help. I’ve got to shoot a concert onetime by messaging the dj’s friend. But saying that, it can also take one person to see your work to change your life forever.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m most excited about this next chapter in my photography. I’m personally struggling with having a full time job that I’ve been at for 4 years going on 5, and be able to shoot. Most of the time during the week I’m working 12 hours on the graveyard shift. But this year I’m betting on myself. When I have free time I’m still working on my craft and getting better with editing and learning other skills like video editing. And I think that’s how I stand out. Even when I’m not working I’m working. I don’t make excuses for myself as to why I can’t do something either. Just because I see someone else doing something i wanna do doesn’t mean I can’t. I just have to work harder and keep networking. I big part of where im at today has a lot to do with networking. No matter the situation you always have to find a way. It’s not always what you know but who you know. Always be willing to ask help from others even if it’s just advice about something you wanna learn or still learning. I think that a big lesson I’ve learned too. To not be afraid to ask for help or even making friends. A lot of the reasons why I get into the shows other than shooting for the music blog I shoot for is having connections. Another lesson I’ve learned is to not want approval from others or care what others think. As long as you’re happy with what you are doing and love what you do nothing else should matter. Before others can believe in you, you have to believe in yourself. You know I don’t have a special story I’m just a kid that grew up in the city who loves music. I’ve always saw myself being surrounded by music and traveling and obviously you can do both being a successful live music photographer. Once I took my photography class in Highschool I was hooked. I just picked up a camera only 2 years ago and for the most part I can say that I have come along way to where I was 2 years ago. And that’s enough for me. But one thing I would say to take out of all of this is to find something you love doing and make a career out of it. You won’t have to work the rest of your life if you love what you do. The only thing that stands between any of that is yourself. Take a chance on yourself and truly be who you wanna be.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Being from houston there is so much to do. And since it’s one of the most diverse cities in America there is tons of good food here. Being a foodie myself I love to drink and hangout at different places so round town. One of my favorite restaurants is Uchi. It’s a sushi restaurant that’s has fresh fish flown in everyday from Japan. Also if the Houston Astros are in town, and being in Texas, definitely wanna grab some BBQ at Pinkertons or Burns BBQ before the game. The brewery scene is also big here in houston. Some of the best ones are Saint Arnold, Karbach and Ingenious.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I wanna give a big shoutout to my mom for always supporting me in anything that I do and believing in me and always making me believe in myself. I also want to give a big shoutout to Space City Frequency for giving me chance to put display my work on a bigger platform.

Website: www.SpaceCityFrequency.com

Instagram: byaaronj

Image Credits
Lil Durk J cole Key Glock Paul Wall Lil Doodielo