Ep 39 - How Abrahanny Rodriguez pushed through her imposter syndrome and channelled it towards her arts

Hello Wicked Hunters, 

Welcome back to another episode of The Art of Photography Podcast. 

I'm so excited to share this week's podcast with Abrahanny Rodriguez, an amazing photographer and kind-hearted human who always supports fellow artists around her. 

Abrahanny is an international event and landscape photographer, passionate about community and capturing worldwide experiences. 

Abrahanny Rodriguez is a wife and mother to two amazing teenagers who loves music and is passionate about capturing new experiences. 

Her photography journey began after Libni. Her husband saw something in her that she did not see in herself. 

He believed in her art and encouraged her by telling her how good she was at capturing moments. 

Trusting his word and believing God had gifted her to capture something special, Libni and Abrahanny started Abrahanny Photography in 2010.

 

If you want to learn more about Abrahanny's work, you can find it here:

Link to social media:

• Website - abrahanny.com
• Instagram - www.instagram.com/abrahanny/?hl=en
• Twitter - twitter.com/abrahannyr

Link to NFT on Opensea - opensea.io/Abrahanny

 

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For those of you who want to learn more about The Wicked Hunt Photography by Stanley Aryanto:

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• Masterclass: https://www.TheWickedHuntPhotography.com     

• Photo print: https://www.TheWickedHunt.com/

 

Don't forget to leave a review on the podcast if you enjoy this conversation. It would help us to get found and help to inspire other photographers. 

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Transcription:

Abrahanny Rodriguez  0:00  
We're always going to struggle with something, I would encourage you to not let it stop you from creating, but just create some more, just be more creative, just keep pushing past the insecurity. It is how we handle insecurity that determine the outcome of our art of our careers.

Stanley Aryanto - The Wicked Hunt  0:27  
Hey, we can do this Welcome back to The Art of Photography podcast, where we get photographers on board and get them to share their passion in photography, their story and their journey so that you can learn how we get a whole purpose and happiness from our passion in photography. And today, we have someone all the way from the US and says, you know, I've come across her from the clap house era, which was probably about a couple of years ago now, during the pandemic, and she's been someone who's I find very uplifting and inspirational. And this is why I want her to be on board. And you know, of course, he's a fantastic photographers, and have a really good clientele as well. And this is habra, handy. Rouhani how's it going?

Abrahanny Rodriguez  1:17  
Hello, hi, Stanley, and everyone else listening. Thank you for having me. I'm so honoured.

Stanley Aryanto - The Wicked Hunt  1:24  
Welcome to the podcast. You know, I'm really excited to have you on board. Because you know, I'll talk to you on Barnabe clubhouse of talk to you on Twitter spaces, and I get a lot of inspiration, even just, you know, from those snippets of chat. So I'm so excited to have you for the full hour today.

Abrahanny Rodriguez  1:42  
I'm so excited. I feel like our Clubhouse days, kind of like open a door of opportunities to do so much more together as a community where we met other photographers and connected on a personal level, had some discussion, maybe some challenges we each wanted to, like challenge each other with and I think that was so fun. And I'm like so honoured that I've met you through that, through that app, and so many other great people that I now know and love and I enjoy chatting with and you're one of them for sure.

Stanley Aryanto - The Wicked Hunt  2:13  
Ah, that's great. I appreciate that. You know, like, I think that the club has, you're right, it was really cool. It was a groundbreaking innovation where we can actually connect with people to social media, I always struggled to connect with people through social media, and that app really helped. And you know, now with the Twitter space as well, we get to do that. I know there's a lot of anxiety and you know, impostor syndrome when you start talking because everyone is so awesome in there, but never. It's a great place to to, to connect and build community. So yeah. So let us know who's Abrahamian you know what you do? And what's your passion in photography?

Abrahanny Rodriguez  3:00  
Well, I'm a wife. I'm a mother of two amazing boys. One, a soccer player and the other one loves racing. And so we have a lot of a lot of different sports in our life. But I am a photographer who is passionate about people. I'm passionate about building community, talking with people and just being an aid if I can. I feel like I learned so much through people through talking with people with sharing experiences. I think it's such a key component to life experiences. And so I love those new opportunities. And I thoroughly enjoy that. So my passion is people my passion is photograph people my passion is meet new people meet people in real life. I feel like clubhouse gave me the opportunity to meet them behind the screen. And then when I was travelling, I was like, Oh, hey, I'm in your town, can we meet up and I met up with some friends because I was in their town or in the city that I met through either club house or tutor spaces. And so I am really excited that one day I hope I pray that I get to meet Stanley in person.

Stanley Aryanto - The Wicked Hunt  4:08  
Oh, absolutely. It's gonna happen. It's just a matter of time. Yeah, so that's how does that you know, because you just say you love people. And I can see that so much. You know, you're, you know, just listening to this first five minutes or so you already have this really high energy, you know, with people and you know where you are today. It's like, what 9pm at night or something like that. I don't know, how does this energy up? Right, and how does that translate to your photography?

Abrahanny Rodriguez  4:38  
That's such a good question. I feel like my passion and my creativity is drawn by what I see and what I hear and my conversations with people. And so my client, most of my clients are our events. And so I love doing behind the scene and kind of just like being just the watchful for photographer, the journalistic view, but I do a lot of portraits I do a lot of, I guess music videos in the Christian aspect. So the some artists in the Spanish genres just kind of hire me on to be a part of their studio set, and then give me little breaks here in between, because obviously, video is the top of priorities. And I've been able to capture some fun moments, I think, because of my personality and got to meet so many and then get referrals that way, because they just love working with someone that's upbeat, that's positive, and that brings good energy, but also a lot of creativity. And so I'm always, I'm always going. And so I feel like that helps me and actually, my energy comes from people, I am a true extrovert. And my husband is a true introvert. So I feel like you're always on opposite ends. And so my husband's restful time, he gets energy from being at home, and I get energy from being around people. And so I think that's really where all of that comes from.

Stanley Aryanto - The Wicked Hunt  6:03  
Wow, that's, that's, that's amazing. I mean, yeah, I can really hear that excitement. And who doesn't want to work with somebody with that much excitement and passion in life right. Now, like, you know, like, you do a lot of like, you do travel, and then you capture also, beautiful shots of your travels, you know, one of your MFT collection was from Santorini, for example, as well as other photos that you've captured in the US with the Milky Way, for example. Those shot doesn't really help people in it, but how do you pull your passion to through those because I could definitely see your love for photography and new love for those spaces without the people in it.

Abrahanny Rodriguez  6:47  
Yeah, that's really interesting. So I was travelling to be a part of a photography conference, outside like an international conference. And I was a part of several of those. But the centering was actually one of the favourite views. Definitely one of the favourite views. Such a beautiful island. And so I take what I what I know, from being a photographer from being a photographer for years now, and apply some of that to landscape. And obviously, I can't compare to some of the big top landscape photographers, but I absolutely love capturing moments like that. And opportunity to show my friends and family where I've been and come back home and show them these beautiful sceneries and people. And so I pour that into that because I feel like oh my gosh, I can't wait for my husband to see this, oh, my gosh, my kids are gonna love it. And so I translate that into what I'm pouring into my camera, what I'm capturing how I'm detailing compositing, we're moving things around, the composition is important, obviously. But in my head, I'm like, Oh, my gosh, I can't wait for my bet my friends and family to see this. And so I feel like I bring that back. And that energy into everything I capture, really, my family is my priority is them. And so every time I'm taking something, or I'm looking at something, I was like, Oh my gosh, they are going to love see this. And so I kind of bring them along with me in my heart, obviously. Um, but yeah, Santorini, I did a collection for the NFT for my NFT, and I just, I translated that as like, I can't do anything.

Photography wise for this conference, or whatever, because I was there either modelling or taking pictures, learning, lighting, and things like that. But then also, I was kind of separating myself and taking pictures on my own, and kind of going off on my own to capture these specific locations that I thought were beautiful. And then thinking, oh my gosh, the way I can share this with the world and do more with it is to put them in a collection as an NF. T. And that's exactly what I did. And, and yeah, so I have I have a passion to showcase where I've been through images, mainly because I'm thinking, Oh, my gosh, look at this scenery. And so I feel that way, when I see your pictures, I gotta tell you, Stanley like, Well, you already know this about me. I love your images. I love them. They're so creative. I think your composite is great. Your composition is amazing. And so I'm thinking to like, oh my gosh, imagine him there on that ice with his hand with his feet up in the air and his hand on that ice. Like, how did he take that shot? Like my head is just question question. That's awesome. This is you know, and so when I go out, I'm thinking, Man, how can I recreate something that I've seen from another photographer or conversation that I've had with someone that's generated this question like, How can I do this? And so I think that's a lot of fun for me, but it's part of the creative process as a photographer of how can I implement what I've learned what I've heard, and maybe that curiosity man I had this doubt like Can I put that into, and I can't do that with the client. Most of the time, obviously, they're asking for you to be creative, and you are, but you can't really step outside of their box and their timeframe and their timeline. And so when I travel, I have the opportunity to do that to step outside of that box and just kind of do some things on my own. Now, I went to France, and I wasn't on my own, I had a little group, and I am so honoured that I got to travel with this group we shared everything was amazing experience. But then it's not like I have my own free will to just go out and do whatever. But it was so cool. And this is why I'm passionate about community is because we would have an idea, and we feed off of each other. And we were like a little group. We had one model, and three of us were photographers and our little group, our core group as we were travelling, and friends were like, Oh, how about this? Oh, how about that. And then I'm all into long exposure, they said, I was like, Oh my gosh, this long exposure. And we'll put Mimi over here. And we will put the model here and the car passing. And then the other guy travelling with us is a light painter who does the long exposure, and he was teaching us how to do certain things on our trips. I was like, oh my god, that was so and so just to like, share, and, and dive in with creative. It generates so much passion, creativity, just love for what you do. And then you come back from those trips, refreshed, renewed, ready to, you know, do new things with your clients ready to try new things. Because to be honest, sometimes. Especially as I was starting out in photography, I would shy away of doing certain things to clients, because I wasn't sure how was it gonna look, but then I wasn't sure if they would give me the creative liberty to do that. And so to go on, and do these things on our own is just so fun.

Stanley Aryanto - The Wicked Hunt  11:51  
Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, it's, it's one of the reason, well, I could definitely relate to what you were saying, you know, one of the reasons why I started photography is to be able to share what I've seen, and it's actually one of the reason why I want to be able to capture better photography, because before when I capture it doesn't really represent what I've seen. So you know, it kind of disappoints me when I share the people. And then I was like, ah, yeah, it's much better when you're there. So that was a big motivation. So it's awesome to be able to hear that from you. And, you know, like, yeah, it's really interesting, because you really find that balance, and it feels like the time alone in your freedom capturing that landscape and your time with people capturing portraits really feed off each other and make your, like, keep pushing the boundary of your photography, which is really great. So before all this, you know, you're you do photography for a living, we do a lot of photo shoot for a lot of people, you know, including some of the welding people and by but before you get there, how did you get started? How do you fall in love with photography and tell yourself that you want to do this for a living?

Abrahanny Rodriguez  13:12  
I love that. You mentioned that because i i started young, I lived in New York, let me start there. I was born and raised in New York, in the creative state of New York City. And the things that I did as part of my curriculum of school was art dance, and the outside of school as well. I did dance, and I did creative things. I did painting. I was so good at it. But I did a lot of creative things. And one of them was modelling. And I was in love with modelling like for me, that was it. That's all I wanted to do forget about singing and everything else. But I was like straight my mom, both my parents, but definitely my mom was very strict on me focusing on something else other than modelling, and I wanted modelling and so my dad was very reluctant, very, you know, Dominican Hardhead a kind of like, no, no, no, you're gonna be selling your body out there. There's a and, but the experience I had on the modelling agency that I was a part of was awesome. It was very gruelling, because you had to learn a lot of things, you had to do a lot of things that will send you on shoes, and you had to represent very well. So it was very trying very, you know, cross border lines, and my parents were like, no, no, no. But I loved it. And then and then I had to stop doing it. And so, um, but I always looked at how the photographers on the other end, were kind of guiding me and I had to take modelling classes, obviously to represent every time you go out like there's a foundation you have to know and modelling was one of them. You have to know your poses, you know how to how to move a flow every time that life flashes, you know, you move a certain way, etc. How to essentially your body. You I learned this early on as a child. And I've never really used it outside of that timeframe until I started doing photography. Now the way I got into photography was because my firstborn, actually right before my firstborn, we had a trip, I went to Venezuela, my husband bought me a point and shoot camera, and we took it on a trip coming back from our trip, the people we were travelling with, I was singing in this band or this travel group. And they came back and asked me, Hey, can we share the pictures that you took while we were on the trip? So we can put on a bulletin board kind of share how our trip went? I was like, of course. It's amazing. Yeah, I love that to last, you know, like, and we had so much fun. So I had a lot of fun pictures. Like I was taking pictures while we were eating and just joking around at the beach, like really cool things. But not while we were like on stage or anything, mainly because I was singing and my husband playing the piano, like there was, you know, a lot of movement. There's not a lot of time for that. But while we were in soundcheck, I was like capturing the cables and things like that with my point and shoot. So someone told me, you have a very creative bias. This is like super cool. And I was like, Oh, you're so kind, whatever, you know, and kind of left it like that. And then my son was born and my husband's like, you should totally, like use a camera to take pictures of him. So I asked him like, Oh, but I don't think you know, so I asked him for like a better gear, whatever. And at the time, we didn't have the budget. So he borrowed a camera or like a semi pro camera or whatever, and was like, Oh, just use it. And we did two pictures of our baby and, and I have those pictures are so fun. They were just for us. There wasn't for you know, to like handout, whatever. But my mother in law shared it with someone my mom shared with someone else. And they're just like talking about how creative my images were. And I was like, oh, that's to kind of you didn't do anything. But then now the place that I was attending where I was singing, I was worship. I was in worship, I sang in a platform anyways. I was in church, and they were like, you're really good at this next Sunday, we have an event Do you want to shoot? And I was like, Okay, I'll do that. And so that kind of got me started. And that was in Jersey, I lived in Jersey at the time. And that kind of got me started on doing kind of events, learning the ropes of like shooting fast. So then I started taking classes online. Creative Live was very instrumental. Taking classes in person, there was a camera store that had photographers come and teach in Jersey, which I took, and my husband was signed me up for these random classes at this photography store. I was like you're going, I'm gonna pick up the kids. Or you can go and I was just like, oh my god, I literally have an hour to get ready. And it was just like those, like, my husband really encouraged and pushed me forward. And he really saw creativeness in me that I didn't see in myself. And he nourished it by pushing me to go into these classes. And then while I was sitting on these classes, sharing my work, the teachers were like, Oh, this is really good. Oh, oh, you should try this next time, you should try that. And that's how that developing grew.

And then I moved to Texas, and I was very, I was connected with some friends here. Because I studied I came to college here, university. And so then they were like, Oh, I have this event. I really need someone to capture this. And then I was like, Okay, how much I was like, No, I mean, just give me money for gas and food. I'm good. You know, like, I'll show up. And that's how that started. And then from then on, I just been shooting a lot of conferences, meeting a lot of people shooting for people with big names only because I knew whoever was managing or planning that event. And so that has been a huge blessing to me. But also the willingness to always learn never think higher of myself ever. I still feel like I'm still learning and growing. I'm still calling on friends and saying, Hey, would you curate this? Tell me what you think about this. And so I think that's important as a creative to always stay learning cameras change, we have to change as well, right? Like gear improve, we have to keep improving. That's my perspective. It says how I see it. So that's how that started.

Stanley Aryanto - The Wicked Hunt  19:25  
That's awesome. I love hearing that, you know, and you're such a humble person has, you know, you just like you always you're a great photographer and you always feel like you know, there's more people out there who are better than you and probably they are but you know, you're a great photographer and yourself. And it's, it's sometimes it's hard for ourselves to see what we're capable of and sometimes it takes someone to believe in us to be able to pursue or realise that potential. Wow. And that's really great that you have a husband who's very encouraging you know, that push you and get you to where you are to do your work, you know what your you really love now, but I think that's, that's really cool story to where it all started. So that's amazing. And so, you know, like we talked about kind of start getting to know photography can I just, you know, playing around with it and dabbling with it. And people are starting to believe or say that your photography good, but you still don't think that it's real? Because you know, people who are close to us probably one say when it's bad, right? That's right. So so what is that point when you realise that your photography is actually good, you know, and that your start believing in your work and start saying that, you know, wow, I can take great photographer, I can offer good value to people, I can capture these different shots and share the story, the moment that you live through this photography.

Abrahanny Rodriguez  21:10  
That's really interesting, because I agree, I feel like I still struggled to this day. And I feel like it started clicking, I feel like I started getting better because I was literally applying what I was learning and just practising often. And I just did it as much as I could set the time, I had two small children to take care of, and I was a stay at home mom, my husband and I decided that, but he but at the same time, I needed something to keep me going. And so my husband would sign me up and get me going. And I was practising my craft, before I did anything outside before I, you know, share my art with other people. And so it gave me some sort of foundation of base to get started. But I didn't think I was good enough for a really long time like yours, like you were saying, until people that I admire or people that I looked up to with say, You got something good going, or they would make small comments, then people that I I respected would share something, you know, that they saw in my image, or they saw in

an event photo that I took, and they said, Man, I cry when I saw that image, or and so then it impacted me that I could create something that would impact other people. And then I was confronted with myself with with their conversation because then it made me reflect man, I'm so negative to myself that I can't even accept their comments. And so then I'm having the the tough issue about what what is it that I'm believing? What is it that I need to start confronting within me? And I had tough conversations like that with my husband who always says, but I always tell you, you're good at this. And you're like, No, I'm not No, I'm not like he's like he's pointing out how often I've done it throughout my entire life. And I've always felt like I'm not good enough. And that is something that I still battle. And I also think it's a thought that we have believed that lie because it's a lie. And we believe this so much that in everything we do we come across first with none good enough to keep pushing, I'm not good enough. It's also helped me push through some of my challenges because I always thought not good enough. So I gotta keep keep keep going. But it's also very harmful and very dangerous. And then we have this imposter syndrome where I don't belong here. I shouldn't be here. I'm not good enough for this. Look at all these amazing people. I still feel that way sometimes with my NMC word when they're not selling you're like, oh gosh, what am I doing wrong? Like you're still I feel like that we are all bad, especially creatives, mainly because our mind is constantly creating new things we are meant to create. There's something in us that's innate to create. And so we are always struggling that what are what are we creating and if I'm creating something isn't good enough because I'm a perfectionist at it. So I want to make sure that my show is perfect. And that's a problem. You know, that's a problem. Sometimes we don't always need to get to perfect. But there's there's something about a creative person that always thinks it's not done. And so we push past that and I push past that now these days with talking to people first my husband and then sharing it with people that I admire, sharing my work with, with other photographers that I value their opinion and I can honestly then say, okay, okay, I'm gonna confront this differently because I hear from you and it's so interesting because you hear from other people, there are some pieces that I must say that I'm be like, Oh my gosh, I work really hard to get this, I used a lot of nuggets to get this piece. This was awesome. And it's really interesting because it doesn't always happen. But in that moment, when it does happen, you feel like, I'm really proud of myself. And so it's like one of those pens in the back that feel really good. And it's like a warm hug to your heart that, that you really felt it, you know, and so I feel like those moments are happening more as they age. I feel like I'm feeling more comfortable in my own insecure skin. But I'm confronting insecurity differently. And as a young, creative, that was really tough. But as I'm ageing, I feel like the more confronted with with positive thoughts, but also with truth, you know, like, go go to someone that has truth, they can speak truth into your life that you value and honour their word, and hear them out, and then analyse it, and then go to someone else that you value and honour and value their work and then see, you know, okay, this is true, this is their truth, this is the truth. They're telling me that this is a lie, I believe, for so long that I need to, I need to get past it through other people's words. And so I feel like words are important, what we say to other people, and important, that's why I try as much as I can to be positive with others, because what we say to ourselves matter, but what we hear from other people matter. And I think a lot of people are going around the world, spewing a lot of words that are not encouraging are not positive, they're not uplifting. And so we have this cycle of negativity, that at least in my worldview, in my if I can help it, I'm going to not be that person.

Stanley Aryanto - The Wicked Hunt  26:56  
That is interesting. You know, I think it's the same for me as well, it was hard to take compliments until I can't remember was it a podcast or, and he was actually he either a podcast or a book. I can't remember which one it was, it was actually directed to women, but I could definitely resonate with it. Because I couldn't take compliment as well. And you know, I'm not sure if it was coming from your culture. But for me, it was definitely coming from a culture right? Where we have to be humble, we cannot you know, any thing where you say, Oh, yes, I am good. Even though you are good, even though in a humble way, you still look as if you're arrogant, which not necessarily true. And in that book or podcast, which I can't remember where it came from, basically say, when you done something good, and you've been complimented, take it just say you know, don't don't downplay it, because most of the times, like, Oh, you're too kind. Thank you. So you say just take it just off. Thank you. I appreciate that, you know, and give that appreciation. But you're right, I think we are our worst critic, isn't it? You know, it's really hard to tell ourselves that we have done a good thing. And, you know, you you just share how it you've been struggling with this and it's difficult to give you that self confidence and give you that that belief that you are in that level comparing to other people, but how do you pass push past that how what are the things that change to a point that you are okay to take compliment that you can start believing on other people, you know, that we are at that level instead of that, you know, they just saying that because they are being nice.

Abrahanny Rodriguez  28:51  
Yeah, I like to read. I like to read I find wisdom with in others, I find wisdom. I'm Faith based, I find wisdom in the word, I find wisdom in things around me. I feel like there's a lot of wise people older than us that have a lot of insight to give us as well. And, and I'm constantly searching and I feel like that also helps. But I got to that point, like you were mentioning that you just gonna say accept it. You know, my husband had a moment with me and set up. He just he just put his fingers up and said no, you're not gonna say a word right after this compliment. You know, he's like, just don't say it. And it just got me thinking I've spent all these years not accepting it so it never allowed me to feel confident in what I do. And I need it to feel confident so I can feel confident in front of others. I can feel confident, not fake phoney confidence where you fake it till you make it. I feel Like that helps you get somewhere for sure. But then you have to live it or you have to live it out. And that came is probably a book. It could be a podcast. Sometimes I walk with podcasts in my ears, and I feel like the confrontation. It could probably be much more wrote Myles Munroe talks a lot about courage and stepping up to your fears, and facing them face head on. And I came to one of those moments where I'm alone. And I have all these thoughts. And I'm thinking, I have to I have to live this in real life, like I have to IRL. And it became so important to me because then I didn't want to be fake and I didn't want to be phoney and I didn't want people to say amen. She's really confident from behind and I hate I hate the BS I hate the back and forth and living a double life. I don't know how to do that anyways, because I'm just so me that I don't know how to not say the truth. And I know people find that really hard about me, because I'm very honest, and I am positive but I'm honest. And I think a lot of people have a hard time also and people can can smell the phoney can smell the fake and I just came to one of those podcasts moment. It could have been Myles Munroe as I'm thinking about it, I could be wrong, or maybe another book of encouragement. And it just came to that point where, okay, I need to walk in this. So what do I need to do? So I started asking people that I trusted at the moment, I was leading a group of women, about 150 women, or so I was just I was just doing like administrative work bringing conference speakers in setting things up for for planning ahead. And that way I was leading other people, right. But one of the conference speakers, she was talking about walking in your truth, and I'm walking in that clarity of mine, where whatever comes your way, it's not going to shake you, whatever comes at you is not going to shake you. Well guess what my insecurities were shaking me to the core. And I think I was about 2520, something like that. When I feel like it started shifting, but it was in the later years, like in a few years ago, maybe four years ago, where it shaped me to the core where I didn't want to do this battle, this dance that you always have with insecurity, I just want to let it go just like they're always going to come, they're always going to jump at you. I just have to decide how I'm going to respond at them. And it was in this conversation that I was listening to one of the speakers talk about insecurities and how women, you know, we deal with things differently. Because we're always trying to resolve and look out for others. And we're more involved in trying to help others.

And so I was like, I want to come across honest and pure hearted and truthful and and sometimes we don't because of insecurities. We don't know how people are taking what we say or what we do. And I translated that into my art. And that was so important because I gave me a sort of confidence that I didn't walk in earlier on earlier in my creative days. And I felt like that was so important. And I can't pinpoint the moment or the time but I remember that certain conversations that I've heard podcasts, books, they all kind of started compiling into like, this moment inside of me like I was done battling. And I still battle with it, but I feel like I confronted differently where it doesn't like weaken me where I stop. And that's what was happening early on where it would, it would be so negative that I just I would just feel like no, I can't. I don't want to shoot that. I don't want to know. And then it became like no, I have to fake it till you make it you have to then okay push me you get you get to push past certain. And then I have people around me surrounding me encouraging me loving on me. And then my husband obviously pushing me forward and say you you got this you can do this, what you're gonna shoot for so itself, man, you got this, you're gonna be great. They're gonna love you. And they did. And it was amazing. And, and I just feel like those moments were transformative. But it started with me learning. It started with me listening to podcasts, reading books, listening to other speakers that search that inner search. It starts with your inner search and how you are going to confront that and come out on the other side. It really has to do with some inner work kind of you know, and know that you're ever going to get over it but you're going to handle it differently.

Stanley Aryanto - The Wicked Hunt  35:01  
That is great, thanks for sharing that, you know, I think it's really cool that you say, you know, you start off with, fake it till you make it and then you end up with walking in your truth. Because I think at the end of the day, if you keep faking it, and you don't really believe in it, then it's not going to change you. And that's, that's really inspiring to hear that, you know, as well as you know, it's really cool that you have a partner who's really as well as a family who's really encouraging about your journey, because, you know, I could definitely see how you translate what they've given you in terms of words of encouragement, you know, believing in, in your, in who you are, and you're you as an artist, and you translate that to someone else, you know, whether it's through Twitter or clubhouse, I can always see that from you. And that is really incredibly amazing to be able to see that. And so one of the thing that I noticed is that, you know, you see that when you first started photography, your your husband would just send you up to classes, and you would sign up to a lot of online classes and stuff like that. And I it's actually one of the thing that I wish I had them when he started, I was I was too cheap. And I was too confident, or I should say arrogant to feel like I could just do this by myself. And you know, if I can make this happen myself, which I ended up did, but it took a really long time, right? Because I have to go through all the different trials and error myself and you know, try different things. But how, how important is that for you? To this this classes that you've taken? How important is that to you and your your growth as an artist as a photographer? And do you think that you know, the money or the investment that you have spent in that have been worth it? And you know, have you been able to shortcut your journey to be able to get to where you want to be to those classes.

Abrahanny Rodriguez  37:20  
I think that's really interesting, I find education is very important, I find that definitely shorten the, the way you get to that ends, right? If someone else can help you in that process, you're gonna get there quicker. I believe that definitely a lot of people have done what you're saying, where you tread it on on your own, and they've done phenomenal, but they've taken a longer period of time, because they were alone. Now, again, I'm all about people. So even if the class that I'm attending at the beginning, a lot of the class that I was attending, we're all learning I was writing, I was in it, I was, and I wasn't participating, like hands up. And let me try it. It was more like, oh my god, I just learned all of this. Oh, my gosh, that is so cool. And then it was reiterating it that made it more mind like that base and foundation was me applying it. And I did early on with my children, I will take their photos, and I will try different things with them. Which is so cool, because then we have photos of them young. But um, the other side I was looking at as practice, like the next time I'm in a different class, I'm going to show up prepared, you know, and so I was very hungry. And I think that that's different for a lot of people, if you show up hungry, you're gonna learn a lot quicker because you want it the type of photography that I do nowadays, I've met a lot of people that do still photography, but it's different than events, events is very fast paced, lights are changing, you have to know your craft. Because the elements are is going to be element of surprise almost every time. And the last minute you're going to get an itinerary. And then temporary change or something is going to you know, or you don't get it until you show up. They're like, yeah, just shoot, do your thing. And you're like, what's happening? What's going on what's first and what's last, you know, those sorts of things, and you have to know your crap, because you can just wing that and be great at it and they're not going to invite you back in then you're going to wonder why it's because you need it to be good at this before you got there. You know, and so I feel like that has helped me a lot. And it's put me in positions and places to be able to manoeuvre through hard difficult, I guess schedules or difficult moments and then you're like, oh, no, I can't finish this without X, Y and Z, you know? And so I feel like all those lessons all those taught me how to get out of a pinch, right get out of a hard situation. Because I learned my craft early on or I practice and I thought honing in. But then I now can be creative because I know the basic. And I tell this to my son, I actually had this conversation with my son a couple of weeks ago. And then again, before he left to Florida, which he left the day, I mean yesterday, but you can be creative with a soccer ball. If you don't know the basic, you're gonna be struggling with the basic, and my son plays phenomenal. But he has this competition, it's the same with photography, we can be phenomenal. But if we don't know the basic, we can just be thrown in any situation and be creative, because we're going to be struggling with the basic. And I think that for me is so important. And if I can leave you with that tip bit like Han in your basic because then you can be creative with everything else in any situation that you're pushed through. Or if you have two seconds to do one photo, it's gonna come out not because you were phenomenal, but because you knew your basic, and then you were created, and then it came up phenomenal. I've had that happen many times when you're on a video shoot, and then they're like, you have 10 minutes to photograph alone without the video. Make something great because we need a cover photo. And it's like, Oh, okay. And then and then you do it. You can, you know, I know the basic opposing I know the basic of all my stuff. So I just like okay, here we go. And even if it wasn't like, wow, the best and I've always come back like oh my gosh, I could have done I should have done. But then I look back and I think it was good because I knew my basic and I can be thrown in these like, you know situations, because I honed in that craft early on learning through other people. Now when I go to some creative classes now. I'm all in it. For the people. I'm like meeting people in real life. Listen, oh, my clubhouse friends, we kind of all say, listen, we're all gonna go to friends, we're gonna do this. And we did. And some of them had to fall out because of COVID situations or whatever. But most of us that that went had a great time, mainly because we were there to be with each other and have fun. And maybe we were there to learn specifically, but we were there to create. And I think that that's also an opportunity when you do these classes in real life or photography workshops in real life, you're there to create. And so you just, you know, there's always an opportunity to learn and grow with others. So that's what I had to say, workshops. I love it.

Stanley Aryanto - The Wicked Hunt  42:32  
That's awesome. Yeah, I mean, like, you know, it's true that, you know, we all this always it can. My mentor, my mentor used to say, well, we probably still saying it, but when he said was, it can always be better, right? But it's, you know, sometimes it just doesn't need to, and it's interesting how you say, you could have, you know, we can always we often we think about how I could have done that we should have done that. But at the end of the day, what you have is, if it's good enough, it's good enough, and you know, you've got to add yourself in the back, instead of, you know, punish yourself for not being able to capture those things. Because at the end of the day, we're only human right. So I think that's really awesome for you to share that journey. And I totally agree with you on classes, you know, now I'm just like, not just gonna go to find someone who can teach me how to do things that I want to learn, instead of, you know, looking at the YouTube or stuff like that, if I could, because it wouldn't shortcut my journey in short cut. And you know, sometimes some of those things that you learn, you might never ever find out on your own as well. So, yeah, it's, it's really cool that you like to read that you like to learn love to go to workshop, and it shows how, you know, it shows on your development as a person as as a photographer. So that's, that's amazing. So, you know, after all these years, you've taken a whole lot of photos, do you have any photo or any moment that you could think of that? Is that you could say one of the proudest moment or proudest photograph that you've ever taken?

Abrahanny Rodriguez  44:22  
That's a hard question.

Stanley Aryanto - The Wicked Hunt  44:24  
I like to ask hard questions.

Abrahanny Rodriguez  44:27  
A hard one. Um, yeah. I feel like I've had the opportunity to work with so many people that I've admire as artists or partner with other photographers that I've admired and and get to meet them in person. And so I just feel like I'm proud of the moment that got me there. And then for sure, if and I just have like, certain shots in my head that I'm just like, I don't remember where it took it, but it's just like so proud of like a concert. moment, for sure, like a big highlight was the shooting at Times Square. I'm from New York now living in Texas. And so to get invited to shoot a concert, in Times Square was just like a big highlight with people that I love and admire who've I've listened to their music for years. Now invite me and my husband, my husband and I to go and photograph their conference. And I wasn't the only photographer, but I was the trusted one that they needed photos right away for the publishing and things like that. And so I had to be more like onpoint everyone else that was there, just kind of like, hey, yeah, we would love to be a part of that. Yeah, shoot for free. Oh, yeah. Then you get Yeah, like, but I was like, this is media related. This is, you know, whatever. So, um, funny story is that most of the images that they capture, and they were all putting it in one hard drive, and they were travelling the next day to what they mana are the creative people that flew in for that. And I wouldn't not allow them to have my images like that, like melodies or raw our way to, you know, wait till they edit, you know, they lost some of the, in the process of gathering so much things that they brought into the square, they had to take back. They kind of like, misplace some stuff at the moment. And they needed it for publication and Mexico right away. So they were like, Hey, can you and I was like on the plane? Like, yes, I can add it. Yeah, I'll give it to you as soon as on that, like, one of those things. But my proudest moment was to shoot at Times Square, I don't care what it was, it could have been an individual image for one person, it could have been a portrait with the square on the at the moment, I didn't care. I was just so excited to shoot at the square. And it was just such an honour. Yeah, I'm just like, you know, those those moments are proud moment for sure. And then I had another opportunity to shoot for the Dallas at the Cowboys Stadium, Dallas Cowboys Stadium, not related to the Cowboys, but they had their mascot come out and all this stuff. I just thought, oh my gosh, this is so cool. I shot there before. But this particular event, we were interacting with some of these characters and people that I see on screen, I'm just like, oh my god, this is so cool. And so I made like on my on my tic tac, a little reel of him dancing that mascot dancing with the people that were there. And it was just so special. And so I feel like I'm I feel very blessed and honoured that I've met. Through my creativity I have met and made some really cool friends that have allowed me to come and join them. And they're fun in their creative moments. And so I'm very proud of

Stanley Aryanto - The Wicked Hunt  47:51  
that. That is really cool. You know, I I love meeting people. I think, you know, one of the things that I wasn't in it for that when I first started but now it kind of the things that got me really love what I'm doing as a photographer is meeting new people and meeting new creative and going on trips with them and, you know, sharing different shots and how they, they are different than the different perspective and how people are thinking differently. And I think that's really cool. So I totally agree with you. And, you know, Time Square is such an awesome place. I haven't been there probably when I was like 12 or something like that. Definitely me to come back so I could see why couldn't be you know, your proudest moment or to shoot?

Abrahanny Rodriguez  48:41  
Well, Madison Square Garden. I just kept pulling it. This is the Madison Square Garden.

Stanley Aryanto - The Wicked Hunt  48:47  
The Madison Square Garden. Okay, right. Yeah. So, anyway, thanks a lot for your time and we're coming to the one hour mark. So you know, there is this question that I always asked my, my guests, which is if there is one advice, whether it's photography or live advice that you could share to the audience who are listening right now, what would that

Abrahanny Rodriguez  49:12  
I find? We talked a little bit about this earlier about insecurity. But if I can leave you with a tidbit that insecurities are gonna come and go

And if we keep push past it, find people that are going to be supportive of you in your art so that you're not alone in your thoughts. So don't be alone in your thoughts. Don't let insecurity stop you. They're gonna come and go have a positive outlook and have someone that speaks into you.

Stanley Aryanto - The Wicked Hunt  1:00:06  
What a great advice. You know, it took me a long time to realise that I actually took Tony Robbins seminar. But a few months ago and I was I realised how important our thoughts are and I realised how negative we are often are to ourselves. You know, we don't usually let other people be negative to us, but we do it to ourselves. It's kind of ironic. That is such a great advice to share. You know, I wish I'd known that a lot sooner. But yeah, that's the thanks a lot for sharing that and you know that you've been really good inspiration. I love how you share your story. I love your energy. And I'm sure the audience too. How can they learn more about you and you know, and see more of your photograph. Other than

Abrahanny Rodriguez  1:01:01  
and thank you so much for letting me share and so grateful. You can always find me on Twitter, at Abraham Johnny AR or Abraham any dot eat I feel like you can search it and you'll find me April hunting My name is comes up on Instagram. I'm Abraham, honey, just my name, my first name. On Facebook, you can find Abraham photography or just Abraham Rodriguez I have both personal and business on Tik Tok. It's also just my name. So I feel like most places, if you just search my name, you're gonna find a wealth of information about me. My website is Abraham needs.com. So you can find some of the things that I've done on there as well for my client work. But yeah, use my name and do probably find me I'm very, my name is so unique. It's gonna stand out.

Stanley Aryanto - The Wicked Hunt  1:01:56  
That's fantastic. All right, well, thanks to all Abra honey for being part of the podcast and being guests and sharing all this knowledge as well as wisdom. We get the hunters, hopefully you find great jam, a lot of great nuggets in there. And hopefully you find inspiration and also listen to some of Abraham any advice that you know she has gone through this process. So why try to figure out on your own when you can, you know, learn from someone who have gone through it. So I definitely recommend you to check out her work work are fantastic. She got beautiful gallery on Instagram, as well as Twitter sees very uplifting, so don't forget to you know, follow her as well as check out her and nifty collection. about centering is that yeah, it's about centering centering. I was just thinking about where that places but yeah, it's absolutely beautiful. Makes me want to go there for sure. But if you haven't, I

Abrahanny Rodriguez  1:03:06  
want to say thank you, family, I want to say thank you for having me. Thank you for your time and this kind interview. I actually I think you are very inspirational. And you're artists and creative that it draws people to know how in the heck did he capture this? I think you're so inspirational. And you're always very encouraging. And you've been a very good friend to me. So I just want to say thank you.

Stanley Aryanto - The Wicked Hunt  1:03:31  
Oh, that is very sweet. Thank you very much, um, ever any and, you know, it's it's been something that got me started in photography is to be able to capture a unique perspective of the world. So I always try to think, how to create something that's totally different that you know, people just like, would How did that happen? So it doesn't always translate to every photograph that I captured. But I'm glad that you know you notice that. So I appreciate that. Thank you. All right, well, we count as don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you can listen to next guests in the next conversation that we have. But with that, thank you very much for being here. Thank you very much for tuning in. And I'll see you guys next week.