Today we’d like to introduce you to Arnulfo “Arnie” Diaz.
Hi Arnulfo “Arnie”, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started as a photographer and videographer back in 2018 after almost a decade in the service industry. Film and photos were always a deep passion of mine. I constantly loved the aspect of telling stories, and I loved the idea of making a living doing that for people.
My rise in the photography business really kind of coincided with the changing of the way the business is going at this moment. I started off working for Epic Productions, which taught me everything I needed to know. They do photo and video for weddings, and that’s where I cut my teeth, where I learned how a wedding day happens, how to flow with the wedding day, and how to truly pose and be present with couples.
I do more than wedding photo and video. I’ve done live concerts, events, a music video here and there as well, and I am constantly always looking for a different avenue to express myself. Photo and video for weddings is my bread and butter because simply it’s just the steady money in my professional life.
As a wedding photographer, this has coincided with me having done over 300 weddings, meeting people from every different kind of culture and also being witness to different kinds of aspects of cultural significance when it comes to the ceremony of weddings.
I picked up a camera for the first time when I was in high school, creating slideshows for all of the theater plays that I would be a part of, just kind of showing the process, and eventually doing some slideshows for student council. I really grew to love capturing pictures there.
For a long time I didn’t see photo and video as a job to push myself. I roamed the world of the service industry for a very long time before I finally decided it was time to put the apron down and really hit the ground running when it came to doing photo and video.
I started off by buying my first true professional camera, a Canon 5D Mark II, and doing my really good friend’s pregnancy portraits. I did those for free, but those were the first pictures in my portfolio. This was back in 2018.
After that I just put myself out there as much as I could, doing portraits for people here and there, and then eventually starting to do a few of my first weddings from there. I also do freelance work of all kinds, with weddings being my bread and butter, but I also do yearly events. From there, my freelance work has grown to include the Brotherhood for the Fallen gala that the Dallas Police Department puts together every year, and the Plano Comedy Festival, doing photo and video for them every year as well.
I worked very hard to cultivate a good word-of-mouth and referral base that has served me very well. I also do a fair bit of contract work, which I find is really useful to fill out a calendar.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I see the biggest struggles that are always involved in these kinds of entrepreneurial pursuits as the fact of how many disciplines you actually do need to learn to have a successful business. I practice my photo and video skills constantly and I’m always learning new things, but it’s not enough to just be a good photo and video taker.
Entrepreneurial pursuits mean that you have to be a good marketer. You have to be a good communicator. You have to be an incredibly well-organized person as well, and you also have to understand the nuts and bolts of insurance, the way contracts work, and all of that.
One of the biggest struggles for me is understanding that I have to be the one to push myself to make sure that I get everything done in a timely manner. Self-motivation is a skill, and that’s something that you definitely have to learn if you want to do anything like this.
Gaining new clients is not easy. It’s legitimately probably the hardest aspect of this entire business, and any entrepreneurial pursuit for sure. I’ve spent days studying Udemy courses on how to market yourself on various social platforms, learning CRM software to better manage my current work when it comes to communicating with clients. I’ve read many books, like The One Thing, about self-motivation and how to make sure you get the most done with the least amount of time that you have.
I see the biggest struggle as just understanding that when you want to be an entrepreneur, you can never really take any days off. I check my email literally every 15 minutes of the day. You kind of have to in this world.
But the challenges have given me a life that I truly enjoy, and I’ve given myself full autonomy to make my schedule and to live the life that I truly want to live without having anyone telling me what to do. That is worth everything.
I will say that at the beginning it truly was difficult, but as the work is done, clients are happy, and my work is being shared, it does get easier. I don’t always have to rely on social media to be my only avenue of getting new clients. Word of mouth is truly powerful, and luckily we’ve gotten to a point where that is where most of my clients come from, and I am so grateful for that. It’s the fruits of your labor.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As a photographer and videographer for weddings, and for anything else, I always pride myself on being a person, being a photographer, that can truly capture the moments that happen between people naturally. Of course, throughout the course of a wedding day, there are absolutely moments for polished, clean, posed pictures. That’s the nature of the business and the art that we’re working in, for sure.
But people come to me because they want someone that is going to be able to understand when moments are happening, and when interactions between two people are organic and beautiful. My wedding style is timeless and journalistic, with a hint of polish. That’s what I seek to deliver to my wedding clients.
When it comes to much of my freelance work, it’s the same. I want to tell stories of the people that are in my frames. When I’m taking pictures of comedians, whether they’re performing their stand-up, I always want to make sure that I emphasize the moments where their jokes are beginning to land and when they are very much in the moment of communicating the best parts of their bits.
When I’m taking concert photography, it’s always about understanding the emotions of a song and how intently the artists are expressing themselves, and capturing the moments where they are being completely themselves in their art.
I’ve done so much work with other artists that I’m most proud of being able to give content to other artists when they’re doing their thing.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
You know, I’ve been really lucky in my life that I’ve had several mentors and teachers that have really helped me cultivate my mindset and really kind of create the person who I am today. First and foremost, I always want to thank my teachers, several teachers of note: Miss Bramlett, Mr. Parr, Mr. Dumbo, Mr. Williams, and I also had a really great elementary school music teacher named Nolan Aarny.
These teachers really helped me understand that I could work hard at something and be good at it if I just tried and worked towards a goal.
When it comes to really doing photo and video, I had two mentors that really helped me out: Cody Oscar and Justin Masiker. I met them while doing some contract work at the very beginning of my photo and video journey, and they truly helped me understand the mechanics of how to work my way around a camera.
They taught me the basics of lighting, flash, rule of thirds, the exposure triangle, and were my champions when I was out doing my first weddings, helping me navigate how complicated that work can be.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://arniediazphotography.com
- Instagram: arniediazphotography
