We recently connected with Andrien Trujillo and have shared our conversation below.

Andrien, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I started learning photography pretty early, before high school. My uncle was a photographer and my uncle and aunt had a mail in film processing business; and starting learn from him. He gave me some dark room equipment and showed me b/w and color processing. Let just say I was the only student in high school doing color printing. After high school I went to community college and then finished at Rochester institute of Technology for my bachelors degree. There I learned the basics. Upon graduating I was hired through an alumni placement program and started working for a Studio where I assisted multiple photographers. I learned quickly each photographer’s routine. Knowing now I would have started assisting photographers while in high school. The best learning is on set and learning from multiple photographers, there is alway more than one way of doing things. I believe listening and looking at how they photographed was the most essential part of me learning; being a visual person. If there was any written instruction, being dyslexic; that was my obstacle and has been my entire life.

Andrien, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As I mentioned, my learning from my uncle and taking classes in high school. At that point it was a hobby until the end of high school and I started thinking on what I wanted to do as a career. By the time I got to RIT I was giving academic choices of biological photography, photo journalism, fine art photography, and advertising photography. I chose advertising, with specialized in architecture and product photography. One memorable problem I had years ago was when 360 photography first came out. I had been working with an ad agency and they had a quick project to photograph some resorts. I remember learning this new 360 computer software on the plane and by the next day of out shoot have to do it seamlessly. I would need to stitch multiple images together to get one image. Technology has come a long way and today software and do this process in a matter on seconds. I’m a humble person and love what I do, my work is a reflection of who I am, so I strive to do my best even on projects or products that one may not think deserves. For me, I want people to know that I can give them great work but it’s a team effort. There are people in front and in back of projects that make it all work seamlessly. This is my humble part of me, and I say thank you all for making assignments happen; from the client, assistants, producer, retouching, and everyone else involved.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Just at the end of 2020, I had to pivot my career. I had fallen ill and was in a toxic work environment. And in the middle of covid I decided re resign from my position , sold our home, and move to Texas to be closer to family and take care of my self. I had no job lined up but knew that once I was better that I’d find work.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

I don’t have any stories of near death for the business but do for myself while on a job. While on a job in Idyllwild Ca. I started out that day scouting the location for our shoot. We had a rental property up above a small creek and on the other side was a nice flat area. So I decided to go check it out, so I was down and crossed a fallen tree over the creek. I went and took a few shot and decided it was a good location for the shoot. On the way back I started walking on the fallen tree when I swarmed by an under ground nest of yellow jackets. I did not know what hit me and needed to escape. The opinion I took was to jump off the tree to a boulder 4 feet below on the creek. I started yelling that I was being attacked and started jumping from boulder to boulder across the creek and back up the embankment. Camera in hand I could not get up, so I threw it up on the ground above. I climbed up and ran to the cabin we rented. Everyone asking what they could do. I asked for the spa lid to be opened as I stripped to my underwear and dove in. Keep in mind I had clients, models, and crew all around. When my client ask if we should cancel, I said no, I took a anti histamine and took out about a dozen of the yellow jackets that had stung my head. I never forget that day.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Andrientrujillo.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrien_trujillo_photography?igsh=d3ViYWZlZTczM2d2&utm_source=qr, https://www.instagram.com/andrien_trujillo_photography?igsh=d3ViYWZlZTczM2d2&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1CRQ3GLCa1/?mibextid=wwXIfr
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrien-trujillo-4716b25/

Image Credits

Food styling by Frankie Chacon- soup shot

All others are all me, The shoes and jersey shot for Hertiage Auctions.

All others self promotion