Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Andy Araya. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Andy, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Stepping out of high school and going into college was something I wasn’t expecting to do to pursue any career of my choice. I always associated career moves to higher levels of education in which I decided to enter college with a shroud over my head that would cloud my path. I remember at one point in time during high school I was in JROTC (Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps) and thought it would be great to continue to pursue these activities, but also being a part of Television Production was something that was etched into the back of my mind for some time. I ended up wishing to pursue photography and video by buying my first camera (Canon EOS 60D) and starting out on my own (This was happening during college so I would sometimes miss my classes just for a chance to go photograph or film locally at churches or events). As I pursued this craft, I knew that I was missing out on the educational aspect of the workforce requiring a degree to secure a better position in any corporation I worked at, but I enamored by the thought of capturing emotions and feelings through my camera to pursue it even more. I decided to take a risk and take a break from college during the summer and fall term and work under a photographer called LeoPhotographer. This was my first break into the industry by becoming a light assistant and working under a well known Miami wedding photographer who’s images were breathtaking. As I learned about lighting, composition, and the art of capturing emotion, I started to wish I could do this on my own and working for myself (I worked a part time in Aventura Mall and was called for being an assistant on the weekends). After about a year and half of learning under Leo, I decided to pursue the wedding industry myself and began to self-teach myself how the industry functions, how to create relationships with vendors, ways to market and expose myself to new clients and it was difficult at first. Looking back at the time that passed from college to working under Leo has shown me that these small risks wouldn’t have put me in the position that I am in, to even mentoring close friends wishing to pursue the industry through my own personal knowledge. These small steps have eventually led me to having clientele searching through me through word of mouth and even the relationships formed with close venue vendors like Club Tropical Ballroom in Hallandale Beach. Going back and forth between working part-time, full-time, and earning my AA degree has taught me that risks are important if you’re willing to put the work in towards what you really want, and what mountains you are willing to cross to get to the position you want to be in.

Andy, 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?

My name is Andy Araya and I am an avid food enthusiast, traveler, and a lover of capturing through my camera lens. I always aspired being able to travel more frequently and being able to see the different wonders of mountains, lush forests, cascading waterfall formations, just about anything that is breathtaking to the eye with my camera. I started getting into photography in my sophomore year in high school back in 2010 and had amazing teachers and mentors throughout that time to senior year (Go class of ’12!). This took me through a series of steps that would teach me through trial and error on how and what to improve, how to resolve current issues in the industry (Competition versus Community), and falling in love with the craft every single chance I get to take my camera out. This journey was full of trials I had to overcome as I would eventually work under amazing photographers but wanting to create a name for myself in which I took the leap and created Array Media from my experiences. Array Media is the name that my friends close to me thought of as a play on words of my last name, Araya, and the skillsets of photography, video, production, drone, and just about anything I had a chance to create with my hands. I dove into wedding and events as there are so much emotion that erupts from the beginning of the day to the end of the night. Ranging from photography during the getting ready, to having engagement sessions months before the big day, or even capturing the love of a father and daughter at their coming of age ceremony has so much emotional influence on me that I want to capture it. One of the main things I believe in is the amount of confidence with entrusting someone with your big day and creating art from that confidence and that’s what I wish to capture every chance I meet with a new client or a recurring client. Having the emotional intelligence of how to capture the love, joy, or even solace of community brings a sense of accomplishment that I was present in that moment.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

One of the most difficult moments in my life would be my mental health taking an immense toll back in 2017 as my father, who was in his mid 70’s, had a hernia that had him hospitalized for some time. This was something I wasn’t expecting, coming from a Latin American household, as we grow up seeing our parental figures as hard working individuals who keep moving non-stop until they get older. In 2017 after one of the hurricanes hitting South Florida, my father was cleaning up the back yard and felt immense pain as he was trying to get up. This prompted us to take him to the hospital to be admitted to then waiting for a day to visit the following day. Walking into his hospital room where my father laid in bed in pain completely shattered me mentally as I realized that he was getting older and he wasn’t as young as he used to be when we were growing up. This in turn during my photography career caused me to have a poor work ethic and delay of months and months to deliver galleries and albums. I kept to myself as I had no one to express how I was feeling and bottling up the emotions that I felt and eventually causing myself to suppress and move forward. It was then realizing that talking to one of my friends that I saw a pattern where I would close up and start to drag on through life, but I had to make that change of not allowing these circumstances to slow me down. My mental health has been an opportunity of growth where circumstances cause me to slow down, but as time progressed from 2017 to now, I realize that these are moments in life that pass by and that it’s not an anchor that should hold me down. I will experience moments where it feels like I’m falling but then become steadfast and push myself to keep moving ahead slowly but surely.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

My social media following is something that I personally still struggle to build within this day, but one of the main things I notice over years of using my accounts is that networking is your best friend. Being able to have the chance to represent your brand as well as displaying who you are as a person will resonate to those who wish to reciprocate that energy you provide. My following is a mix of vendors, clients, and new businesses that find me due to the image I paint through my art over time. Your social media also becomes an advertisement through your clients who will refer you to new clientele through word of mouth and how you present yourself to them in the beginning. Build yourself to be the individual that you wish to show your clients and have them speak on your behalf as well, getting to recount the experience you provided, getting to speak about how your character made them feel at ease, and have your following flow through them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.arraymediacreative.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arraymedia
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArrayMediaCreative/
• Other: Vimeo – https://vimeo.com/arraymedia