Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Hernandez.
Hi Aaron, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started AaronVisions in the summer of 2021 but it wasn’t until around May of 2022 that I really started to take it seriously. When COVID first happened, and I’m talking about the first few weeks when you couldn’t even leave your house, I started watching all these travel videos on YouTube and became obsessed with traveling. Ironic as I couldn’t even leave the house.
In the months that followed, I wanted to get a camera to make YouTube videos. I grew up in the YouTube area and I always wanted to make videos but never did. I felt like it was a great time to start. The reason that I made AaronVisions and the decision to take photos for other people was strictly to make back the money that I spent on the camera which I think was around $700.
The first event that I did was called The Bitcoin Classic. It was a basketball tournament but the twist was that the payouts were in Bitcoin. I cold-emailed the event and asked to be a part of the media team. At this time, I had no portfolio and the only pictures on AaronVisions were some I had taken of my friends that had nothing to do with basketball (they’re still there if you scroll far enough).
The guy who ran the Bitcoin Classic, Yusuf, told me that he already had a media team but asked if I could make him a trailer for the event. So I drove to Gibson Park one day which is about 25 minutes from where I live, and I spent about 20 minutes taking pictures and videos of the inside and outside.
When I put everything together and sent it over, I asked Yusuf how I could be compensated. He said he could let me into the event for free. I thought that was good enough but I saw that in addition to the tournament, there was a dunk contest and a 3-point contest. I can’t dunk but I am a shooter and at that time in my life, I was waking up at 5 am to go to the gym and shoot. I asked him if he could let me get in the 3-point contest and he said yes.
I ended up winning it all and while I didn’t get paid for the filming I did that weekend, I did get paid for winning the 3-point contest. It was the most money I had ever had in my life combined at that point. $2000. From that day on I realized how much more there was to being a photographer than just taking and editing pictures, and ever since that day, my life changed.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I have been super lucky and can say that I have had a very smooth road. The biggest problem that I faced was just trying to scale to a point where I could make real money. There are times when you start to listen to the outside noise and doubt yourself and your ability.
However, that quickly goes away when you start to focus on how blessed you are and how far you have come. 18-year-old me would be very proud of how far I’ve come and 12-year-old me would be freaking out about how many NBA players I’ve not only met but became friends with.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My company AaronVisions is a multimedia company that specializes in photography and videography. Over the years I’ve been able to grow my network and meet people that I otherwise wouldn’t have if I had never picked up a camera.
I’m most proud of how I’ve slowly been able to find my own lane and identify other ways for me to continue to grow in my personal and professional life. I feel like I’ve put myself in a position where I have multiple options and opportunities that will help me get to where I want to go, I just need to continue building and working hard.
What’s next?
I don’t have super specific plans for the future or at least not that plans that I would like to talk about publicly, yet. But I can’t wait to see what is in store. I believe that when you work as hard and as smart as you can, you will ultimately end up where you want to be. I also think that it’s very important to be able to adapt to what’s going on.
Life today looks very different for me than life a year ago and part of that is because I’m not scared to make changes for what I think will affect my life in a positive way. It’s not always easy, but it is necessary. Also, no decision is ever the “right” decision because of how many factors are at play in our lives but that’s a conversation for another day.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Instagram.com/AaronVisions
Image Credits
@dbrwnjr, @shotbynie, and @shotbycuh
