Welcome back to another episode of the Nick Amp Podcast. It's episode 26. Thank you guys again
for tuning in. I can't wait to share this episode with you. This is a very special one to me.
I had one of my friends on Arturo Carrillo. He's a photographer based out of Dallas, Texas, but he's
not just a photographer. He's a low light photographer. He specializes in low light.
He runs a community-based business. It's called The Art Factory. They host workshops
and they teach people how to do low light photography. It's one of the most coolest
things I've ever seen. I met up with him last month in Yosemite. He showed me a couple tips
and tricks about low light photography. I can't wait to share with you our conversation. We talked
about a lot of things from photography, creativity, finding your voice, connecting with real people,
and taking relationships offline, and being able to share your voice out and to build confidence
in who you are as a person to be able to put out your art because your art matters.
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I read all the comments below. Now that we got that all out of the way, let's cut to the episode
where I'm chatting with Arturo Carrillo. Let's get to it.
All right, here we are, episode 26 with my good friend Arturo.
We actually just hung out about a month ago now. Arturo, thanks for being on, brother.
Thank you, man. It's a pleasure being on here and being able to talk and seeing you again
after seeing each other in LA for the first time. Or Kelly, should I say.
Heck yeah, man. So I mean, you're a Texas guy right off the bat. You're from Vegas originally
in Texas now. What was it like being back on the West Coast after some time away?
Honestly, it felt like a fresher breath of air seeing what I called home. I mean, it's still
home to me and it always will be. But going back now that I lived in Texas for about five, six years,
honestly, I fell back in love with the West Coast and I realized how much I took it for granted
and everything I was missing out on. And maybe that's just because of my perspective now as a
creative, being a photographer, videographer, you know, we see things differently. We see things
through a camera lens a lot of times and being able to take that perspective back home with all
my experience that I have now, it's like I just want to move back now because there's so much I
want to do out there. The West Coast is amazing, has all these crazy scenes. And you talk about how
coming back with more experience of the West Coast makes you see things in a different perspective.
But let me ask you this, being back in Texas now after being out in the West Coast,
have you looked at where you live currently any differently after making another trip back from
the West Coast? Yes. Yeah. I think the more and more I have the chance to travel,
the more I come back to Texas just because now it's home. Every single time I come back,
I see it differently and I try and not take the day to day, I guess, space environment, the features,
the nature specifically in Texas for granted anymore. I think just traveling gives me that
same fresh perspective that I got on the West Coast allows me to see that same perspective here
in Texas now. I see it every day, but a lot of people don't. So how can I showcase Texas the way
I see it with my creativity and allow other people to see it as well? So yeah, I think just
traveling in general has helped me not take stuff for granted when I'm back home, when I see things
every day, because it does get kind of repetitive in a way. So being able to step out of that and
put myself in a creative mindset or even a photographer or even someone considered a local
now, just seeing things and not taking it for granted anymore and knowing that there's
opportunities everywhere you go, even though it may not seem like it, especially since you consider
it home and you see it every day. So you make a good point there, showcasing Texas from your
creative point of view and people who might not see it, people who may not understand its beauty,
or another set perspective, you see something every day, it becomes ordinary to you. My perspective,
I live in a cool area. I have all these cool mountains where people always travel across
the world to come see these spots. Imagine how I feel about these spots. Sometimes they seem
ordinary to me. So then you have to break out of that comfort zone, get your mind in the right area.
Okay, how can we showcase this with our own creative point of view? How can we showcase this
to make it in a different light? How can we make this look not ordinary? And you do a fantastic job
creating stories no matter wherever you're at. And I'm curious to know what is the creative scene
like now being there in Texas? What's it like in Texas, the creative scene? We know the creative
scene is in LA, all these other areas, but you have built a community in somewhere that, at least
from my eyes, I didn't realize that there was a place for that there. I mean, actually when I
first got to Texas, there was a few creative communities that I was trying to maybe get into,
but I just felt like I didn't fit in. And the longer I stayed here, the more I felt like I
just didn't fit in because I wasn't finding or the right people weren't coming into my life that
shared the same passion that I'd had. Yes, we do photography. Yes, we all do videography, but in
the sense of shooting the same style, having the same ideas. So I think the community was always
here. I just wasn't looking in the right places. And when I finally found the community, it was
like a web, like one person led to five people, those five people led to another five people
individually. So it's like a snowball effect. Once you find a creative, they introduce you to
another one. And then from there, you find someone else and then someone else. And I was like,
right, cool. I'm starting to find creatives and people I really connect with on and offline.
So how can I create a space where we can all come together instead of individually meeting,
maybe for coffee, maybe for a photo shoot. I was like, okay, cool. How do I bring this all together?
And still do what I love, which is low light photography. So, I mean, that's how the Art
Factory was born, being able to provide a space where people can test that, have fun with it,
kind of experiment and get people together. Because a lot of us show up online for each other.
And being able to take that offline and connect in person holds so much value. And
it's like the glue that keeps the community together. It's being able to show up for each
other in person and being able to share that space to actually create together and not just support
each other online. So yeah, I mean, it's been a blessing finding the community here and it's only
growing and I'm excited. I meet like someone new every single day. So yeah, I'm just excited to see
where it takes me now that I found my community. Now you touched on a few points there and I want
to concentrate on a couple, unpack some of the topics that you talked about there. And one of
them to start out with is building this creative community. I have had someone else on who they run
a creative community slash outdoors community in Utah, based out of Salt Lake and people all over
the state come together, hanging out all the time, right? And I've just been really curious
and wanting to pick people's brains who are successfully building these communities,
what your approach is to building a community. How can someone who lives in Arkansas,
the first state that came to mind, build a community there? How do they go about it?
What kind of approach should they be taking? What would you give advice to these types of people?
I think my number one advice, and I guess if I could do it all over again, would just be to
invite anyone and everyone to stuff that I want to shoot. So say I have a photo shoot this weekend.
Hey, so it's so and so come out, hang out, come shoot with me. I'm doing this set. Because
if you're creating what you love and you're sharing that, it's going to come naturally and
it doesn't feel forced in a sense where there were some times where, for example, other meetups that
we do, there were some times where we would kind of force a concept and be like, all right, cool,
we're going to go shoot this. And it almost felt like a job trying to put this together instead
of being like, all right, cool, like I want to shoot this. Now, how can I do it so other people
can join me? So I think if you're creating stuff that you already love, just invite people out,
ask people to come along. You'll get a lot of no's, but you'll get a lot of yeses too, eventually.
And I think in a world where we're moving so fast and things are happening, you know, like minute
after minute, you know, you hear about all these wins, all these success stories, everyone starts
comparing themselves of, oh, I'm not moving fast enough. But take your time to create what you love
and invite people out to join you on that journey. And you'll slowly start building that community
of people who love to do the same things you love to do instead of trying to follow the same path
instead of trying to force something that you don't necessarily love. And getting a lot of no's
and it kind of pops your bubble in a sense where it's like, oh, okay, like no one really likes my ideas
or I'm trying to create some stuff for the community, but they're not liking it. Okay, cool.
Just do what you love, invite people and you'll slowly start growing it. Don't try to build a fast
community, try to build a strong community. So I guess that would be my biggest advice is just
create what you love and invite people to join you along that. So there's a saying, Arturo,
do the things that you love, join the groups that you want to join, whether it's running,
photography, whatever, it doesn't matter. We're talking about the creative industry.
And you're going to find the people who are interested in it. If you want to fight like-minded
individuals, do what you like to do, put it out there because more than likely this world is bigger
than you realize. And there's people all around that will be interested in what you like to do.
So I really appreciate you going into detail about putting yourself out there and actually
doing what you love instead of trying to fit in, put yourself into this puzzle piece where maybe
you feel like, Hey, it's kind of cool, but it's not really what I'm interested in, but it's kind
of feeling the void for the time being. And so I really appreciate you delving into that.
And another thing I want you to unpack is taking the relationship offline and how that keeps the
community together. Because a lot of the times you see this, I've seen this and you can tell,
we had this conversation in the car back in Yosemite. You can tell when someone's being
authentic or not authentic. And that's something I pointed out to you that even through social
media and messaging, you came out authentic to me. And how do we translate these online
relationships to offline and maybe someone's scared to do it?
So this is something I've been thinking about lately as well and how to better share this
because I do feel like a lot of people struggle with this is being able to build that strong
connection offline. And I think where I'm leaning more towards is when you get together,
don't necessarily get together for the first time to do a photo shoot, get together for coffee,
go get lunch, go get breakfast, whatever the case may be for you and your situation,
go do something outside of what brought you guys together and find connections there.
Because you already connect on a creative aspect. That's why you guys are reaching out. That's
where you guys want to collab. So if you can find other ways to further strengthen that bond,
that connection, then you'll find it a lot easier to kind of grow together and not necessarily just
grow together creatively, but grow together as a person, as an individual. And the bond's going to
be a lot stronger. There's a lot of people that I've met at the meetups that I've kind of still
connect with, but that bond of, hey, let's go get coffee, let's go do this. It's not necessarily
there. And it's something I'm working towards. But I've had individuals where it's like, dude,
I love your work. You know, so much fun meeting you and shooting with you. Hey, you want to go
grab a coffee and just kind of talk about some ideas? And I was like, dude, let's do it. Sure.
Let's run it. And I found that when I do that, those are the people I still talk to to this day
that I hit up last minute. Like, hey, yo, I got this project I need to do. Like, can you help out?
And they're usually the ones that show up for me offline in any case, whether it be emergency or
if it's just a hangout. So yeah, I think finding something that connects you other than creativity
and the camera, it's going to go a long way for you and that person that you're trying to connect
with. Arturo, so a lot of people in this online realm, they tend to think that this is reality.
And if you're following me here, they see everyone on here and they think that is what real life is
like. And you talk about finding these connections outside of the creative side, the camera,
because clearly we both have the same interest in cameras, me and you, let's talk about me and you,
for example, okay. We have connections in that. But if you find connections differently, I see
what you're saying here. You can foster that relationship. And a lot of people tend to think
all people are is what they see online. What kind of advice can you give to people to help them
separate their mindset to realize, yo, this guy Arturo on social media is just a real dude.
Yeah, he takes these dope photos, but he's just a dude just like me. How can we help those people
kind of shift their mindset or what would you tell them to approach it? How would they approach this?
I think when you obviously connect with the people online that you kind of resonate with,
whether with what they're creating or how they maybe tell stories or maybe something they're
going through in life. I've always looked at the camera as a tool to help you share
your personal story and your hobbies and your interests, because that's who you are.
The camera is in you. Your work is a piece of you that you share, but the things behind the camera,
the things you shoot in front of the camera are the things that you love that kind of speak to
your soul. So if you can connect and see that and understand that everyone on social media is putting
their best foot forward, but you don't really know what's going on behind. So like I said, taking the
time to go get that coffee, go get that lunch, go hang out, go to the museum, go on a hike,
go on a road trip like I just did with Juan and Ria. I think I've connected more with them
in those moments than I ever did collaborating with them on a photo shoot.
Having the confidence to know that there's a person behind that account. I think so often we put people
on a pedestal, if it's the numbers or maybe their level of work, the quality of work they're producing.
Just remember there's a human behind there. We all love to be seen. We all love to be heard.
So take the time to listen, take the time to see them, show up for them, and you'll find that more
people will start showing up for you as well. So I think have the courage to reach out and put the
cameras away and go hang out and do something you love to do. If you guys both love to hike, go hike
and you'll see that you'll connect on a deeper level. And the topic of creativity won't even be
there because you're talking about personal stuff at that point. Yes, 100%. And when you talk about
building that connection network from the camera is huge. And with your building, with your current
projects, Art Factory, this community that you're building, can you delve into what it's meant to be?
Where you see it going and why?
So where it's going, I have a vision of where I want it to go, but I'm not forcing it to go there
if it's not the route I'm meant to take. I want it to be a space where people can get together
and connect and share that offline aspect of fostering a relationship. And I've slowly seen it.
The Art Factory is almost a bridge to connect people.
How do I say this? I love to connect with people, right? But I've always struggled to find that
connection when I first started. So being able to facilitate a space where I'm providing that
connection for someone and two individuals to connect brings me so much more joy than seeing,
I guess, what photos I took or what photos they took because a lot of people that come to the
meetups are now working together. I see they share posts, they collaborated on brand work,
they're hanging out outside of the photography aspect. And
I pretty much see the Art Factory as a bridge to connect people and facilitate that offline
connection. And that's the space I want to take it and bring it into a global aspect of, hey,
for example, I have Nick in California. You know what? Nick, give me a day, give me a time.
I want you to host an Art Factory meetup so you can bring your community together.
Let me know what you need, how I can help so I can facilitate that space for you. Because
the biggest struggles I find is that equipment, models, and
people are usually the hardest obstacles to overcome. You might not know who to reach out to
or what equipment to use. So if I can help you as Nick host this event to bring that, why not do
that? So being able to empower people to create meetups and create a community or even have a
community there. Not necessarily build it from the ground up, but help improve a community that's
already there. And that's why I think our core pillars, it's family growth, freedom. It's all
about the family. It used to be community, but community has been associated a lot with just
online, your online community. So a family shows up for you for the good and the bad.
And that's why we ended up switching that pillar to family because we want people to show up for
each other when things aren't going good. Maybe they're having a hard time landing a brand. Hey,
let me help you. And growth, obviously when you get together, you know, two heads are better than
one type of deal. So you know, you can always grow and learn from someone, no matter their experience
and the way you're doing it. And then finally, you know, you can always grow and learn from
someone. And then from that growth, you slowly start building your freedom and finding your voice
and whatever sense the freedom word means to you. So I think that's the direction we're going with,
and I hope it stays there. I do have a dream of building this oasis with the art factory where
people come and shoot movie level sets, like production sets
at the fraction of the cost because who doesn't like shooting cool stuff and being like or feeling
like they're on a production set. So that's another little goal that I have for the art factory.
And maybe one day it opens up in Utah or somewhere else, but that's kind of what we're headed towards
right now.
Serving other people has to be one of the highest callings, if not the highest calling
that you can do helping others. And most businesses, groups, brands, whatever you want to call it,
because if you're just a business, you're not trying to be more than just to make a couple bucks.
Brands, community, family, most of them do not succeed because they're not focused on their
audience, their community, their family, their people that they're trying to serve.
And you talk a lot about empowering them, serving them, helping them, and fostering this community
within each other, building their voice, finding their voice.
Where did this come from for you? Did you always have this sense of serving others or was this
something that developed later? Was it something that you always wanted to do? And I don't mean
something you always want to do with the art factory. I mean serving, helping. Is this something
that's always been a part of you?
I think it has. Just growing up in general, being from a very traditional Mexican household,
the men are always seen as the breadwinners, the ones that need to go out and provide and help out.
And I think I take a lot of that and implement it to my ethics and morals that I've grown to
become and who I am now. And maybe that's the reason why I ended up serving in the military as
well, is serving the country. And honestly, that's probably one of the reasons why I left,
because a lot of it was self-serving in my eyes in terms of trying to get to the next rank or
be better so you can move up in rank. And I think that's probably one of the reasons why I left.
So you can move up in rank, be better than the next person beside you. And that's just a very
small aspect. Of course, the military fosters family and it's all about family. We do team
building exercises and it's always no man left behind or women left behind. So
I just saw things in people growing up where it's like, I don't want to make someone feel this way
or I don't want to upset anyone. How can I help you? I was never taught to kind of build myself
up individually. Yes, I have my individual goals, but I was always taught growing up.
Like, hey, go help them and they'll help you in return and maybe you'll help each other eventually.
So I think it's just it comes from tradition in my, I guess, personal sense. And then
I try, how do I explain this? I try and put myself in other people's shoes or I try to put myself
in the person I'm talking to and how they see me. And I've known the struggles of being alone.
When I started my creative community, I was alone. That's why I did a lot of the self portraits that
I did because when I didn't have the confidence in reaching out or I just didn't think my skills
were good enough to offer help. And it wasn't until I switched that mindset and I was like,
you know what, let me just start reaching out and see who I connect with. And then I just
started reaching out and see who I connect with. And I started finding people that helped me
grow. And how can I do that for someone else? Because that feeling of having someone to help you
is just food for the soul. So if I can make other people feel that way, the same way people made me
feel when they helped me out and made me feel like I accomplished something. Okay, cool. I want to do
that for others. I want to continue that and help people help other people get there. And
showing up offline has been that for me has been been kind of the food for my soul of wanting to
help others is just because I've seen others help me. And the feeling is just there's no other
feeling from it. So being able to share that and give that to other people is just kind of what
drives me. That's a good deal. And the reason I brought this up is because from my perspective,
I feel like you share that perspective in a very interesting time where most people,
and I don't want to be general here. I mean, there's a lot of good people out there. You just
have to build those relationships offline. But what we see online, it's a lot of
building themselves up, serving themselves, not asking the question within,
what do I bring to the table? Not what do they bring to the table? How can they help me?
How can I help them? Not just about giving tips, but genuine value that goes beyond the information
showing up offline is what you said. That goes beyond any little tidbits of knowledge that you
can give them 100%. That'll change someone's life. And I know you know that. Yes. So to delve into,
to delve into, keep going into your art factory, you just announced something really big, man.
I couldn't be more happy for you. The Nikon partnership. Is this a milestone in your eyes
that has brought some positive outlooks to keep on going? What are your plans for these next
couple of months that you're going to be partnered with them? What are you looking
forward to next with this partnership? Oh man. So to talk about a little bit about the partnership,
I actually signed with the Nikon December of last year. So I ended the year off signing Nikon.
And to end the year that way, it took me what? It's almost the end of February. It took me two
months to be able to even conceive it and put it to words to share it with everyone. Because I was
at a disbelief because to think the company, the camera company that started my journey a long time
ago was now reaching out to me to do what I love. They weren't reaching out to me to create us a
commercial or create spec work that they wanted. They wanted me to create work that I wanted to
create and kind of help empower me to do that. So to be able to sit here and say I'm partnering
with Nikon doing what I love. Oh yeah. It's still hard to believe sometimes. And I guess when I
finally announced it to everyone, it kind of solidified that I was like, oh my, like this is
happening. Like I can't believe it. Even holding the camera like nowadays, it's like how do I
get someone else to feel this? And how do I share this with everybody in a way where
it's going to get them to that point? So yeah, just being able to see a creative,
my creative journey come full circle after such a long time. It's just super fulfilling. Like you
said, super inspiring. It kind of just motivates me to get out and create. And I'm trying to
not let it consume me in a way where it's like, oh yeah, look at me. I just partnered with this big
brand. Look at me right now. So I'm trying to get away from that and humble myself in a way where
it's like, all right, cool. I was able to take this step and reach the peak of this mountain.
How do I go back down and bring other people up here to show them and have them feel this
feeling of feeling like they're on top of the world? So yeah, I mean, it's crazy to me that
it's come full circle. And I always tell the team, I was like, this is only the beginning.
And yeah, I just can't wait to share it with everybody. So I guess moving forward, we'll see,
hopefully, them involved a little bit more with the meetups maybe, depending where that route takes
me. And just trying to stay humble and see it as not a company, but a person. So like Nikon is the
name of a person who's helping me out. So regardless of how much or what they're worth or whatever
the case, however you want to look at it, is just being able not to let it get to my head and keep
my feet grounded and take that next step to bringing someone else along and having them feel
the same way I have and helping them kind of come full circle. Like I was able to do this
past December signing that contract. So yeah. Again, that's a good deal, man. So excited to see
your next steps in that part of your journey. And staying on the topic of photography, low light,
which is what you guys at the Art Factory and your team, they specialize in. Now, low light
photography is not exactly the normal type of photography that you see your average Joe doing,
whether it's just out for fun, maybe the Instagrammers or classic Instagrammers. You don't see that very
often. How did you say, hello, low light photography? This is going to be my thing. Was it an accident?
Was it intentional? Like had this all come about?
So I would like to say it was intentional, but I've sat with this for a while now, thinking about
how I got here and why low light photography was such a calling for me. And a lot of people don't
know this. I still work pretty much a nine to five, you can say I'm up like at five o'clock in the
morning. I go take care of the family business. I help my dad out with the construction company.
And by the time I get off, it's four or five PM. So you're talking about a 12 hour day.
And I'm racing, right? Depending on the time of the year, I'm racing to go to a location so I don't
miss out on the light and get this beautiful sunset. And half the time I get home, I still have to
shower, I have to eat. I want to relax because it's been a long summer day, maybe. So by the time I'm
done and I'm at a place where I can kind of enjoy my hobbies, whether that was go to the gym or create,
it was already dark. So how do I still create in darkness when I really wanted to shoot the
sunset? But in knowing that, it was like, okay, cool. I can't do that because I work this job right
now. You know, maybe I have the weekends where I can take advantage of it. But if I really want to
grow and I guess level up and just get better at photography and videography, I have to do this
constantly. I can't just wait for the weekends to create. So yeah, by the time I got off and I was
ready to create, it was already dark. So I ended up buying lights. I started creating. And the more
I played with it, the more I found myself like, sunsets are cool and I love them and there's
something about them that is just so special. But once the sun's gone, the lights are all off
and you turn your lights on, you're pretty much holding the power of the sun in your hand and
being able to create scenes and morph them in a way that speaks to whatever emotion you're trying
to portray, whatever story you're trying to tell. And I found that so much fun. It's almost like
you're painting a canvas with a brush. It's all right, cool. How do I paint this light onto this
black canvas to showcase these different features in the photo, in the video? So I think I like to
say it was intentional because I've always been drawn to continuous lighting. But looking back
at it, it never was. It was always one of those things where I had to adapt and overcome. And
that's kind of where my path led me to. And here I am doing low light now. So
it appears a lot of people who fall into these passions that they have, their callings,
their hobbies that turn into businesses, whatever they're doing. A lot of the times
it starts with this problem or situation that they've had to adapt to and learn how to navigate
around it. And hearing yours falling into something that is a passion or that gives you a
chance to express your voice, your creativity, your inspiration, the message you want to tell
other people is truly inspiring because people get caught up in that they can't be taking these
photos like this landscape photographer all the time because they can't travel because they have
to work Monday through Friday, or they can't take these portraitures in their fancy studio because
they don't own a specific white backdrop. I don't know, lights, different things like that. And
seeing you do that is truly inspiring. You said, I want to do photography and sunset's over. Now
we have this low light that we can do and experiencing it firsthand over there in Yosemite
was incredible seeing you guys, how passionate you were about it, creating the light, shaping it,
shifting it around, putting your heart into it. Cause I could tell you can tell what someone
knows what they're doing. You truly can. And that energy feeds back off to other people around you.
So truly amazing, man. And I got a chance to meet your team, every one of them. And they were all
such great people. How did building this team for the Art Factory come to be? Cause clearly this
started from you. You found this love for low light photography for having to adapt. And now you have
these other people who are now also interested in low light. How did you build this team and
how did it all start in terms of meeting these people?
Oh man. So Kwon was the first one. It all came, it all started with me, like I said,
wanting to share this with everybody. So my first thought was, all right, cool. I want to do low
light, but I can't do it by myself. And I want to give people kind of that feeling of being wanted,
of being able to showcase their work. So I reached out to Kwon, I was like, hey bro, I'm thinking
about doing this low light meetups. I want to host you first. Like I want you, I want to help you
build a low light set that we can share with everybody. And as we talked, as we, you know,
we got into things and it's like, all right, cool. Like, what do you want to call this type of stuff?
And honestly, no one part of the team helped me create this name. I had another friend, I don't
know if you know, LJ, she helped me come up with this name outside of it, just because I talked to
her about it. And I was like, how do I, you know, what do I call this? You know, I'm hosting Kwon.
I don't know what really to say. Do I just say photography meetup featuring Kwon? So she helped
me build the name, but it all started from wanting to host Kwon as a photographer and build a set with
him to me and Kwon discussing it. Be like, all right, cool. Like, you know, should we make a
logo for this or what do you want to do? Like, what do you want to keep, you know, keep going
forward after this? Like, what do you want to do after this? What do you want to feature? And
one thing led to another. We're like, all right, let's make this a thing. Let's, you know,
let's not host you anymore. Let's create something together and host other people.
And so that's where it started. That's where it trickled for me and Kwon. And then needing a logo,
needing kind of branding, right? To portray your message. I recently at that time, I met up with
Gabe, I think within two months of speaking online, he sent me a message about a story. So I sent him
like a voice memo back explaining how I did the story. And one thing led to another. And two
months later, I was flying out to Florida, staying at his house with his family, spending a week
creating with each other. And fast forward a bit, me and Kwon had this whole conversation.
And I was like, yo, I know someone that can create a logo for us. Let's reach out. Let's hop on a call
with him and kind of discuss things. So we hopped on a call with Gabe. He gave us like this questionnaire
to answer for branding. Like, all right, cool. I need you guys to answer this question. So I kind of know
what direction, what you guys are about. And we answered that. We hopped on another call. He created
this logo for us. It started with my original logo. I don't know if you ever saw the Not Just Start.
It's like a A with like a top and a circle. So I was able to implement that logo into the logo we
have now. And the logo is a cactus flower. So me and Kwon being Hispanic, you know, how do we bring
kind of our culture into it? So we decided to go with the cactus flower. And that's like a story
for a different day. We can dive into that another time. But Gabe helped build this logo for us.
And he was doing so much. And I was like, Gabe, do you just want to be a part of the team now?
Or, you know, are you cool with just hopping on and, you know, helping us create this? And he said,
yes. And that's how the three of us started. And in the logo, there's a triangle with three corners,
which it's a corner for each of us. And the whole concept behind the flower was
petals on a flower sometimes fall, but it's almost infinite. They keep growing. So there's always new
petals that kind of grow. And I guess that's how the logo is. It's we can keep adding petals and
adding, I guess, to the flower and having the flower like just look bigger, grow more. And we're
slowly doing that. Ryo was the next one to hop on the team, the next petal in the art factory,
helping us with just different aspects, a lot of admin stuff, models. After that, a good friend of
mine, Andy, we've known each other since high school. He was my ride or die. He's always been
there for me. Anytime I wanted to go travel, go hiking, go explore the world, he was the one I hit
up. And we'd always go venture off and see the world together. And he started coming out to this
meetups, never picked up a camera in his life, was never a photographer, never had the desire
of being a photographer. But he showed up, flew out every single time to every single workshop.
And I sat down one day and I was like, damn, like, you're the homie. You know, you're coming out to
this and supporting me. So damn, I'm getting all emotional now, just thinking about it. But
having someone show up for me offline, like I told you, was like the biggest thing ever for me. So
Andy doing that was awesome. So I was like, all right, bro, I want to bring you on the team.
You know, you don't do photography, you don't do videography, but we'll teach you. I want you to
feel valued and be a part of the team. You've been the biggest cheerleader we've had so far,
supporting us. So now we're teaching them photography. We want to teach them videography.
He's been in charge of a lot of our BTS content that you've been seeing.
And he's been helping us out with just about anything and everything that he could help out
with. And we actually have a new member and I guess this is a good way to announce it.
Tony, he was, after the LA road trip, we had the meetup and we officially invited him to the team.
And he was one of the first ones that I've kind of, I've mentioned. He invited me and Juan to go
rock climbing, not do photography, not do anything, just go rock climbing. And we went rock climbing
and we just connected and we found that we've had so much things alike. We had similar hobbies,
similar passions outside of the photography world or videography world. And we just connected. So
he's another one that's been showing up for us a lot and we want to, and we have brought him on
the team to kind of help grow the art factory. And I think just finding the right people has
happened because I was able to connect with them outside of what brought us together. So
yeah, we're just a couple of friends trying to share what we love and hopefully bring more people
on board and keep growing the pedals on our logo and see where it goes from there.
Amazing. And I love hearing that how that team came to be. And for the people listening, I'll
share a little story about me meeting Arturo not too long ago, maybe a month ago in person for the
first time. I met his entire team at Yosemite, some place that from those of you who are listening
know that I know it like the back of my hand for me being in Yosemite is like being at home and
being able to have his whole team come over there and meet everyone. It was a truly cool experience
being able to see them. They were all just real people and they weren't so focused on the cameras
at first. They were getting to know each other and having real conversations with real people.
And throughout that whole evening and adventures through the night, Arturo is building something
really amazing. So if you guys get a chance to go look it over at his website and what your website
is again Arturo? It's the artfty.com. So the art factory, but just we abbreviate factory to FTY.
There you go. You heard it here. So in terms of your road trip you just had, I wanted to recap
a little bit of it. What did you, where did you go?
So we started in Texas, myself, Juan and Ria, we drove all the way to Las Vegas to pick up Andy
and Gabe and we spent a little bit of time in Vegas and then we shot straight to Yosemite.
We were going to drive the same night that Gabe and I think we had this conversation
off, but we're going to drive that same night to get there for sunrise, but we realized we were
going to miss it. So we ended up staying in Vegas and then we took off to Yosemite to meet up with
you. And after that we shot over to the coastline. We drove down, what is it highway one I believe
it is. Drove that all the way down to LA, stayed in LA, caught a sunset there at the beach.
And then, well actually before that we went to Sequoia and then we went to highway one and then
down to LA. And after that we just shot back to Vegas and we spent some time in Vegas, went to
the Valley of Fire and then just road trip back. But oddly enough at Yosemite, I don't know if you
remember Cameron, one of the other photographers that was there, he ended up tagging along on our
road trip and meeting a stranger on the road you know is sometimes scary and especially
in Cameron's shoes like having that much confidence in us and I think that comes from just
connecting as humans you know, like getting to know each other of who we really are and what
we're about. And he tagged along with us, enjoyed the whole road trip with us and even came out to
Dallas. He flew but he ended up coming out to Dallas for a few days and then he took off back to
Australia. But yeah that was kind of the whole road trip, just the main trip was LA, the Cali area
and then little deviations to go see some national parks and some state parks. So Arturo,
you had a crazy road trip and you say you have a couple plans to come back out here.
In the upcoming future, that's exciting. To piggyback off this and transition a little bit,
I want to know, because just put this in perspective for people listening, this guy is now traveling
doing road trips. He has these people who live out of state on his team and I want to know how
your creative journey began. I mean you didn't start just traveling, you started traveling
I mean you didn't start just last year. You've been doing this for a few years. I scroll back
on your social media, you were traveling with your dog, taking photos. When did this journey
in photography originate from? So growing up I was always into art in different forms, whether
that be sketching, painting, sculpting. I was an art major growing up. My whole entire school time
from elementary to middle school to high school, I always majored and I always loved going to art
class and it was always a way for me to express myself. Especially being rooted in such a
Mexican tradition where it's like men don't show emotions. So I kind of used art to be able to
express myself and kind of show my passions, show what I enjoy to do in life and
just express myself in ways I couldn't when I was at home in that traditional Mexican household
because we were always taught to like hold in our emotions as men. So once I joined the military,
I kind of put all that on hold and it was once again like hey like hold your emotions in like
you have to be a leader, you can't show weakness and you have to be able to lead these people and
have them feel confident in your leadership. So I kind of put all those emotions and my passions
for the arts on hold. So whenever I got out, I was like alright cool like I want to start doing this
again. I started sketching and that was the extent of it and then one day my parents bought that
Nikon D3200 and I was like alright cool like let me just borrow it for a trip. I took a couple of
trips, I was hiking, took some photos, I was like oh this is pretty cool. I started playing with it
some more. I started going on more solo trips with my dog just because I also love nature,
I love to hike, I love being outdoors and that was kind of my excuse. I want to go to this place,
hike and practice my photography with my dog because nature is a vast
space and you're usually almost always by yourself if you don't go with a group. So being able to
hide myself in nature and create because I didn't have the confidence to create in front of people
helped me out a lot and gave me the confidence that I needed to build my skills and like
where I am at today. So I was able to do that as I traveled and then I moved to Texas.
I kind of started helping my dad a lot more with the business and like I said that's kind of where
the lowlights started coming into play. I couldn't travel as much anymore and I still wanted to build
my skills in photography and develop this and see where this went because it gave me an outlet,
it gave me a way to express myself so it kind of all led to lowlight and you know it just a few
years ago we got into this space. If you're a photographer, all right cool, how are you making
money? How are you feeding your passion? You're either doing weddings, you're doing brands,
or you're getting like you're an influencer and I you know I've shot weddings, I'm not a big fan.
A lot of stress and you can't be as creative. I can't put my passion into it. You can
in a sense but being able to do brand work and finding the brands that kind of aligned
with what I loved gave me that chance to stay true to myself and what I love to create
while still being able to bring in income to help kind of fuel and facilitate these other
passions in photography that I had. So I'm just trying to be more creative and be more
creative. So I honestly started shifting like I said my mindset to just doing what I love and
creating just crazy stuff that I enjoy to create and pretty much crossing my fingers and be like
all right well hopefully other people like it too, hopefully brands like it too and never did I know
Nikon was seeing my stuff. That was never something I saw or I ever considered. So when they reached
out because I was doing what I love you know it just it just made me realize like you can fall
into a space of like brand photography, wedding photography, but if you're not enjoying it
you're gonna burn out, you're gonna tire yourself out, and you're not gonna go far. So
yeah I think it stemmed from always being an artist and finding a way to express myself
and slowly shifting gears to where like all right cool how can I do this more and that's by bringing
in income with photography but still keeping a piece of me in all my work that I share and
produce for other people or brands. We touched on something Arturo that I think a lot of creatives,
artists, they encounter this. They don't have confidence in what they're creating. You mentioned
how you created in nature, you're hiding yourself in nature creating because you weren't confident
in your skills and a lot of people have trouble being confident in their skills and building them
up, taking on these projects whether it's passion projects, client projects, right.
And then from there they have a hard time using their voice and putting it out there for the world.
Can you give some advice to these people who do not understand or how to approach building
confidence in their skills and putting their voice out there?
Because making art is it's personal when you get to that when you're able to get to the point where
you can dig deep and put it out there it's personal and putting yourself in a vulnerable state to let
your work get critiqued. Can you give some actionable advice for these people?
Yeah I think if you are if you find yourself without that confidence of
creating maybe in front of individuals whether that be like you go out do some street photography,
you're at a wedding, you're shooting portraits for a grad shoot. I've said this to a lot of people and
my biggest teacher was all the not failures but lessons I've learned from doing it from putting
in the work from putting in the sweat and tears and the hard work and the hard work and the hard
and tears of you know going out to photograph something so putting in your reps just like
you would at the gym. Put that same mindset to your photography or whatever skill you're trying to build
is let's say you don't have the confidence to go out in public go in your backyard go in your room
take some self-portraits figure out all the nicks and crannies of your camera so whenever you're out
you already have the confidence of being able to handle this camera and know all the ins and outs
to apply whatever settings you need for a different environment. So I think if you build confidence in
little aspects along your journey you'll come to learn that these little pieces of confidence you're
getting let's say with exposure right go practice exposure for a week. Your shutter speed go practice
that for another week and see what shutter does for your photos and when you put in those reps to
all these little things they start building up and they're like they're teaching you like okay you
know what you're doing now because you put in your reps you put in real world experience of all right
cool now I know what all these settings do all right cool now I want to get in front of the camera
and pose you know whether it's self-portraits or whether you're doing it with a friend your sister
your mom your dad your girlfriend your boyfriend whatever whatever the case may be is putting in
the reps to these little small things that add up to give you that full circle of confidence that you
need to share it online reach out to a client go shoot a wedding and not be nervous or stressed
out as much so put in your reps in small things and you'll learn that once you build the confidence
in that one topic you're trying to figure out move on to the next one build that confidence and it
just starts piling it up that confidence just starts building and building and building because
you've put in the reps to learn and not try and maybe cheat the system and and skip ahead and then
fumble it and then that brings your confidence all the way down because you just fumbled it so
slowly build your confidence and no one's going to be able to knock over your tower of confidence
that you have because you've put in the hard work to make a strong foundation
you made some really good points there and to conclude this to wrap all what you said
I made a video just recently about keeping your promises to yourself and how that builds
confidence in yourself and whatever skill you're trying to acquire and I heard someone say once
about this creative industry building these skills you need to treat it like it's a sport
train your skills hone it in fuel yourself practice these in order to build that confidence to put
to go all in and this approach that you have going in your backyard refining your skills to go out
in public and do this or to put yourself out there these are valuable tips and insights for all of
those listening and speaking of valuable tips and insights Arturo 18 years old he's a professional
Arturo 18 years old before he enlisted in the military young guy what would you tell
this guy what would you tell young Arturo before the military would there be any advice that you
might have for him I would like to say man that's hard that's a that's a very hard one I've had this
you know I've had this thought before and you know what what could I say what could I do to help
myself if I was younger the younger version of me and I would honestly just say if it doesn't put a
smile on your face don't waste your time doing it don't waste your energy on it if this is something
you go to sleep at or if you go to sleep at night and this is something you think about
go do it go do it don't wait don't wait for someone don't wait for anybody to start because
if you're waiting for someone to come along your journey to help you start this you're going to be
waiting forever unless you're taking the initiative and pretty much creating your own luck and putting
yourself in these situations where you got lucky you can stay home all day and think about it
all day and think about what you could do or you can go out and do it and you'll slowly learn that
the right people are going to join your journey and they're going to follow along or they're going
to help you grow or you might join someone else's journey and help them along and you might end up
leaving their journey and creating your own the biggest thing don't wait if you think about it
at night it's because you either want to do it or you're contemplating something but if it keeps you
up by night then go full in don't don't half-ass anything go go all the way in and give it everything
you got because the only thing you're going to regret is not going in a long time ago
now that's a good deal if you're sleeping if you're thinking about it before you go to bed
those of you listening just take action stop waiting last question of this podcast Arturo
2024 is here February is just about over what is the mindset that you're going to continue to take
on through the end of the year oh man I think that same advice I gave myself at 18 is put in the hard
work go do it I might have to sacrifice some stuff this year but if that means being able to
to kind of bring these other aspects that I want in my life and kind of nurture them and feed them
and watch them grow I'm gonna have to make some sacrifices so I'm excited to dive in a lot more
and experiment with the art factory and find different ways of connecting people
and the next big thing for us is photo walks doing photo walks for people bringing in a larger
larger group of individuals together and having them create in a space together so
yeah I'm excited to experiment this year with a lot of different things we have going on
with the art factory and whether it's a hit or a miss we'll learn from it we'll grow from it
and we'll keep moving forward but yeah I think the biggest thing this year is taking action
in what we want and putting in the heart of work to get there great great answer great advice
Arturo really appreciate you coming on man it's always a pleasure having to chat with you
being able to chat with you I would discuss all these different topics always I'm a student myself
and I like to get different people's perspectives of all these things because truly we don't know
it all and for those listening where can they find Arturo on social media where can they find
the social medias for Art Factory where can we go so for the Art Factory it's the T H E R A R T F T Y
the Art Factory for my personal one underscore R T W O R O or T W R O W so R2RO just spelled
like how you literally would say it R2 and then RO with that underscore in the front and then the
website for the Art Factory the ArtFTY.com slowly switching over to YouTube so we'll hopefully be
opening on YouTube same Instagram handle for the Art Factory that it is for YouTube but yeah that's
usually the main platforms where I'm on TikTok here and there but a lot of my stuff is on Instagram
for myself and the team and I'll link all of his information below whether it's on YouTube or it's
in the streaming platforms again Arturo really appreciate you coming on man looking forward to
chatting with you and seeing where you go in the future and I know we'll probably see each other
again coming soon huh yes we'll see each other in hopefully September when we head back out to LA so
I'm excited for that let's go man all right guys thanks for tuning in I'll catch you on the next
one later and that concludes episode 26 man that was a good conversation I really enjoyed that one
this is why I love having the podcast because you get to talk to real people have real conversations
and if you want to find more about Arturo Carrillo I'll link all of his information down below his
Instagram and his website I highly suggest you go follow him and support him and see what he's up
to day to day he's got a lot of exciting things coming up thank you again for watching and if you
enjoyed this video and you want to support the podcast hit that subscribe button on YouTube if
that's where you're watching and if you're not watching and you don't want to see my face you
can hit live a five-star review on Spotify or Apple Music and again if you have any comments
you want me to talk about anything specifically topics leave them in the comments below I read
all the comments if you want to connect with us it's @ Nick Amp podcast if you want to connect
with me it's @theNickAmp with much gratitude I appreciate you tuning in this episode and I'll
see you next week