Hey there! My name is Aaron Martinez. I am just a guy born and raised in a small town called Norfolk, Nebraska, with BIG dreams! Some say I'm just a young bucko who's only excited about being his own boss, traveling around the world, or taking pictures, no! I'm mainly excited about the part where my job is to literally make people smile, and no, not with a piece of wedding cake but with a piece of the memories that are forever lived! My story begins in 2020, during my freshman year of high school. I went to the wedding of an old friend and was amused by the photos being taken by the photographer they hired. Being the non-stop yapper of a dude I am, I decided to get my feet wet for the first time and asked the photographer many questions about what life is like as a photographer. Kindly enough, she even let me shoot a couple of shots, which was my first time holding a camera. At that moment, I knew that this was God's calling. The next day, I asked my mom if I could get a camera, but the one I wanted was really expensive, so I had no other choice but to get a job. So, I did that, and at the age of 15, I got my first job as a field attendant at a baseball park. I knew I needed to work lots and lots of hours if I wanted that camera, but in the meantime, I practiced on my phone and took pictures of anything that captured my attention. Months went by, and I tended to get a little bummed out, feeling like I was never going to get that camera. Then, one Sunday morning, an elder from my church Charles Petty came up to me, introducing himself to me and getting to know me a little bit. Charles seemed to always have something in common with everyone he met. When the words "I want to become a photographer" came out of my mouth, his eyes instantly widened. He told me that he used to be a photographer himself. He told me stories and also asked me what kind of camera I owned. I didn't even have to say to him that I didn't have one. He already knew that I didn't own one. So he takes me to his car and takes out this camera I'd seen before, and he goes, "Here, I want you to have this; it's my very first camera that I ever owned." I was in awe because just when I was so close to giving up on that dream, God blessed me with an angel in Charles to lift me back up and keep me going. Sadly, Charles passed away in January of 2025—a sad day for all of us who knew him very well. He was a man who didn't care about leaving a legacy on this earth, but he did, and it just gives me even more reason to keep on going because I know Charles would've loved that. This life of mine has been an insane roller coaster, but I wouldn't change the narrative about how things went, good or bad; it made me the man I am today. A photo that can be taken twice will never be as valuable as one that can never be recreated. It cannot be directed, posed, or forced. It was only meant to be lived, and it only happens once.
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