May 8, 2017

Meet Adriana Carrasco of Michael Austin Studios in Peachtree Industrial and Winters Chapel

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Adriana Carrasco.

Adriana, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was working at a hotel as a supervisor going to school. I realized I wasn’t happy working in the food industry. I took some time to sit down and think about what I really wanted. I always loved creating and loved anything with a camera. That’s when I knew what I wanted to do and I knew my job wasn’t the right path for it. So, on that day I put in my two weeks and decided to make my hobby my full time. 3 years, 1 husband, 2 kids and a 1 rascal of a puppy, I made Michael Austin Studios a reality. My company is named after my first son and I pour as much love into my business as I do my family. The best part of my job is feeling like a superhero, when you make a digital memory of someone, it’s like putting that moment in time in a bottle for anyone to look back on. It’s really cool to look around your home and see those moments come together and tell your story. Everyone has their own special adventure and I love to be there to capture it.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Building MAS is like a never-ending project. We are always evolving, growing and learning new things. But for sure, there were and are some struggles here and there. Starting with one small camcorder, a cheap boxed video editing software, some days it felt like we were out of time, money and everything else. Other days it was just wanting to give up because not enough money was coming in to make it. During both of my pregnancies, I was so tired I could barely stand up or get through photo shoots. If not for my family showing me how to see every challenge as an opportunity, I would not have grown as a person. I was robbed in Atlanta this past year. A man took my only pro video camera. A Canon camera I worked over a year to buy gone in a second.

After a good cry, I wiped my face and went back to basics and got back to work. I learned that this was an opportunity to get better with what I had and flex my “skill muscles” lol. I guess my point is you can’t decide what bumps in the road come up, you can only choose your attitude for the ride.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Michael Austin Studios – what should we know?
MAS is a photography and videography company. We do lifestyle photos of people, families, pets, places you name it. Since becoming a mom my myself, I have been doing a lot of newborn and children’s photography. With our videos, we do live events now and have a few projects coming up making a few short-scripted videos. The last live event we did was for two incredible Latino talents Elvis Crespo and Frank Reyes in concert. The pride and joy of my company is my team. I have some incredible partners who really focus on what our clients ask for. Because they follow their passion it shows in the quality of what we do as a whole. That’s what make a world of difference for our clients. What sets us apart from other companies is that we make our clients family and give their satisfaction a high priority.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I think success is always preparing to take on the opportunity to be ready to take it on when it is presented to them. I look for people who are always willing to challenge their own way of thinking, people who are not afraid to step out of their comfort zone. I think to be successful is to never stop growing. It doesn’t mean that you will never fail but success is not letting go of the idea and be willing to fail A LOT before that idea becomes real. A great marker of a successful person and probably the most important one is positivity. I can’t say that enough. Being positive, really having a positive mentality makes a world of difference in how your life will be.

Successful or Unsuccessful. Those are the kind of people who will make an impact on the world.

What sets me apart from others is how I’m able to tell a story with my work. As a millennial, I witness and experience things first hand that are very controversial, and I turn them into photographs. This is something that people my age, and preferred clientele can easily relate to.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
To me, success is setting a personal goal and finally reaching it. Not getting ahead of or making more money than your competition, but being a better you and just being happy. When you reach where you want to be- keep progressing and see the change you were aiming for- that is the best kind of success in my book.

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