Rising Stars: Meet Porsche Aremia of Flint & Detroit

Today we’d like to introduce you to Porsche Aremia

Porsche, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Originally, I wanted to own a camera to take photos of my fiances’ local band. Just before covid, I had taken one out on a mini acoustic tour we did around Michigan and the surrounding states. The week after we got back, covid hit. During the downtime of covid, I was off work from The Machine Shop, a Flint concert venue. I started just taking photos of bandos in the area, self portraits, my dog, and some friends here and there. Eventually I grew comfortable enough to take on clients and began with portrait sessions. Early on I was asked to shoot a wedding from an old classmate that knew I was brand new, I explained that I didn’t 100% know all of what I was doing, but she had more faith in me than I had even. It was Halloween, a small intimate ceremony, and she said she loved my work so we ran it. I remember still how excited, anxious, and all over the board I felt, but it also drove me to continue to get better. When things started opening back up post covid, I continued into shooting concerts and the likes. I had tried everything from newborn (0/10, do not enjoy and always refer people now), to shooting action shots of side by sides at the sand dunes, wedding of course, portraits, pets and more. The music scene has just always had my heart. I’ve always had a bit more of an alternative look to my work, and that doesn’t mean I don’t like the soft warm portraits too, but where my passion lies is definitely in the abnormal.

I took on video after working a couple years with Full Send Studios. What started as a joke of me pestering Paul (my now adopted brother) to hire me as his time manager, lead to me managing his studio, filling in as a producer on multiple sets, shooting BTS photos, and as of this year, taking on video as well. Blending my work into Full Send was pretty seamless as we both love the teal and orange cinematic vibe and our work just grew together. Paul has been in the industry far longer than I, but rather than let that intimidate me, I used it to push myself to work twice as hard. I spent night after night researching how to be better, hours of youtube tutorials watched to get edits how I like, and he also has taught me a great deal about lighting over my time spent working with him. Where I currently stand in my career is I am a photographer, videographer, and studio manager. On music videos I often am production manager depending on client needs and more. My main subjects are musicians, artists, people from all walks of life for portraits, and as of this past summer I’ve started doing commercial videography for a couple landscaping businesses. That’s truly what I love about working in the arts, no one day of work is the same as the last.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Absolutely not. I couldn’t even try to tell anyone it has been. From starting when everything was shut down during covid already setting me up to start in the roughest environment, to trying to juggle multiple jobs to support this dream as I build it. Everything has been a struggle. The music scene isn’t what it used to be so financially it’s really complicated. There’s nights spent editing until your eyes burn, not every client is the kindest, and sadly there’s a huge lack of respect for photographers and their work because of the rise of social media and filters. I know what I bring to the table and try to educate others, but some clients aren’t worth the fight as they aren’t my ideal client at the end of the day.

The hardest battle was when I lost my brother three years ago. He truly was such a huge supporter of what I did and kept me going when I wanted to throw in the towel. Evan was that light you looked forward to in silly reels being sent to your phone, goofy snapchats during the day, a home to enter with Disney already pulled up on the TV, and so much more. He pushed me at the start of this in so many ways. It was Evan who brought me out to the sand dunes to shoot there and even borrowed a camera from a friend to second shoot for me when he knew absolutely nothing about photography. Didn’t stop him from giving his all to help. He’d take me to abandoned buildings and let me shoot his portrait. We’d go to parks and more just to explore and practice. He hired me when he got a girlfriend to take couples photos of them and had made plans to do more, refusing a discounted rate. He truly believed in me and what I was doing. Losing him was a hard battle for me because there was a point I wanted to throw it all away. With time and rationalizing the pain inside me, I realized that would just disgrace his memory, as well as everyone else supporting me. I now use the loss of him to push me. I am living this life not just for myself, but for him. For the life he didn’t get to experience. On the days I get down on myself, I use his memory to push me even further. I just work my hardest to make him proud.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I covered a bit of this already above, but we’ll dive in more here.

I’m a photographer, videographer, editor and the manager for Full Send Studios. I specialize mostly in alternative portraits with edgy vibes, though lately my wedding side has been growing. Being I manage Full Send Studios, I’m pretty well known for shooting band promo shots more than anything. We shoot music videos as a team as well as have our own individual shoots. Individually, I’m most proud of a shoot I recently did with Gore. the band as they flew all the way from Texas to shoot with me and I had multiple photos featured in Revolver Magazine, as well as several other well known magazines. It was a big accomplishment for me as it was a lot of firsts going into that shoot as I was given creative control over it. I brought a vision from the ground up and seeing it come to life and the clients have fun during the process really lit a fire under me that I am worth it and this career is what I’m meant to do. As a studio, we’ve worked on so many things I’m proud of. I love growing together with our clients and truly, the work we’ve been doing with an up and coming band called Cause for Conflict out of Grand Rapids, MI has been a dream to say the least. In short, I thought they were going to kidnap me at the start of the relationship/friendship and where we are now, they have my back like a band of brothers in the sweetest way and I would throw hands for any of them. We’re in the process of cooking up a super cool video for them this November that we really want to bring to the next level for all parties involved. I highly encourage readers check it out!

What sets me apart from others is such a strange question for me. I suffer from imposter syndrome more often than I’d like to admit. I am fiercely loyal though, and as I stated above, I strive for the goal of growing together. I try to pour all I can into my clients to ensure we’re both getting the best outcome of whatever project we work on. I don’t just show up and click a button and go home. I put in a lot of elbow grease to every shoot. I help plan out the finest of details, and as much as I thought that was normal, I’m often saddened to hear a lot of my clients tell me experiences they’ve had with others who aren’t as involved. I pose my clients from head to toe, you don’t have to worry what to do with your hands (believe me, I get that!), I’ll help you pick outfits, jewelry (I’ve even let clients wear my own jewelry), and more. Don’t know what you want to do for your music video? Let’s plan that out. I help with every aspect I humanly can and I pride myself in every project at the end of knowing I gave it my all. I spend a lot of my free time still learning more in my craft all the time not just for myself, but because I want to offer the coolest, raddest, baddest products to my clients. I never want to hit a plateau and I never want to be the girl who thinks she knows it all. I think that’s all a big piece to what separates me from others. Truly though, I love collaborating with others with like goals. We are a community here, not a competition.

How do you define success?
I think this is a really simple question. Success is did you give it 100%? Yes? Then you succeeded. Just because the outcome isn’t perfect, doesn’t mean you didn’t succeed. So long as you learn from the experience and keep going. The only time you can really fail is when you give up trying.

Pricing:

• I base my pricing on CODB, so really each session is unique. I try to offer fair pricing while keeping the bills paid. My inbox and email are always open to discuss custom quotes!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.fullsendstudios.com
• Instagram: @shotgirlporsche
• Other: [email protected]