Meet Carter Perky | Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Carter Perky and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Carter, why did you pursue a creative career?

Well it’s actually a ironic story I took a photography class back in high school and I hated every second of it because it took an art form and turn it into homework. I actually ended up failing that class. But what attracted me to it the older I got was the fact that I can capture my clients best moments in their entire lives whether that’s their wedding their engagement the graduation their maternity photos or even just her every day run-of-the-mill family photos every single mom and I capture for my clients a special in someway and that means the world to me.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Well I’d say photography as an art form is ever-changing whenever I first started I was just learning the settings of my camera and putting them up on Instagram and now I’m making content like reels or short clips and I’m working with foundations for example I’m working with the Alzheimer foundation, Amarillo National Bank, and the local hotel called the Atrea Inn just to name a few names. so whenever you start out just posting on Instagram and then you end up getting bigger name clients that creates a real challenge not only mentally but also skill wise .

I’m very lucky with the people that have chose me to photograph moments for them, and I believe that is the true art of it all because every photographer does everything different and rarely going to see the same pictures taken twice by anybody but it’s the personal relationships in the in the moment how are you treat your clients that is a true art form of photography.

I’d say the biggest lesson that I have learned in just the 2 1/2 short years that I’ve been doing photography professionally is to try not to compare yourself too much to other people everyone is on their own journey and you can’t compare the beginning of your journey with the middle of someone else’s.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If I had a friend visiting and I needed to treat them to a weeklong Amarillo vacation I will definitely have to take them to Palo Duro Canyon, maybe spend a day or two camping hiking and maybe even biking and obviously doing photography in the canyon. Number one places to eat for me would have to be all on Polk St., Park Street is honestly where the heart of Amarillo is in my opinion has the best bars music entertainment in nightlife our city. We have a couple great museums we have some good art museums as well so we will definitely have to spend a day hitting those. And my most favorite thing to do in Amarillo would have to be the antique shopping our whole six street is just filled with antique shops coffee shops biker bars in just a great variety of things to do on that street. it’s also on route 66 so it’s very historic.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
It may sound corny or cheesy but I would like to shout out my wife through every step of creating a photography business my wife has been the one true fan of everything I put out good bad and ugly.

From day one whenever I had zero clients to me now where I have a website I’m doing weddings I’ve been mentioning magazines and even had billboards of my photography put up she has always remained the one constant through all the changes.

Website: Perkyphotos.com

Instagram: Perkyphoto

Facebook: Carter perky