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An Interview with Professional Photographer
Ken Sklute
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-Ken Sklute Interviewed by Thann Clark
 How did you get started in Photography?
I got into photography through drag racing. I was 14, and was lucky enough to be taken under the wing of a racer. One weekend he threw a rag at me and said “go clean something” and the next weekend he gave me a little more responsibility, and then he ended up taking me out on the track next to the 3000 horsepower drag racers. I kind of figured I needed to take a camera with me to prove to my friends that I was actually there. I borrowed my mothers 126 instamatic and took some photographs as the cars sped by me. I didn’t know anything about photography. The following week I took the photos back to the track and a bunch of the drivers bought photographs from me, the light bulb went off and I became a photographer.
So how did you go from photographing Drag Races to shooting weddings?
I lasted two years as a drag racing photographer. Winter came and I was living in New York and the cars went away for the winter, I was 16, I had a car and a girlfriend, so I needed money. I ended up meeting a wedding photographer and asked him if I could apprentice with him and see what it was all about. 3 months later I was shooting weddings.
 Was there ever a moment where you realized that this is what you wanted to keep doing?
When I finished my apprenticeship with the wedding photographer, I went to the Manager of the studio he worked for. It was a large reception hall where they held 11 weddings at one time. I brought with me an album from a wedding I had shot. The manager looked at it and said “very nice”, so naturally I asked him for a job. Not only did he tell me that he didn’t see me going anywhere in this business, but also that I wouldn’t amount to anything. They turned me down, so I went to their competition, the next largest reception hall in the area. They could only handle 9 weddings simultaneously. They were impressed with what I was doing, and they guaranteed me 100 weddings a year! So I gave it my all. Within my first two or three years of shooting I was committed to being a wedding photographer and that was 35 years ago.
What was your reaction when you were told you didn’t have a future in this business; a lot of people would have given up?
It’s been my motivation all of my career. After that incident, whenever I was told I couldn’t do something, it gave me extra motivation to make sure I accomplished it. There was nothing that was going to keep me from succeeding. I guess I have always had a passion and a drive that I’ve never lost. There are still new things to accomplish. There is still a hunger to see what else I can do.
What is your best non-photographic advice you can give to an aspiring photographer?
Don’t give up on yourself. Find a new way of doing something and go after your dream, don’t let anything deter you.
 What has been your biggest challenge as a wedding Photographer?
Must currently it’s really the invasion of our industry, there are so many people that have come from every walk of life and they’ve got a camera now and try to become wedding photographers. We have people from every walk of life thinking that weddings are an easy way to go. People think if I charge $500 or $600 and give the clients a CD at the end of the day it’s not too bad. The Market has changed. People don’t seem to be looking for craftsmen any more. Great wedding photography is a combination of vision and experience. You need to know where to be at what time to capture that special moment. If you don’t have that experience, you miss those shots.
With how important a wedding photographer is to a wedding, why do you think people are willing to settle for less?
People are guided by the Wedding magazines and websites. They are suggesting to people that they can do it on their own. You don’t need to pay the photographer big wages. Just hire someone for the day, take those files and go to the drugstore and have the photographs printed for $.19 each, they don’t understand that there is a lot more to it. No one sits down to a good meal, and says to the chef, ”You must have good pots and pans”, But they will see a good photograph and say, “You must have a good camera”. But it’s the vision behind the camera and not the camera.
Are there any secrets to great photographs?
The secrets are so logical. The first secret is understanding light. Light makes photographs, and some people think that just because it’s a good camera they are guaranteed a good image. You still need that knowledge of light. Where you place somebody or how you compose the photograph has everything to do with it. You have to know your tools and know where to be at the right time. Good photographers are able to capture a gleam in a bride’s eye as she walks down the aisle with dad. You don’t get that shot from a couple hundred feet away. Uncle Joe doesn’t get that shot.
What do you think has helped to set you apart from the pack?
Passion. I don’t get tired I don’t rely on what yesterday has provided me. A lot of my friends think I’m crazy because I live, eat and breathe photography. If I’m not photographing a wedding or a race or a rodeo, I’m out in the desert photographing a landscape. Each of those elements makes me a better photographer.
 Where do you draw inspiration?
I get a lot of inspiration from associations like WPPI where each year they provide the latest and greatest in photography. We can see other photographers and be motivated and inspired by them and study with them.
At the last convention I saw you speaking in the Canon booth. You were using The Honl Photo Light Shapers.
They are pretty exciting because of what they’re allowing us to do. Honl photo has given us access to the tools that normally come along with larger lighting equipment. Now we are able to go out with a small bag of gear. Now we have these light modifiers likes snoots to narrow the angle of light or we can add grids or colored gels inexpensively. Now we have tools that can allow us to get out and actually shape light in any way our vision sees.
It was a very small space and you’re photographing a model with three speedlights and you are creating a shot that in the past you would have to do in the studio with large lights.
It totally is something that in the past you’d have to do in the studio, and that would require a lot of equipment and a lot of time, and now you can shoot in the confines of any area. It could be a corner somewhere at a church or a reception hall, and quickly set up some flashes and create unique images that will separate you from those beginning photographers that are just out there with a camera.
View ExpoImaging's Ken Sklute photo gallery.
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Ken Sklute is an award-winning photographer, a Canon Explorer of Light, and an international lecturer. He has won many awards for his work, including “Photographer of the Year” an amazing 25 times. He won Wedding Photographer of the Year and Photojournalist of the Year from the Professional Photographers of California. He has received 13 Kodak Gallery awards and 14 Fuji Masterpiece Awards. He holds Master of Photography and Photographic Craftsman degrees from PPA. His work can be seen at http://www.kensklute.com/
Ken Sklute uses:
ExpoDisc Professional Digital White Balance and Honl Photo Professional Speed System Light Modifiers. |
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Thann Clark is a graduate of the Brooks Institute of Photography, where he received the departmental award for excellence in Commercial Photography, after the other nominated students died under mysterious circumstances. He is trying very hard to do nothing with his life, but acheivements keep getting in the way. He has a lot of friends who are much better Photographers, but his mother loves him very much. He has done Important Work for Important people, but he hates to name drop.
Thann Clark presents "an irreverent look at photography from an industry insider" on his blog, Thannalog: The Answer to Digital.
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This e-newsletter is produced by ExpoImaging, Inc., marketers of the ExpoDisc, Honl Photo Professional Speed System, Ray Flash the Ring Flash Adapter and ExpoAperture2 Depth-of-Field Guides.
www.expoimaging.net
Copyright, 2009, ExpoImaging, Inc.
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