Ken Sklute » Ken Sklute Photographic Artist 602.738.0601

It was an early start to the day meeting the crew of Lalo’s Fast Food on Ventura Ave. in Ventura. I found myself setting up a tripod at 4:30 AM waiting to capture the beginning of the long days that the folks at Lalo’s put in daily. We watch as the lights click on bringing life back to the machine that produces awesome, handmade, delicious mexican food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. That works out to be an 18 hour day. Today that will be an 18 hour day for me as well. I will capture them arriving, cooking all day long and eventually closing…til the morning, when they do it all again.

This fusion project would combine time lapse, video and maybe a still image or two. The folks that work so hard were quite cooperative as I had carte blanche to go and photograph anywhere I wanted. I was certain not to interrupt their workflow as they prepared more than 200 orders during that day. I hung cameras above the cooktop, on refridgerators, on the take away window until the day wound down and day became night. Nighttime, the time to rest. Waiting as the last order served, the grill switched off , the bookkeeping complete, and then, finally, time to switch off the lights and go home.

I hope that you enjoy spending a few minutes in the day of the people at Lalo’s!

I had the pleasure of teaching a great group of photographers last week in the mountains of North Georgia at the GPPA’s Georgia School of Professional Photography. I was asked to create the school photograph after giving an all-school lecture on Sunday afternoon to jumpstart those in attendance for a wonderful week of learning. I was one of three instructors this year, sharing the teaching duties with Louis Tonsmiere and Mario and Marceliano Munoz! A great time was had by all. My students were taught how to find, see and create light. We worked with window light, off camera flash and ETTL Off Axis flash throughout the week. I hope that you like some of what we did in class as well as starting the day with a fog laden valley just outside of Helen, GA., on the way to school in Clarksville. They were certainly full, fun days!

I will be returning to GPPA for their fun convention in March and will be teaching at the Georgia School again next summer. I hope that you can be there. I wanted to share a quick, fun time lapse that I shot while photographing the group photo at the school. I hope that you like it!

Well, we finally got the task accomplished, even though it took a few attempts. One delay was because of the growing cumulus clouds in the northern sky of one of the Phoenix suburbs. My long time assistant Jim Taylor asked for help in going to bring a trailer home from it’s summer home of Happy Jack, AZ. No, I’m not kidding. Happy Jack.

Happy Jack is a great, rather cool (in temperature) area and lodge, which is just east of Sedona. In this camping region of pine, sitting at 7540 feet above sea level, it quickly helps you forget the blazing 116˚ blast furnace that is Phoenix valley in the summer months. For that reason alone most Phoenicians scatter to the north, east and west to find cool days and nights. When we arrived in Happy Jack, just after a long drive up from the valley that continued to interrupted by some remarkable sights, we got out of his truck and stretched to the coolness of the mountain air, a chilly 65 degrees! I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me back up a bit.

We began the journey north on Friday at about 4 PM. We got about 10 miles away from Jim’s home when a row of Saguaro cactus atop a hill caught my eye as they stood in front of some towering cumulus clouds. It was spectacular. We shot for about an hour and thought we should get on the way to the destination that was still 2.5 hours away. Before we knew it those towering cumulus clouds matured into lightning belching thunderstorms. We had to pull over and enjoy the light show right behind a few majestic Saguaro cactus. Once the show ended it seemed a bit late, and our hunger was on the rise. We thought it wise to delay our departure until the next day. Hopefully you saw the previous post of images from the day. (http://kensklute.net/2011/08/summer-weather/)

So here we go again. Let’s hit the heat, climb out of Phoenix and watch the turbulent Arizona skies on the way to Happy Jack. We celebrated getting past the Saguaros that we found impossible to get past yesterday. Today we got up to the Sunflower area before the mix of clouds, sun, and cracks of lightning forced us to pull over, not because of driving difficulty but because of the magnificent images appearing all around us.
We were amid layers of mountains with clouds just cooking by, dumping buckets of rain on nearby canyons and creating quite a soft blanket around the mountains, echoing with claps of thunder. Look to the west and there is lightning, look to the northeast, yep, more lightning. We were in the middle of a nice sized cell. It was gorgeous and produced a magnificent lightning-scape that I cannot stop looking at. See if you don’t agree that you can see the lightning in the foreground, clouds in the middle ground and the hills in the background. People that have studied with me have learned thru my repeated chants of foreground, middle ground and background will recognize that exemplified here in the lightning image. There were many images that I was lucky enough to capture this weekend, but this is my favorite. I was content after seeing this and some black and white collections of the evil looking sky.

It’s time to get back to the task at hand and get up to Happy Jack. Just after we passed through the town of Payson, as we were climbing into the forest, the sun saw it’s chance and peeked out below the cloud deck to show it’s smiling face. It bathed the landscape in warm, delicious light, all the time the rain continued. Awesome, look east! Look behind us! Pull over I begged. There it was. A rainbow. The elements came together, the sun, the rain and the angle. How lovely it was. We watched it grow across the sky. It was amazing.

Wait, what’s that?

Yes, it’s a double rainbow! It’s continuing to grow, right across the sky until it reaches the other side. Late in the afternoon, with the sun just above the horizon, it seemed to provide the last ingredient that was necessary to treat us to a complete double rainbow! What a spectacle! A double rainbow illuminated by the last of the suns day reaching across the sky. What great fun we had gathering the images and getting the opportunity to catch up with each other after some recent trips around the country.

We started out on Friday to fetch home a trailer and as it turned out, three days later we accomplished the task. Little did we know what gems we would collect along the way. It all goes to being prepared with the right equipment in case we experienced anything along the way. I carry many tripods, a few camera bodies, a gaggle of lenses, intervalometers, timers, batteries, lens cloths, air, cf cards, and open eyes. The later being the most important. Keeping your eyes open to what is different. Determining that there are enough elements present in the possible image to warrant stopping and capturing the image, all the while, delaying our task a bit more. It was well worth the time, and the exercise to troubleshoot how to capture a challenging image, like daytime lightning. The sweet finale being the double rainbow!

Serendipity.

Serendipity is when someone finds something that they weren’t expecting to find. The weekend was serendipitous. That is what I love about photography. It is often serendipitous! We just don’t recognize it until afterwards when we review the take of images created.

Be aware of what is going on around you at all times. it’s something known as situational awareness. You can prepare just in case. If you look as you go through your day, you will see something that you never thought that you would. Seeing the gifts placed in front of us is a gift in itself. I enjoy  having my eyes  open to see what is different. Then to have the ability to do something about it is the completion of the gift. Having the correct tools to capture what your new found vision has recognized is wonderful growth. No matter how long we have been shooting, we still find new ways to see and refine our vision. Keep your eyes open and enjoy life’s serendipitous moments when they appear. Hopefully with that,  may you have a camera to capture the moment.

It has been a pleasure to speak and teach a weeklong workshop for the Professional Photographers of California at the lovely campus of the University of San Diego every June. This year, while teaching “Transitioning from Stills to Motion” we created a quick time lapse of the annual school group photograph. Time lapse is a fun way to create a view into the compression of time, often condensing 90 minutes of real time into a two minute time lapse. I will be teaching this topic at many PPA type weeklong school next year, one here again at West Coast School June 17-22, 2012. I hope that you will embrace the idea of photographing motion and adding it to the still images that you are capturing now. It is an exciting way to capture imagery as well as an awesome way to attract new clients. This technology is here to stay and in most of the cameras that we are shooting with today. It takes a slightly different way of looking at things, but that’s the fun of it, aside from giving your work a new depth.

I hope that you will find a way to join me and learn how to transition from stills to motion! Please check my website to see where I am teaching and let me show you how to get your images into motion!

In light of the approaching Hurricane Irene moving up the East Coast, I went out to help a buddy get an RV trailer yesterday in 115˚ summer monsoon weather here in Phoenix, AZ. truth be told, we never got to accomplish our goal of driving to get the trailer. We tried. We wanted too. We succumb to the magnificent show that began as a beautiful, hot as blazes day with building, towering cumulus clouds over the magnificent Arizona landscape. We stopped for just a picture or two on the way up north. Before we knew it, the clouds grew into a beautiful light show all around us. I was able to capture a few images that I wanted to share with you. I hope that you enjoy the summer weather in the desert!

More than that, I hope and pray that as Hurricane Irene approaches my families and friends on the East Coast, she is kind to them. It will be a long 48 hours as she progresses up the coast and heads to my native Long Island. I’ve got my fingers crossed and am praying that the damage is minimal. It is amazing to hear that Mass Transit in NY is suspended. No subway, no trains, no busses, NYC is closed! How strange!

I recently returned from a trip to Detroit, Mi., to photograph some Urban Explorations in some of Detroit’s largest abandoned buildings. I wanted to share this time lapse of the Detroit Skyline with an abandoned automobile factory in the foreground, for character. It was a wonderful trip through the city relics with my buddy Dave, who drove down from Flint to explore with me.

The Abandoned City of Detroit from Ken Sklute on Vimeo.

Let me share with you how exciting it was to have two of my worlds collide, in a good way, of course. Many years ago, drag racing helped me find photography. I was fourteen years old and fell in love with the photographs that I was taking of 200 MPH Funny Cars. I was lucky to sell photos from my first roll of film. It was serendipity. I was meant to be a photographer. I have been in love with photography ever since. In fact, I went back to photographing NHRA Drag Racing in 2001 and enjoyed the tour for six years before I chose to leave touring and return to the Portraits/Weddings market. It was a great time and I headed right to the most awesome of jobs that I have ever had the pleasure to know! So, for all of my adult life it has been photography mixed in with drag racing. Right about now you are thinking, what does this have to do with ballooning in New Jersey? Stay with me, I’m getting there.

Photography thru the years has brought me to many places. After a wedding one Labor Day weekend, I drove from Long Island to Norwalk, Conn. because I had read and seen an image in Newsday, my local newspaper. The image was of a couple of hot air balloons in the air. I left the Island at midnight and slept a few winks in the car, once I found the launch field. As the sun rose, so did 30 colorful, exciting, beautiful hot air balloons. In a matter of minutes, about 30, they unpacked, unrolled, inflated, and blessed the air as they flew across the Long Island Sound towards Port Jefferson. I had put 15 rolls of Kodachrome 64 thru my Canon A-1 and was in love again. It was awesome. I had to get back to the Island as I had a wedding later that day. All the way home I thought about finding out where next. Where can I drive to in the rare occasion that I have an open weekend day. In those days I was shooting weddings most Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. All that I could envision was flying in one. During that week I found the next festival was being held in Glens Falls, NY, a bit past the state capital of Albany, a four hour drive from Long Island, in three weeks. I only have a Friday and Saturday wedding, so, I planned on leaving right after the wedding ended at Midnight. Well, I’ll catch an hour or so of sleep and it’ll be time for a colorful spectacle to unfold right in front of my, now, bloodshot eyes. It was remarkable and I made a connection in order to fly in the final evening flight, later that day. How cool. It was amazing! I am now hooked. As soon as I had time after returning home, I looked into finding a used hot air balloon. I found one that met my preferences and drove to New Hope, Pa. to bring her home. I had bought a balloon and I was ready to learn how to do this by myself. I accomplished my hot air balloon pilots license in 1990. It was a magnificent platform to photograph from. Every time that I flew, I was in a place that nobody else was. It was remarkable. So was the light, almost always sunrises and sunsets. I came back from taking my pilots test in Oakland, Ca and I worked on my commercial license rather than just for sport. Once I got home, I began a ride business on Long Island. Yes, Long Island. 15 miles at it’s widest point. It helped me become a very good pilot. I was surrounded by water and I had to keep the balloon over land! It was sometimes challenging to do so. But it was wonderful. I would fly in the mornings before opening my studio at 11 AM. As I sit here now, thinking and putting my words to keys, I recall having many couples get engaged in my balloon and even had a few Brides and Grooms fly with me on the day of their weddings. Fast forward many years and my photoghraphy and my passion for hot air ballooning were brought together again, in New Jersey.

Canon asked me to design a few ideas for destination workshops that people would enjoy coming to and learning at. The idea was born. I could have my photography world infiltrate my hot air ballooning world. It was great to be leading some of my Canon peers along with a group of eager students looking to  see the world just a bit differently. Let’s hold the workshop at the Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning in Whitehouse Station, about 45 minutes due west of Manhattan. It was awesome to be back around 125 of these gentle giants and teach some gifted and hungry students in this target rich environment. Let me warn you how exhausting it is to be up three mornings in a row at 4 AM and motor all the way thru the day. My poor students were happily tuckered out! We had a rather deep and intense session, with each attendee growing photographically as well as spiritually. So, with all of this history shared with you, it was a remarkably gratifying weekend with  great new friends and wonderful opportunities for imagery. I am going to share a slideshow of my work with you here and in the days to come, I will post a few whimsical time lapses as well. Enjoy these images and treat yourself to a hot air balloon flight. You’ll be glad that you did!

Canon Workshop at the New Jersey Festival of Ballooning from Ken Sklute on Vimeo.

Back on June 9, I had the pleasure of spending a day at the remarkably lovely grounds of Rancho Los Lomas in Silverado Canyon, CA. I had been in this neighborhood many times as the corporate offices of Oakley are just down the road in Foothills Ranch. It was a great day and it seemed as everyone had a wonderful time at the “hands on” day of learning as much as I could share regarding lighting people! PPOC member Jerry Kelly came out to both learn and document the day. I’m happy that Jerry sent me this fun piece that he created. I wanted to share the piece with you. I hope that one day I can share lighting with you as we have a blast learning! I hope that you enjoy this….and thanks again Jerry!

Last week, after teaching a few weeklong schools on the East Coast, and the day following my Canon Hot Air Balloon Destination Workshop in northern New Jersey (pictures to follow soon) my buddy Dale and I decided to chase after a wicked, slow moving cell that drifted over Riverhead, NY just at sunset. We quickly found a home over the DeLea Sod Farm in Calverton, NY and held on thru the 40 MPH winds, driving downpours and hail to capture a huge collection of lightning landscapes. The show was amazing. I captured over 300 lightning strikes during this 45 minute lightshow. I am posting two black and white images, the second from the beach in Westhampton as we chased the lightning for an encore performance.

Multiple lightning bolts over Westhampton Beach

After completing an awesome week teaching “Transitioning from Stills to Motion” at the PPSNYS School in Geneva, NY recently, I relaxed and enjoyed a night with Steely Dan at the CMAC Amphitheater in Canandaigua, NY. It’s always fun to catch up with Donald Fagen and company, in spite of the 100 degree, humid evening.

Donald Fagen and the Embassay Brats