Photographer Spotlight: Kevin Kubota

 

When did you know the photography/video industry was for you? 

I had always loved photography and learned to develop my own images in the darkroom as a teen, but it wasn’t until my early 20’s that I turned to professional photography – after realizing my college driven career was not going to pan out. I actually fell in to it by chance as my roommate asked me to take some portraits of her to make a calendar for her boyfriend. I built a make-shift studio in my garage and we did the images – which turned out pretty well. Soon I was getting referrals to her friends and their friends and my portrait business was on a roll. Soon after that I started shooting weddings for friends and realized I loved the spontaneity and opportunities that weddings provided. It was at this point that I think I finally started to take myself seriously as a photographer and made it my full-time pursuit.

 

How did you get your current position? How did your training or schooling prepare you for your job? 

I was mostly self-taught – learning a lot about composition and capturing spontaneity from my dad, who was an avid black & white photographer. I read a LOT of books, watched videos, and attended local chapters of photographers association meetings with my photo buddies. I then heard about a digital imaging course being offered at the community college – which was pre-Photoshop, using some crazy DOS based imaging software. I was super excited about the potential of digital imaging – even though there was very very little information available about it at the time. This was over 20 years ago. I took that course and was hooked on digital imaging. I also met one of the photography department instructors who owned a fairly large studio in southern California and he offered me an assistant position with him. I worked as his assistant for 2 years doing a wide variety of commercial jobs, which gave me exposure and training with numerous types of cameras and a plethora of lighting equipment. It was hard and humbling work, but when I looked back on the experience I realized how much I had actually learned.

 

What was the greatest obstacle you had to overcome in pursuing your career? 

Initially, I think the main obstacle was simply financial. I had to borrow money from my family to buy my first camera and I didn’t have a nice place to photograph clients or meet with them. I started out very simple, but I think that my experience with customer service really helped me overcome these limitations. Prior to embracing photography I was working at Nordstroms and learned a great deal about excelling in customer service. I knew how to create a professional atmosphere even if I didn’t have the budget for professional “stuff”. I am a good listener and communicator as well, which is a huge part of being a successful photographer. You have to be able to give your potential clients confidence in you – which I managed to do. I remember a quote from a photographer long ago – whose name I, unfortunately, can’t recall, “If the client likes the photographer, they will probably like the photos.” I found this to be very true, most of the time.

Who would you name as the most influential person in shaping your career?  Why? 

I have three people: My father, who simply inspired my by his artful family images and implanted that vision in me at a young age. My mentor, Chuck Shahood, who was the commercial photographer I worked for in southern California, and my buddy George Carranza, in Los Angeles, who photographed my own wedding and then became a good friend and shared his wealth of knowledge on wedding photography with me. George was never hesitant to share any of his secrets and always pushed me to be a better photographer. He was very inspirational to me and is a wonderfully talented artist.

If you could be compensated for your work with something other than money, what would it be? 

Ah, funny you should ask that as I’ve come to a point in my career where I actually don’t photograph for money much anymore. I only do weddings if they are special cases where I’ll do them for charity. I also spend more of my time on charitable photography projects and, of course, I love teaching photography to other photographers. My biggest reward really is in knowing that I can give someone a gift that is invaluable. When other photographers are inspired by what I do, and they tell me that they now have started doing a charity project on their own – that is truly rewarding to me. I believe the idea of “pay it forward” is so essential to the success of humanity and everyone has a part they can play. 

Aloha, Peace, Namaste, Shalom, Salaam, Kukutana, Sahhiet, Shen ti jian kan, Paz e amor, Yoroshiku!