For the second installment in my series on other photographers I’m going to showcase some work by The Rome News-Tribune’s Ken Caruthers.  I heard stories about Ken initially through my friend and fellow UGAPJ grad Lindy Dugger who works with Ken at the paper, so when I met him at the Buford vs. Calhoun for the state football championship game we began to talk and quickly became friends. Ken is 27 years old and features his work at www.kencaruthers.com and www.myspace.com/kencaruthers.

Click here to see the other part of this series.

Ken’s Commentary:

I got into photography during college after realizing I was not a very good traditional artist. I studied drawing, painting, and 3-D art, but it just was not for me. During college,I bought a used Canon D30, this was one of Canon’s first digital SLR’s, and became hooked on photography. I used my training as a traditional artist to make the camera my canvas. I have never had any real classes on photography…I just learned from doing and reading a lot.

I got hired as a staff photographer at a daily newspaper in Rome, Georgia over 5 years ago and it only took about about a year to realize I did not want to be a newspaper photographer any longer. My focus turned more to portrait photography. Which is funny because I used to think it was really lame, but I was wrong. I actually enjoy the hands-on creativity process and working with interesting people of all types. I also started doing more creative photography with a technique I call “Painting with Light” which involves long exsposures and colored lights. This is my real passion. I am able to “paint” again but not with a brush…

Photos by Ken Caruthers