Don Orkoskey started in a high school darkroom and became an event and portrait photographer. He photographed President Obama at a 2016 Veterans of Foreign Wars event. His main advice: find a mentor who teaches both craft and business, because formal education isn't required if you learn on the job.
What really got me into photography is that I took a class in high school that I really loved. I enjoyed being in the darkroom. I enjoyed being able to document everything that I was seeing. So when it came time to graduate high school, my mom said, what are you going to do with your life? And I said, well, if I have to choose, I guess I'll go become a photographer. I went to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, which no longer exists, because they had a photography program and they had these pretty aggressive salespeople that came to my high school and said, you can be this amazing artist or photographer or whatever, and I fell for it. So I went to the Art Institute. I got an associate's degree there, so that took about 2 years. Then I decided, because I really liked photojournalism, that I was going to go to Point Park, which was just down the road, Point Park University, and study photojournalism. I was there for a little while when the bottom started to fall out from newspapers. They were laying people off, and it just didn't look like the future was going to be so good in photojournalism. So I switched gears and went to Pitt for database administration and information science. But I never really stopped doing photography. It's always been my passion, and so I just stuck with it. In terms of the pros of being a photographer, certainly with what I do as an event and portrait photographer, I get to meet so many new people. The same thing with teaching, because I teach photography as well. So I get to meet so many new and interesting people and talk to them about their lives. Talk to them about what they love to do. And when it comes to teaching photography, I get to help people who also want to do photography and find out what they want to do, whether it's also portraits or events, or if it's something like nature photography, which is something that I love. In terms of my favorite things to photograph, it's really nature, to be quite honest. But things that I'm paid to photograph, it's A lot of people that I've met at events, really. I've met some really incredible folks. Photographed for the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary in 2016, so I got to photograph President Obama really close up. He came right down in front of the stage where I was at and shook people's hands. He even shook my hand, so that was pretty cool. But I've also, I've just gotten to meet people you've probably never heard of, right? That are just fascinating people to meet and be around. Awesome. So in terms of advice for anyone who wants to become a photographer or do any sort of creative work, whether it's graphic design, web design, illustration, if you're gonna start your own business, is number one, you don't necessarily have to go to school for this. You can learn everything on the job. If you can find somebody to work for and work with. That's something I've seen a lot of. Obviously, I did go to school, but I see people that are just as successful having not gone to school. So that's number one. But the way that you can avoid that is by finding a good mentor. That's somebody you can work with assisting setting up lights or, you know, doing whatever, as long as there's somebody who will— Teach you. teach you and is willing to teach you the business end of things, because that way you can learn from all the mistakes that they've made or that their mentor made, rather than making them yourself, because some of the mistakes can be expensive, essentially.
