PhotoshopUser.2020.04.April

1. Favorite movie
   I know it’s gonna sound weird, but it’s a
   tossup between Star Wars and Gone with
   the Wind.


2. What can’t you live without?
   My Family. They’re the key to my life.


3. Favorite type of music
   Anything Hillsong United


4. What do you do in your spare time?
   Planning shoots. Honestly, I love planning
   how to get the best photos.


5. Where’s your favorite place to travel?
   Anywhere with my wife and daughter


6. What are three things you always
   take with you when you travel?
   Camera, tripod, and PhotoPills


7. What’s your favorite new app?
   Slow Shutter Cam to shoot long exposures
   on my iPhone


8. What’s the best advice you’ve
   ever received?
   Try not to think in absolutes.


9. Who would you recommend some—
   one to follow on social media?
   @JohnKrausPhotos is an awesome young
   photographer. I’m a little biased because he
   shoots rockets with me, but he’s super-
   talented at all types of photography.


10. What’s the one thing you wish
    somebody would ask you?
    I’d love Elon Musk to ask me to photograph
    space from inside one of his rockets. (It
    never hurts to dream!) n

Who’s Who on the KelbyOne Instructor Team: Erik Kuna

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ERIKKUNA

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RAPID-FIRE

QUESTIONS

Where are you from, and what kind of work do you do?

I’m from Binghamton, a city in upstate New York, where we lived

off spiedies and a lack of sunshine. Since the spiedies could travel,

my parents decided when I was at an early age to relocate to Clear-

water, Florida, where the sun shines more than 90% of the year.

That move proved advantageous for my photography journey as

my main type of work is photojournalism at NASA Kennedy Space

Center. For the last few years, I’ve been covering SpaceX, NASA,

ULA, and Air Force rocket launches for various news outlets, creative

agencies, and magazines around the world. I’m also an avid Milky

Way, astro, and landscape photographer, and have an unhealthy

addiction to PhotoPills.

Where do you look for inspiration?

All around me. Life has so much beauty and awe that I tend to draw a lot

of my inspiration from it. Specifically, I look for those majestic moments

of great lighting and colors to unfold and inspire me. I guess you could

say my number-one inspiration has been in the words of Jay Maisel:

light, gesture, and color.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?

I really enjoy helping people unlock their potential. I think we all have

talent and a voice, and it’s really cool as an educator to help people

tap into that. Another big part for me is to dispel all those myths and

over-complications out there that often prevent people from excelling

at photography.

Do you have any work rituals?

Yes, I have to plan, practice, and pray. I really think these three things

are key. You have to know your subject and study it to the point you

can predict what will happen before it happens, then you have to

practice the techniques and skills you need to execute your plan so

you can create the best images. It takes all that coming together with

a little bit of luck, faith, divine intervention, magic, or whatever you

want to call it.

Are there any hardware or software tools

you just couldn’t live without?

Absolutely! It always starts with Google Maps, Google Earth,

and PhotoPills. Those are my secret weapons of preproduction.

That, and a specific weapon for rocket streak photography

called FlightClub.io. Beyond those, Photoshop and Lightroom

are key. Without Photoshop and Lightroom I wouldn’t be able

to survive, or at least create the images that are in my head

from my RAW files.