We had the good fortune of connecting with Joseph Sharketti and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joseph, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I just sort of fell into it. I borrowed a camera from a family member about six months ago because I wanted to learn photography. I began devouring YouTube videos on how to work the different settings, learned about lighting and composition, and then went on to learn color grading and editing techniques. Somewhere in those first couple of weeks, I saw an article somewhere that challenged readers to do something new in the next year, and one of the suggestions was to start a side hustle. I’m super introverted and knew I didn’t want to jump into portrait photography, so I decided to start with food and products.

I developed a small “portfolio” of shots I took in my basement and started sharing them on Instagram and showing them to some local business owners that I know, subtly hinting that they should give me an opportunity to “try out my new skills.” Ha! Next thing I knew I’m signed up with Glen Eyrie Castle to do a bunch of their photography and I’m doing in-restaraunt photography for Quality Connections, a local coupon magazine! I quickly figured out what I needed to do to make this a legit business, and now, here I am!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Honestly, I’m still in the learning phase, and probably always will be. I think one thing that sets me apart is that I’m not a portrait/headshot photographer. I can do them, but I’m too introverted for it. I prefer to work with inanimate objects, they do exactly what I want them to do. A photographer I admire said recently, “If you put a carrot on the ground, it will do what it’s supposed to do. It will carrot. If you put a person on the ground, they’ll do all kinds of unpredictable things that you may or may not want.”

You can go just about anywhere and get a headshot, but I talk to so many restaurant owners who tell me they just took pictures on their iPhone for their menu or website. That’s not in and of itself a bad thing. You can get amazing photos with an iPhone! But, there is something to be said about understanding lighting, composition, depth-of-field, color grading and editing. That’s where someone like me comes in. I’m also a musician, and I compare it to music theory. Yes, of course you can produce great music without it, but knowing the theory gives you so many more tools to work with. When you know the rules, you also know how to break them more effectively!

As for lessons learned, as I said before, I think it’s important to always be learning. Every shoot I do, I walk away with a lesson, whether it has to do with lighting, staging/styling the food, or working with the manager/owner. If we’re not learning, we’re not growing.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
It’s so easy to take for granted everything we have here. For instance, if you’ve never seen the rock formations like we have at Garden of the Gods, it can be pretty awesome! I’d probably start there for a morning hike, and then hit up Glen Eyrie Castle for tea time. After that, I’d probably take them down to Manitou Springs and Old Colorado City to walk around, then grab dinner at Colorado Mountain Brewery. I did a shoot there recently, and I definitely want to go back for their beer and jalepeno poppers!

Having a friend in town would also give me a reason to check out the new Top Golf and Overdrive Raceway, which would be followed up at some of the downtown restaurants and bars, like Bonnie and Read, Cask and Cork, Local Relic, Oskar Blues, the Rabbit Hole and Jake & Telly’s. There are just so many!

In the end, I’m really more of a chill-at-home kind of guy, so that’s probably all I could handle. And no, this friend would not be staying at my house, so I’d recommend Kinship Landing or Glen Eyrie for lodging. Haha!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I could give several shoutouts, but in relation to this opportunity, I’d have to shout out to Andrew Crump, Publisher for the Quality Connections magazine here in town. He got me my first few photography gigs, which forced me to learn quickly!

Website: sharketticreative.com

Instagram: @sharketticreative

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