We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lucas Walker a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lucas, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

The name I chose for my business is Skywalkerfoto. The origin of this name is a two-parter. The first part being ‘Skywalker’ which of course is synonymous with the Star Wars empire which combined with my name being Lucas Walker, seemed like a natural fit. The second portion ‘foto’ comes from my background & passion for speaking Spanish. Growing up in Tucson, Arizona allowed me to be enshrined in the rich culture of the Southwest including Mexican culture. I have spent time traveling through Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Spain, where my love for the language and culture grew exponentially. Becoming bilingual has opened a lot of doors for me and I wanted to add that love into my photography business.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I started my photography career back in High School in 2014 when I took a Digital Media course along with a Photography course. I had always enjoyed having those disposable cameras one takes on a vacation to capture their favorite memories. I remember taking a silly photo of a fall leaf on top of some short, barely alive grass at school and then taking that photo to photoshop to start editing for the first time. I remember hilariously making bad photos by taking a picture of a classmate and then photoshopping their eyes to be massive compared to the rest of their head. My friends and classmates would film those super awkward videos for projects because no-one had any idea how to ‘act natural’ in front of the camera. It was fun. It was experimental. We were eager to create something.

Fast-forward some years and I was leaving the U.S. to go teach English in Spain after graduating from the University of Arizona in 2018. During my travels I developed my camera skills and started doing more portrait photography of a friend I made while in Spain. Once I started taking portraits I was hooked! I haven’t looked back since then.

I want my clients to feel comfortable in front of my lens, and to truly experience the moment they are in. I want my couples to feel as though they are on a date night and I am the hidden paparazzi ready to capture their love and essence together. I want my business clients to know that I have the skills to capture their mission/brand and can visually interpret that to their clientele.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

The resource I wish I knew about earlier was more of a mindset shift than a specific example. I wish I knew early on that the only important step I needed to take to make a creative passion into a business, was to just start. You can always learn on the go and improve your craft, however you cannot go back in time to start earlier than you did.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I’ve found that word of mouth and face to face interactions go pretty far now even with the ‘digitalization’ of marketing techniques. Putting a face, a personality, and a warm smile into expanding clientele has returned a lot more business than social media marketing for me. I think people are desperately craving human connection these days post-pandemic and so those connections are proving far more valuable than cold calls or DM’s.

Contact Info:

• Website: skywalkerfoto.com
• Instagram: @skywalkerfoto