Member Profile: Joe Ake Studios
When people ask me what my greatest skill is, it is difficult to name just one. I have spent most of my life around photography, video, sound, editing, and production. But when I look back, I realize that all of those skills grew from the same place: learning how to understand the technical side of production while developing the creative eye and ear needed to tell a story.
That began with my father.
As a child, I learned photography using his old analog Pentax camera. It had a threaded lens and no built-in light meter, so getting a proper exposure required understanding the mathematics of photography. My father taught me the relationship between shutter speed, aperture, film speed, and available light. You had to understand what the camera needed in order to record the image correctly.
But the mathematics only helped you make a properly exposed photograph. Your eye still had another job. You had to recognize good composition, decide what belonged in the frame, and understand what made the picture interesting. I learned early that the technical side made the image possible, but the creative side gave it meaning.
Sound became another fascination. My father owned a television repair shop, and he gave me a pair of headphones. I spent hours listening to AM radio, fascinated by voices, music, and the way sound alone could create pictures in your imagination.
My love of production grew even stronger when my father took me to NBC Studios and the Johnny Carson studio tour. The following year, in 1970, we toured Universal Studios and its sound stages. Seeing cameras, lights, microphones, sets, and crews working together showed me the world behind what appeared on television and movie screens.
I was hooked.
Over the years, I carried those early lessons into photography, videography, audio, editing, live production, and streaming. The technology changed dramatically, but the fundamentals remained.
My greatest skill is bringing the technical and creative sides of production together. I understand that equipment, mathematics, lighting, and sound are essential, but they are only tools. The real skill is knowing how to use them to communicate an idea, capture a moment, and tell a story.
The equipment has changed since my father’s Pentax and those AM radio headphones, but I am still doing what I learned to do as a child: understanding the tools, looking, listening, and telling the story.
Joe Ake Studios
(317) 513-1763
joeake@gmail.com
https://web.aspirejohnsoncounty.com/Media/Joe-Ake-Studios-8870