Creator Highlight: Tom Kahler
ALL CYLINDERS FIRING.
We had the chance to sit down with the amazing automotive photographer - Tom Kahler - and ask him about his origins, the pros and cons of social media and what drives him (no pun intended).
Creator Highlight, where we focus on photographers, cinematographer, director, artists, athletes or any one that is creative and let them speak freely.
Q: Welcome Tom. First of all is it pronounced “Caller” or “Kaylor”?
Tom Kahler: It’s a good question, it’s a german name so it’s officially pronounced “Caller” but all my friends and family says “Kaylor” but either is fine.
Q: Perfect, well - Who is Tom Kahler?
Tom Kahler: I am prodominantely an automotive photographer and I started a smaller production company a couple of years ago with a team of freelancer that I worked with regulary where we do, obviously, photography work but also manage full on productions with video as well. All that good stuff to basically bring creative visions to life.
"I’ve always been really passionate about cars"
Q: So how did you end up in the line of work that you are currently in?
Tom Kahler: I’ve always been really passionate about cars but I come from a cycling background so bikes was a huge part of my life from early on, but as I got older, cars took over.
It was around 16 where I decided to push pretty hard on photography, which is quite young to have decided what I want to do in my life and I haven’t looked back a single time. On the production side of things, it has kind of grown organically with people asking if I know any videographers and also for the need of bigger productions ideas.
Q: How was the transition going from hobby to full time work?
Tom Kahler: Difficult to be honest. For me it was a very slow kind of “process” of trying and trying and lots of smaller jobs that, honestly I didn’t want to shoot, but had to just to pay the bills and build a portfolio. Doing this over and over again, it slowly evolved into getting those kind of shoots that you want to do and even up to last year, even though it’s in the automotive world, I still had some of those shoots that I didn’t want to do.It is not until this year, where I took the decision to do these bigger kind of campaign jobs and turn down smaller ones. It is awesome that I can do it but I am busier than ever haha!
Q: Something that is quite common with creatives is burnout or going into a negative creative spiral, have you experienced it at some point?
Tom Kahler: That’s a great question, and an important one. I think all creatives end up in this downward creative spiral at some point, and at some degree.
For me, it happened when I started to get more and more jobs and the transition from having a hobby, to this thing actually becoming a job. It also isn’t that uncommon that friends and family become some what of a second priority. It isn’t intentional and not something you aim for, it just happens when you put all your time into your passion.
I started in cycling so going back to that and spending less time in photography, really helped me come out of that negative headspace, but also reconnecting with my friends and family.It’s not wrong to spend the majority of your time and energy on something you’re passionate about, but to once in a while zoom out and reset is very healthy. In the long run, it will only help you.
Q: That’s great to hear. What drives you?
Tom Kahler: I think it is just the satisfaction of the whole thing, really. I’m lucky enough to have had the opportunity to employ some of my closest friends including my fiancée and now they are a part of the production company. So to get a brief from a brand, pulling it of with everybody and seeing the finished products is really satisfying.
So I’d say the achievement of the whole progress is what drives me.
Q: So it’s almost like one big family?
Tom Kahler: Yeah, kind of. And it keeps growing, you know, as the years go on and the campaigns get bigger. Since you spend a lot of time traveling together, it’s nice to have a really close team that consist of some of the closest people in your life.
Q: We see some recurring clients on your socials but, how do you get new clients?
Tom Kahler: To be honest, some of them are still a mystery, haha! Some just land in the inbox and I’m not sure where they came from which is obviously a good problem to have. I think a lot of it is just networking with people that you know.The car world is quite close, so sometimes you have contacts that work at one manufacturer, you build a relationship with them and they move to another brand where they sort of bring you with them. So networking and word of mouth. Posting on the website is another one, though my SEO is probably not great, I’m sure it brings some people in from Google. But social media is the biggest outlet. When I post either personal stuff or campaign work, you just hope people see it and keep you in mind.
Q: Speaking of social media - what’s your take on the entire social media monster that we have now?
Tom Kahler: *laughs* I think it has a lot of positives and some negatives and I think it’s kind of hard to take one without the other. For example, I am flying to the Dolomites soon for a shoot with Aston Martin and I’m looking for someone to help out for a couple of days. So I reached out to a photographer called Tom Klocker, who you may or may not, be aware of his work. We have followed eachother for years and I absolutely love his work but we’ve never met in person. So he is going to help out for a couple of days and that type of interaction would be a lot harder with out social media and the ease of networking through it, you know.But then there is a negative side of always comparing yourself with others, because everyone is always doing cool stuff on Instagram, right? You might be stuck at the office doing boring stuff but no one shows the boring stuff on Instagram.
Q: Yeah, no one shares their RAW photos, right?
Tom Kahler: *laughs* Exactly!
Q: Would you rather have a super detailed production plan or run-and-gun?
Tom Kahler: That’s a tricky one. If it’s a shoot where there's a lot of creative freedom, I would rather go run-and-gun style. But if it’s sort of a bigger production, like a campaign shoot where the client has a set look, certain angles that they want, set amount of deliverables, then I’d rather have it be 100% planned so everyone knows where they’re going to be and what they will be doing. There has been a couple of those bigger productions where it hasn’t been fully planned and it was really stressful and inefficient.
Q: On these bigger productions, are you ever on the director side of things, or mainly photo?
Tom Kahler: No directing as of yet. But I am interested in directing something like a short film. But I don’t want do be the DoP for it, more the storyboarding and directing, and then someone else can shoot it and edit it haha! I think that could be interesting.
Q: Have you ever dabbled in the video world yourself before?
Tom Kahler: Yeah, for sure! I used to shoot some video but I never got amazing at it and I found the editing really hard to be honest. I’ve always had the vision but I felt like I couldn’t make it happen they way I imagined it with video.
I could probably put something together but i have friends that are much better at it than me so I’ll just stick to photography for now.
Q: What is some of your biggest learnings?
Tom Kahler: Not sure if there is any big ones but there are so many small learning curves along the way and I think I’m quite good at looking at the bigger picture (no pun intended) and trying to flag potential problems with productions or shoots before they happen.
Ultimately, there’s always things that don’t go smooth or goes wrong and I have learnt to get better at reflecting on those situations and try to figure out how it could have been avoided and of course, how we can avoid it in the future.
Another one is that I’ve always been a bit of a control freak, so a learning in that sense is that I now trust people with tasks and positions more than before. In the past, I just wanted to do everything myself, but as I got older and more experienced, letting go of that inner control freak and finding the right people for the job will help the business to grow.
Some of Tom's recent work.
Q: I would say those are pretty big learnings! Now, let’s do some rapid fire.
Tom Kahler: *laughs* No pressure...
Q: Are you a morning person or a night owl?
Tom Kahler: Definitely a night owl, I don’t do mornings.
Q: Favorite food?
Tom Kahler: Oh, pasta. No, wait! Tacos!
Q: Close call there. Favorite movie?
Tom Kahler: The Hangover series.
Q: Favorite artist or band? Can be of all-time or just something you have on repeat now.
Tom Kahler: Me and my friend have had Lola Young on repeat everywhere we go lately. Not an all-time favorite but definitely recently.
Q: What piece of gear can you not live without?
Tom Kahler: The Leica M11. It is not my main camera but I’m for sure more passionate about that camera than the Sony ones. The Sony ones is for work and the Leica is for fun. So yeah, definitely wouldn’t want to be without it.
Q: What is the most overrated piece of gear you own?
Tom Kahler: I bought the Sony A1 and... I don’t love it.
Q: Does gear matter?
Tom Kahler: Of course, to some extent but it is not essential. You can get amazing results with cheaper and more basic gear but having more advanced gear helps.
Q: Studio or outdoor location?
Tom Kahler: Outdoor location, definitely.
Q: Favorite hobby outside of photography?
Tom Kahler: Cycling.
Q: Let’s move on. Any tips for upcoming creators?
Tom Kahler: I guess focus on building a portfolio and then try to reach out to the right people. Most people do it in reverse order. They reach out to brands or people they want to work with but they don’t have the work to back it up. And definitely focus more on the ideas and concepts, more than gear.
Q: Thank you for your time, Tom. Anything you want to add? And where can we find you?
Tom Kahler: Instagram and my website is probably a good place. It isn’t very up to date haha, it needs some work. I have neglected it for like, 6 months but I’m trying to get back to it.
