The Legacy of Don Trout – Everyone’s Favorite Photographer
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70 – October, 2017
by Delores Kuhlwein
“WHAT A MAN DOES FOR OTHERS, NOT WHAT THEY DO FOR HIM, GIVES HIM IMMORTALITY.” ~ Daniel Webster
It seems impossible to lose a man whose very presence and lifetime work became part of the fabric that wove us together as an industry. But we did lose Don Trout on July 26, 2017, after a long battle with cancer.
The Accidental Photographer
“Show me how to run the camera.” Those seven words that were spoken by Don to his friend, Carter Allen, during the Indiana Futurity in the 1970s, changed his life forever.
“Don got started by accident, really,” explains his wife, Debbie, who recalls the day their close friend, Carter, was shooting the Indiana Futurity and asked Don if he would take photos for the last couple of classes that day. Don and Carter, plus friends such as Dr. Barry Wood and Eddie Lenderman, had shown Halter and Western Pleasure horses together in earlier years, and now Don was co-chairman of the futurity. “The next day, he went to see the photos Carter had developed, saw what he had taken, and he was hooked!” Carter’s friendship with Don became a mentorship, too, after that first taste in Indiana. “It really launched his career,” Carter says. “That’s what changed his life.”
From that point on, Don was on a mission to learn, teaching himself the basics of equine photography by pouring through popular magazines to determine which photos people liked using in their ads. “He would go over to friends’ barns in the evenings, and he practiced,” Debbie says. “He started shooting at different shows in Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio, mainly because they were close to home. Don started making frequent trips to Oklahoma and Texas, and, as his reputation grew, his list of clients did as well, including greats such as Jerry Wells, Larry Sullivant, Dave Page, Matlock Rose, Carol Rose, and many more.
“When he started his business, Don’s goal was to guarantee his work and charge everyone the same. He was especially concerned that everyone was happy with the photos that were purchased,” Debbie says. It was an aspiration that came to fruition, according to Sharon Fibelkorn Chapman, whose Facebook profile proudly introduces her as ‘Second Shooter for Don Trout Photography.’ She explains, “When he had a horse at the backdrop, you could lay money on the fact that the horse and exhibitors would be stood up and photographed absolutely right or they would not be leaving that backdrop area until they were. Each and every person at that show got the same special treatment.”
Click here to read the complete article70 – October, 2017
