Kenneth Hawkins stumbled into photojournalism, Pentax 35-millimeter camera in hand, at a sports media summer program held by his Atlanta church when he was 11.

“I picked up a camera and just ran with it and kept going,” said Hawkins, a print journalism major at North Carolina A&T. Currently a photographer for the A&T Register, the weekly campus newspaper, Hawkins will be the photo editor in August.

After the summer program, at the West Hunter Street Baptist Church, Hawkins became a professional photographer’s assistant with Shiron Kilgore, a private photographer in Atlanta covering weddings, birthday parties, junior high school proms and reunions of all kinds.

 He became his own boss when he launched Kenny’s Photography at 13. He charged customers $500 for his photography services. Today, he charges $750. But he doesn’t do it for the money.

 ”I love photography because I can put a smile on people’s faces,” Hawkins said.

 He especially enjoys sports photography.

 ”It’s something people always want to see,” said Hawkins, a fan of the Atlanta Braves. “You can catch people doing things, and when people play baseball, they make some ugly faces.”

 Hawkins’ favorite sport to photograph is football, because it is a “very fast sport,” and he enjoys being on the sidelines in the middle of the action.

Hawkins said he wants to become a photojournalist or a multimedia specialist with The Atlanta-Journal Constitution or the Associated Press:  ”I’m someone who can go out there and get the job done.”