Army journalist, photographer documents military life

LANCASTER − If you see Lukas Sparks around there’s a good chance he is holding a camera or a notepad.

Sparks is a journalist and photographer for the U.S. Army Reserves and also has a private sector job taking automotive photos for Columbus auto dealerships.

For his military obligation, he takes photos and writes stories for army websites.

“We write articles about what might be going on at whatever event we’re at,” Sparks said. “So we’re pretty much fulltime journalists, photographers and videographers.”

He started his military contract in 2020 after attending Ohio University as a communications major.

“I didn’t used to have very good people skills,” Sparks said. “I went and forced myself into a really people-filled, talk-filled school and I got into photography there. And when I thought about joining the military I took all my testing and they offered this job.”

He said he didn’t think journalism and photography was even a job in the military.

“Whenever I tell people what I do for the army they’re like, ‘That’s a job?’” Sparks said. “But it’s the best one they offer. It’s a great job. On the army side, when people are out there doing their job the only way their story gets told is by word of mouth in the military because it’s kind of private.

“But once I’m able to go out there and take their quotes and their stories and their photos, they can show their friends, their families and put it online. It makes them feel like they’re really doing something instead of just telling people this and that.”

Sparks is a city resident who reports to his military duties in Whitehall. His most recent trip was in August to Wisconsin for a two-week military event featuring several different units in training.

“We covered stories on what they did there,” Lukas said. “One thing I did was I went to a water purification plant where they were taking water out of the lake and purifying it through these machines and distributing it throughout the whole camp. We covered a fueling unit and I got two of my stories and photos put into the Real Mccoy newspaper recently. I thought that was pretty cool.”

Once a year Lukas goes on a twoweek military trip to demonstrate what he does on his job. He also meets once a month with his unit in Whitehall to discuss what stories they may cover. The rest of the time Lukas works his private freelance job.

Lukas got into journalism originally because he thought it would be good skill to learn.

“Now that I’ve seen what my stories and photos do for people it keeps me wanting to do it,” he said. “For example, in the freelance world I’ve done a lot of car photography for people who are in love with their cars. They like to see the aftermath.”

Lukas has also taken pet photos for people. He also once worked at a maximum security prison, which he said was dangerous.

“It’s a nice change,” Sparks said of journalism and photography. “It won’t be my forever job, for sure. But for right now it definitely pays the bills and allows me to relax a little bit and have a normal Monday through Friday 9 to 5 schedule.”