Mike Johnson Photo + Video: People

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Sometimes you get an itch, an itch that won't go away no matter how you try. As a photographer I get some real bad itches. One of those it adventure photography, I absolutely love the outdoors, and love shooting people doing what they love. I think my wive get's tired of hearing me talking about how much I want people to do what they love. We only have one shot at this life, YOLO as the hipsters would say, and I believe that no matter what you should chase your dreams. Give it a shot and never look back. It might cost your life saving, a few trips to the hospital or even a close friend. But do what you love! And I love to capture people doing what they love. That's why I love commercial photography, I love working with business owners who have given their all to live their dreams.

One of my dreams, is to shoot commercial style adventure portraits. For some that may seem like a long silly bunch of words, but to me, what it means is this: I want to shoot portrait quality images of people in their favorite environment. The problem is, nobody trusts you when you don't have a portfolio. So this week I started to really build my portfolio in the direction I want to go. I begged Sammie Hansen, a local model from Provo to come work with me. I called and pleaded with my friends to come hang off a cliff with me. And we had a blast! I really have to share the behind the scenes shots from this shoot, it really was a lot of fun!

All of these shots were shot by Anthony Talcott, the son of Tonio Talcott, another local photographer. I'll tell ya, when I told my wife I was going to drag my $5,000 camera to the top of a 120 foot cliff and shoot pictures, she was a little panicked. When added that I was going to take close to a $1,000 in lighting gear and hang that off the cliff too, she freaked out (haha). But it was a blast! That's my buddy Eric in the orange shirt up there belaying Sammie so she doesn't fall. By the end of the shoot, he had both my and Sammie hooked into his harness and was doing his best to keep us both from falling. Honestly, he probably saved my life the whole time. I'm an idiot and inch closer and closer trying to get the right shot and he made me put a harness on.

I had to include this shot of my $300 light on a $10 light stand sticking out over the cliff... behind the rock holding the light is Tonio.

Here is another shot of Sammie and I getting ready to shoot our second location on the cliff. She's a lot less scared of heights than I was!

This shot was taken by Jeff Strong, another local photographer who was driving by and stopped and took this from below us with his cell phone! You can check out Jeff's work here.

Onto what we actually got from this shoot!

One thing I've got to tell ya! Sammie is seriously great to work with! I've worked with quite a few models over the years, and not many will let you hang them 100+ feet up! And really, the best part was, I could get her where I wanted her, and then ask her to move a hand here, or a foot there and she would. When I asked for a certain look, she would do her best to pull it off (while trying not to look down!). She was every bit as dedicated to this shot as I was, and I really appreciate that. So a shout out to her hard work as well!

This last one is by far my favorite image from the shoot. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

I want to give a few shout outs before I let ya go though:

Thanks to Scot Weaver for coming out and holding lights, hauling gear and making us laugh. I always love working around him. Check out his incredible landscape and event photography here.

Thanks to Tonio Talcott for bring his extra light, his son and the willingness to climb to the edge of a cliff with me! Check out his portrait and event work here.

Thanks to Eric Schmidt, my long time friend who makes me go repelling and caving with him and pushing me to face my fear of heights. We've been talking about making a rock climbing image for over two years, and he sure made this one a lot safer!

And finally, thanks to Sammie Hansen, because, well, without her, I've have a picture of a rock face... and I'm not good an landscapes. So thank you for trusting me and working with me to create such a fun image!

If you or anyone you know loves an extreme sport (mountain biking, trail running, long boarding, motocross, snowboarding, ect), I have a million more ideas I wanna try, so send them my way!

Thanks,
Mike
http://endless.photography/

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