ryan johnson photography

I'll be honest up front: I'm not a head shot photographer by trade. I've been learning more about what makes a good head shot ever since I started shooting them a few years ago. Every time I shoot a head shot session I learn new tricks to getting a fantastic image. I spent a few weeks casting for America's Got Talent back in 2007, and I watched Casting Directors toss away so many head shots for the silliest reasons. I'm not a Casting Director, but I've worked with actors in the past, and I've seen my fair share of head shots, good and bad. That being said, art is about breaking the rules sometimes....


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  On April 4th tornadoes touched down in several places around the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Within hours I was on a plane headed to Dallas. As part of a rapid response team, I was sent to make damage assessments to determine if a full deployment would be necessary. Driving around parts of South Dallas, namely Lancaster, we saw heavy damage inflicted on brick structures: something we look for. Below are some of the photos from my first few days in Lancaster.  


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It was an absolutely crazy idea, but it could be done. My father-in-law had done it before, and he was the one that convinced my dad and I to do it with him and a friend. A four man team, crossing the Grand Canyon, North Rim to South Rim in one day. It would be like walking a marathon, but through the Grand Canyon. I trained for a few months before, running stairs and preparing my knees. Physically I knew I would be fine, but I was trying to figure out the photo aspect of it. You can't cross the Grand Canyon and not take photos (especially when you're a professional photographer). I decided...


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Sláinte! My wife and I have been fascinated by Ireland for years. Luckily her ancestors are from Ireland, which makes me an honorary Irishman... I think. We were married this last August and decided to go to Ireland for our honeymoon. The trip wasn't intended to be a photo adventure, but we couldn't help but treat it like one. Driving on the wrong side of the road, exploring quaint towns and rolling green hills, we snapped some 2000 photos in only seven days. I could go on describing some of the sights, but the pictures do it way more justice than words ever could.  There's a gaelic saying...


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A long, long time ago a fourteen year old version of myself found my dad's old Canon AE-1. It sat in a box, taped up, with old cords and other junk. It was gathering dust, which made no sense to teenage me because, well, it looked so damn cool. I was surprised to find the camera in good working condition, whirling to life and flashing green and red numbers through the viewfinder. I had no clue how to use it, but I sure tried. Through clever Ebay bidding in college I collected old FD lenses for it (the mount Canon used back in the 80s). Now they sit on a shelf next to my bed, collecting dust...


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I was sitting at Patient First, my primary care physician, with a gigantic bug bite. A bright, red, bulls-eye looking bump was now covering about half of my calf. The culprit? The doctor couldn't say for sure, but we both agreed it looked like the Amblyomma americanum - otherwise known as the Lone Star Tick. I won't gross you out, but if you want to see what the bite looked like you can visit a webpage here (not my leg, but the bite looked identical). The pictures below are the result of a four hour hike at sunset through First Landing State Park. The bug bite was worth it. The scenery was beautiful....


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I had the pleasure of meeting Morgan and Collin recently for a headshot shoot. Morgan and Collin are local commercial and film actors who needed updated photos to hand out while auditioning. They were easy to work with, and were quite comfortable in front of the camera. We shot on the campus of Regent University for about a hour and a half. Such an awesome family--they had me cracking up the whole time. The end product was great. 


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I helped a friend shoot some headshots about a month ago. He only had fifteen minutes, so we shot as much as we could, and then called it quits. We ended up with a few good shots. He needed some photos for his website, not necessarily headshots, but these are close.


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I found some old photos from a commercial shoot back around the 4th of July. We shot an actor portraying John Adams as he wrote letters to his wife Abigail. The shoot was mainly video focused, but here are a few stills! We used an old corner office, cleared out the furniture, and lit it for night.


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I'll be honest with you... This was my first ever engagement photo shoot. Troy and Kelsey were patient, looked great, and had a lot of fun. We shot in a few locations around Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs. I've been shooting news and commercial photojournalism for so long now that it shows itself in my work, which is fun. Hopefully I can start shooting more engagement/portrait sessions. Put shortly, our two hours together were a blast. Some of my favorites are below. Click on the SmugMug picture below to see all the photos from our shoot!


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