Episode 35 - Framed with Jennifer Horton Johnson of Blue Mountain Boudoir - Part 1

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Faith & Frames Episode 35 - Jennifer Horton Johnson of Blue Mountain Boudoir talks about her journey to becoming a premiere boudoir photographer - Part 1

On today's episode we're "framing" our friend Jennifer Horton Johnson, a premium boudoir photographer from Greeneville, TN.
The first part of this conversation will take you through Jennifer's switch to photography full time over six years ago, after leaving her profession as a nurse!
Jennifer runs Blue Mountain Photo Studio in Greeneville, TN.

Faith and Frame Episodes will air every Monday. We hope you stick around and stay a while!

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Transcript

0:00

listen we are on location we are on location good morning good morning good afternoon wherever you find yourself

0:07

welcome back to Faith and Frames thank you for uh tuning in if you're hearing my voice you're at least tuned in for

0:13

this amount of time so officially we appreciate you for being being here

0:19

you're officially a framer SL possible faither who knows there you go one of the two one of the two so we are on

0:26

location here in green eville Tennessee Vegas G Vegas Hometown Hometown at Blue

0:35

Mountain studio with Miss Jennifer yeah glad to have you gonna talk thanks for

0:42

the space today by the way you're so welcome yeah gonna talk about things

0:48

photography how she got to where she is today and uh a little bit of backstory on who's behind her camera because I

0:56

feel like that's something that always takes place with photographers we like being behind the camera yeah

1:02

rarely do we like being in front of I don't like that but I think it's important to let people know who is

1:10

actually behind the camera the character behind the lens there you go maybe talk a little bit about the state of the

1:15

union with photography today as well there's a lot to unpack there there's a lot to unpack

1:21

but first let's than think our sponsor sponsor for today's episode is none other than animals west of Greenville

1:29

Tennessee here at animals West your pets are our passion yeah our dedicated team offers personalized care Advanced

1:35

treatments and a warm loving environment because at animals West every tale tells

1:41

a story there it is Tony Amanda and the crew down on the Newport Highway thank

1:47

you for spon thank G it I messed that up thank you for sponsoring today's episode of faith and Frames thank you for

1:52

sponsoring these animals here at motion Creative Media yeah absolutely taking care of us wet nasty

1:58

pups that sounded weird Jared meet and taters get us the meet and ters we'll let a bit of the cat out of the bag we

2:05

are on location with our guest she is a photographer here in Greenville

2:10

Tennessee uh I would like to because I always enjoy framing people up in the

2:16

sense of I like to know the story as to what got you started into this craft

2:24

photography what when did you get bit by what I like to call the Shutterbug o that's good that sounds cute um so let's

2:32

just start with I was a nurse by trade and so I I was a licensed nurse have I

2:38

have my bachor bachelor in nursing and healthcare administration however I don't use any of that ni um still paying

2:44

for it but um yeah so I have always had

2:50

cameras since I can remember Polaroids the cool picss was my favorite the Nikon

2:55

um yes Nikon cool pic yes the cool p the metallic red one yes the underwater

3:02

one um and so I always you know like to document things growing up but then um I

3:10

went to a yard sale and I found a a D50 Nik D50 started playing with it got a

3:17

little bit better talk did aperture did all the you know did a little bit of YouTube University all the priority

3:24

modes all the priority modes and then um started to uh get fancy with a guy that

3:31

used to uh race motorcycles which now is my husband nice and so we would uh go

3:38

all over he was a race he he raced motorcycles and we would go to like um little tally and Road Atlanta and all

3:44

these places and I would capture him because he's on super bikes he's not dirt bikes super bikes nice the big boys

3:51

and so and it's um exceptionally hard to catch those in frame with everything else so I got pretty good at it he's one

3:57

of those knee down on the ground guys there we go nice so uh I I caught that I

4:04

got a better lens I got a better camera um we all have those framed around our house and so it just kind of Grew From

4:12

there so then I had like our friends say hey can you take our baby photos can you take our family photos can you take our

4:18

wedding photos right so when I was pregnant with my daughter I had to be on bed rest I learned um a little bit more

4:27

and so I never went back to work after that and it just kind of turned into what it is now so this is my full-time

4:34

job has been for six years I love I absolutely love the fact that we go from

4:40

Super Moto G GP racing to Baby Photography yeah yeah well well so like

4:48

honestly your progression is very similar to a lot of photographers you end up most people end up just starting

4:56

with a camera yep with a desire to take photos yes you start taking photos of

5:01

literally anything and everything you then find like the first few things that

5:06

start to pay you right a little bit yeah uh or that you find great passion in and it sounds like yours was uh Super Cross

5:12

which it's so Moto GP yeah wait wait please get it correct Super Cross dirt

5:18

box oh sorry super boxo GP sorry you were photographing very fast moving

5:25

motorcycles you clearly never played Gran Turismo no so but wow what a

5:30

derailment uh all I was trying to say is that you found something that you

5:37

enjoyed and the pursuit of being good at it caused you to explore learn and then

5:46

naturally as you get better people then start asking you to do all these other

5:51

things do it for dollars do it for dollars ask you to do it for dollars and so now you are full-time with it I am and

6:00

that's I don't know like that right there to me is is should be encouragement that I had a very similar

6:07

background I was in it but I always had the Shutterbug and

6:12

slowly started to be able to make it a profession I think that's I think that's really difficult for people starting out

6:19

like even if you desire right out of the gate to make it uh a job of sorts that's

6:24

really hard yeah right um but a safer route is to to do it you know sort of on

6:30

the side yeah yeah and build it and I didn't uh man probably two full years

6:35

didn't make a dollar right and it was just it's just practice practice practice I still like you know creative

6:42

projects and things I just really want to do right want to get paid for those those are just it's just extras and so

6:50

um you know because we all have creative things that get us going and and you know even working here lately with other

6:56

photographers in our town just doing creative things because we you know we really need to fill that cup yeah so and

7:03

I I want to talk about that here in a little bit but I I do want to you mentioned something very important I think that this is something that in our

7:10

industry it's I'm not going to say it's tough for people to latch on to but I do

7:15

think that a beginning photographer and and myself included it's tough at times to imagine

7:23

doing it for free for that long but there is there is high importance in my

7:29

opinion in doing that well for even two years you said you shot free for two years I shot free for dang near two years I

7:36

think you shot what for two or so years free as well Captain there's so much

7:41

learning to do and I think that it's something that I want to encourage new

7:46

people to do uh first and foremost is like yeah go shoot anything and everything that you can knowing that you

7:51

may not make a dime from it right but by go you're going to be honing some skills I think that's tough though like right I

7:56

mean it's it's a bit of an investment gear is expensive right so you you immediately I mean spend 2,000 bucks

8:04

easy um and you're like gosh I need to start replenishing that right I need to recoup this because I did buy it as a

8:11

bit of an investment but you know we've talked about this a lot and I it's it's a difficult thing because you you have

8:18

just spent money you do want to recoup it and some facet but there's something

8:24

to be said for you know essentially paying your dues right you learn

8:30

so much with all of that free work yeah that okay yeah you're not making a dollar with it but the lessons that you

8:37

learned yeah that's what ultimately afforded you to be able to charge well what would you say were the biggest

8:42

lessons that you learned in your journey because you again I think the journey is interesting because you literally went from motorcycle racing to babies to

8:50

family I'd say you've probably done some graduations as well yeah um a little bit of everything so in that two years of

8:55

Discovery what were some of the biggest takeaways that you had uh for from doing that really just um well one big thing

9:04

too is when so I do pictures for you or take pictures for you you tell your

9:10

friends so that's a big thing too like um in in our business people

9:15

communicating with each other is very important people talk is way more important than any kind of marketing the

9:20

referral is hands down the best thing and so that was a big thing like to make sure that I'm doing a quality job for

9:27

this person and not just kind of whatever and so doing a quality job and

9:32

then they tell their friends and they tell their friends or and the same thing with motorcycles you know I would take

9:38

photos for my husband but then I'd had a team come and they would say hey can you take our team photos or whatever and

9:44

they would like oh we'll we'll buy your dinner what you know what I mean like so maybe it wasn't for free all the way but

9:50

still it was just nice well but you're not openly advertising a a cost a charge session a charge to your work which

9:57

again I think that's so important because you are and in those first I'm just going to call it for you it was two

10:02

years for for us it was two years in those first two years a I didn't have the confidence to charge anything

10:08

because I didn't know what I liked I didn't know what my style was I had no I

10:13

had no actual you know look right or style as we'll say so like there's so

10:18

many things that I learned in those two years and and so many things that we learned very early on in photography and

10:24

any craft for that matter that I do I believe it's so important to take those lessons

10:30

um really until you're ready ready to start charging whatever you want to charge at that gosh I mean during that

10:37

learning process though think about all the technical mistakes you made think about I mean so it is typically a

10:43

journey from I'll call it auto to manual yeah and you don't even have to shoot manual but like to to move into a

10:49

priority mode even you've got to have learned a few things about that triangle you know and raw

10:56

iMed absolutely so like ra oh well I joked uh several episodes ago we we we

11:02

bashed some of our early work so listen I bashed work from yesterday true true I think that's a

11:09

curse of being a creative like you hate the thing you created three days ago um that at one point you thought was good

11:15

but the raw images yeah absolutely I was so afraid to push raw images when I

11:21

first flipped that switch from JPEG to Raw because jpegs already got a lot of contrast and saturation back then right

11:27

it's already much closer to a finished look whereas raw the dag on Raw output

11:32

of the sensor it's flat you know and um it's so I was always afraid to push it

11:38

because if I would ever toggle the before and after in light room I'm like gosh I've moved this so far like I can't do any more to it and then now that I

11:46

look back at a lot of those images I was like oh wow I had so much more to push like there this was not a finished photo

11:54

um in my early work when I first started with raw like I had a lot more work that I could have done to this this which is

12:00

actually a really cool topic and I posted on threads the other day and I am going to so I finally found these images

12:07

that I took from Washington DC in 2017 are you finally going to reedit them I F I found the raw images I'm going to

12:14

re-edit them now obviously I can't change the composition I can't change the time of day all of those things

12:20

that's a done deal but I am interested to see with the advancements in Tech with my hopefully skill advancements

12:28

right style change all those things I am I'm anxious to see uh how I process

12:33

those images now cuz the images that I see all the time from that trip they're they're basically a really polished jpeg

12:41

now they were raw but because of my editing style being afraid to push it into a style they're basically just uh

12:48

they're just really clean right they're but they're not like there's nothing Jared about it right so you're afraid to

12:54

push it hey real quick request um now that you have pulled those DC images can

12:59

we also get you to finally pull you know where I'm going with this Montana Jared with no beard no no D on it I well let

13:08

me rephrase that the answer to that question is is simple that you said can I the answer is yes to that will I the

13:14

answer is probably no to that I'm going to go on record and tell you this because this is new information to you as of this second I have personal

13:20

requests from our massive massive audience to get Jared in in Montana form

13:28

listen I've heard one request and if it's the same request in cam then it's it's it's not enough it's not enough to

13:33

move the needle not enough to move the needle on it um so so you

13:39

transitioned uh you you mentioned walking through the priority modes uh obviously you moved in manual and then

13:46

you also did raw what were some of your early

13:51

stage like what was what were you slower to to master so to speak was it in the editing side of things where you found

13:57

yourself really having to work at or what was it yes and I don't particularly love editing even now like I can shoot

14:05

and and I'll tell you I mean I'm behind now just because I've shot so much I

14:11

haven't had time to sit down and edit but I I lowkey dread it a little bit just W so it's daunting for you yeah

14:17

such daunting task you sound like me on the video side of things it's just I

14:23

love I love the process oh SC I just spit um I love I the process of shooting

14:31

so much right but editing for me is it's daunting so daunting and I don't I don't

14:37

do that much editing but it's just um a lot why is it daunting for you though well a lot of mine's skin so you know

14:44

it's okay you know you're yeah you're having to do a lot of touch-ups well and just skin smoothing and smoothing skin

14:51

tones which is actually that is timec consuming that's true which I I give my clients a lot of you know here's the

14:58

list not do these things do these things you know so they know exactly what they're walking into this particular

15:04

Studio cast orange and so you're not allowed to spray tan here you know just things like that whereas you know my

15:11

graduation clients are mostly outside and so I'm literally want yeah so I'm going from you know this to that and so

15:19

I just I don't know editing sitting down for hours and editing to me is is you

15:25

might as well shoot me in the foot I don't know dang on me on the video side thoroughly I thoroughly enjoy editing

15:31

photos photos yes yes yeah that's a different that's different topic editing video but like to me that is the that's

15:40

where there are tons of things that you've got to get right on location the day of in camera you've got to get a lot

15:45

of those things right but once you've done it a few times you you kind of you that becomes a little easier with every

15:52

single time but for me the edit is where you get that opportunity to really really draw the viewer to your

16:01

subject or whatever like that's where you really get a craft and put your style well you're painting at that point

16:06

in time so let me put this out there when I have clients and this is

16:12

something I've learned over the last couple years and I've put it into play with my mentor she went through the

16:17

process and told me basically when because I use IPS yeah um I show my

16:23

clients unedited photos so when they leave here they leave here for an hour for lunch I go up eat my lunch scarf it

16:30

down and then I show them unedited photos I'm showing them photos as we go so they feel like we're doing something

16:37

so they feel like they're accomplishing something yeah they feel like they've got progress but when I go up there and I just pick the best of each each set or

16:43

whatever I'm showing them just completely Raw photos yeah I've actually heard of that process I that makes sense

16:50

though specifically with then you don't have to co you don't have to call you know exactly what you're going to edit

16:55

for the final delivery right and they know exactly what they're going to get they know and when I when I sit down and

17:01

I tell them okay so what we're looking at here is your pose your facial

17:06

expression things you can't change things that you can't change because I've already got the settings right here

17:12

I've already got the settings right you know you yeah and it's you know dayto day yeah easy for you so um and people

17:19

are often surprised about that because I'm like this is not edited photo but I don't do I mean it's not amazing what I

17:25

do you know as far as editing goes um it's just I think so I think too though I think

17:31

that makes complete sense specifically for the style of Photography that you do right because there is such a mental

17:38

aspect of that right I feel like confidence is a very big thing with what you do I could very well like definitely

17:46

see you showing the day of I feel like that could be very confidence and stealing well to because there's you

17:54

don't want people in this particular setting to leave saying man was that did I do just a big question mark and I

18:02

don't want that nobody wants that and so um that is that's a huge learning curve

18:08

huge learning when my mentor told me that's what we do and she walked me through I spent a whole week with her down in um bord South Carolina nice and

18:16

um she went through and told me that process and I did that life-changing yes

18:23

Absolut life changing well so so that I I do that periodically with like uh portrait work and it's it's more like a

18:29

client by client basis if I can tell that someone is like in a shell so to speak yeah it's like you know what they

18:35

need to see themselves they need to see that this is that this is a good photo because I know I know mentally they're

18:41

like a wreck right now yeah um and most of my clients start the I always tell

18:46

this is what there's a barrier that you've got to break as a photographer first 10 minutes garbage I always they

18:52

walk thr they say they say I say the first 10 minutes are garbage doesn't matter what face you make what we do

18:58

they're garbage we're just up and you can tell when you're going through and you're looking you can tell when they

19:03

get comfortable when they start to make that shift you break that barrier down and that's that's a really good way I didn't even consider that as an option

19:10

uh it's funny though that's a polarizing topic on the deliverable side yeah do

19:17

you hand out your raw images and and there's not a right or wrong answer she's not handing them out she's just

19:22

viewing with them that's completely different but that's a tactic to to to instill confidence to show like look

19:27

this is this is this is looking good yeah right you're doing good you're doing the you're doing the thing that

19:33

makes complete sense so would I ever deliver RWS absolutely not no no no no

19:39

no and see that's where like somebody posed the comment oh no on threads the other day I remember this one he said

19:47

and the person was like photographers how come y'all are so hesitant to hand out your raw images and I was like well

19:55

for obvious reasons he was not saying like he wasn't saying like give them

20:00

away like even to even to charge right why do you not deliver your raw and just I'm like whoa whoa whoa and I I

20:07

commented I threw my two pennies in there I was like look beside from them being like super flat first off to me

20:12

they don't reflect a finished work at all they're not you and they're obviously not they're also not me

20:18

because I mean you think of and and come to find out he he replied to me and it was I finally got to the bottom of it he

20:25

replied and he said no man a lot of my clients like my braw images so much they don't even like me to edit them I was like whoa I'm so confused how do they

20:32

like I don't think to find out he specifically was shooting jpeg MH but he

20:38

was considering it raw because it was untouched so that was a misconception I was like now that makes sense you we can

20:45

work with that we can could see like a studio JPEG and be like yeah this looks great don't don't bother about it just a terminology thing terminology raw like

20:52

true R aw no absolutely not you know what you mentioned in a YouTube video Yeah well to me it's it's like I don't

20:59

want someone to to to get that and uh not know what to do with it because I

21:04

know how Dawning it is to to get a raw image especially when you have never dealt with a raw image to get it to a

21:10

finished Place yeah and uh so yeah that's that's an interesting topic or a printable Place yeah we're exactly

21:17

absolutely I mean we want to print them if they're family photos or whatever we want we want to print them you're not

21:22

going to you're not also please for the love of Jesus don't print them at Walgreens oh please listen that's a

21:29

whole another that's a whole another Rabbit Hole please don't I I denounce walg Greens in photo

21:36

such a that's such a difficult sale though like it's like okay it's not you

21:42

see the difference why are your prince you know three four times what it

21:47

C even north of that even in some cases what I could print it for at Walgreens just like Listen sweetheart there's a

21:53

difference there is a massive difference I keep it up at the up in my office I keep different companies

22:01

like Walgreens Sam's Club impix we go down the way Prof I'll also

22:07

I'll also say this I'll be the Devil's Advocate right now a print is still

22:13

better than no print agreed I will I will say that I will say that your photos print that photo like there is

22:19

something to it like that hurts but it's true it is true now that if you really

22:25

want to print like you need to it's it's going to it's people right here that you can

22:31

consult with we will give you a good lab to go to oh my gosh absolutely or Labs I'll give you choices just anything

22:37

abely Walgreens but just it's so it's so much better and it I think it's truly

22:43

one of those things where unless you literally have the same photo like side by side that might be what we have to do

22:49

is explain it's a great idea look there's just a I I mean we had we had a recent client who reached out and said

22:55

hey when I when I print these at Walgreens they're they look different than what you delivered I'm like well there's a reason and I want you to use

23:02

you know a reputable lab right for that reason sorry that was a rabbit hole but you trigger my PTSD yeah it's a well

23:09

actually you triggered my PTSD cuz you said printing I was like oh gosh listen get get get back out of the rabbit hole

23:15

slightly back on topic I know you have traveled a lot

23:20

yeah with photography did you ever as the nurse who just had a camera mhm

23:27

started taking pictures of motorcycles moving really quickly I'm not even going to attempt to say which one GP Moto GP did you ever

23:35

imagine where photography might take you absolutely not um usually halfway in a

23:41

session and I'm I discussing talking to my clients I'm like I never would have thought I was here I would have ever

23:46

been here ever it's usually as I'm like adjusting a hair or whatever and I'm like I never really thought I would you

23:51

know I just appreciate you being here because you're the reason I'm here and so I never would have thought thought

23:58

this but then it just happened and it was the time where it was just filling

24:04

my calendar like you know and now I've you know knock on wood gotten really lucky that I I shoot Tuesday Thursday

24:11

Fridays and I'm off on weekends for the most part um I'm traveling out of the

24:16

country like you know it's I never would have thought I would have been here and when I told my mom when I told my mom I

24:22

was not going to nurse anymore she was like you're going to you're going to do what yeah you're going to do that little camera thing you're going to do that I

24:29

love I love it when people say that little camera thing I haven't gotten that one yet camera takes such good

24:34

photos I know I get that one that one Burns me up and I know they mean well I know they mostly mean well that they

24:40

they mean it as a compliment but it's just the actual phrasing is is off it's off so so on the on the whole journey

24:46

topic right now because we're talking about Jennifer's photo Journey um obviously we started with Moto GP moved

24:51

to families um graduations all that good stuff and to where you are today so Jared just asked you did you ever think

24:57

that it would get to where you are I want to kind of let the the cat out of the bag so like you are a very specific

25:04

style of Photography yes I am a budoir photographer 90% 90% not only though not

25:11

only are you budir you are destination budoir correct which is even

25:16

more4 um well not really because I've been doing it for years to the I do Beach sessions twice a year so I've

25:22

asked you now from Moto GP to families and babies so then how do we go from Moto GP to families and babies be how do

25:29

we get what led you there so I was gifted by my husband a mini session um

25:35

during my postpartum like I had I had real bad postpartum um he gifted it to

25:40

me um so this was a photograph up in photographer up in Abington okay and um

25:46

went to the session I'll be real honest and I don't know how gory you want me to get here but like I threw up five times

25:51

on the way there turned around three times called her told her I wasn't coming that's like medium Gore so that's

25:56

you know all the things like I um it was just very it was just a lot it

26:02

was so much but then 15 minutes like super I was in it ready to go and it was

26:07

not like you know wasn't scand clad or anything it was just River and I had a dress and you know like I felt amazing I

26:16

felt like every single woman should feel and I was like I could do this I could do this for my clients right now right

26:23

and so I started to research like does anybody in this area do that not really

26:29

um I looked at different mentorships I invested in a mentorship it was very expensive it was worth every penny we've

26:37

done the same when to come back to that keep going yeah and um spent a week down in South Carolina um to which I still

26:43

communicate with her um it's been six years five years and still communicate

26:49

with her still get tips from her nice um and i' I've just really grown and it was

26:55

just a little bit at the time and then it just moved to like 90% I say 90% because I still do head shots while

27:00

they're here they get hair and makeup done everybody needs a head shot so you get that while you're here a lot of um

27:07

but then I also do the creative things too like we you know I have these families that have been coming to me forever and I'm I'm super grateful for

27:14

that absolutely um and so they just want cohesive pictures and so I still I still do do some family so which is which is

27:21

cool too but I I think on the on the budoir specifically because we've actually had conversations too about

27:26

your your mission and and have a nonprofit yeah so you have a nonprofit we've talked about that

27:32

before but I love the mission that you have with the nonprofit side of things can you explain a little bit um to our

27:38

audience that side of even your business too because I find that fascinating what you're doing for women um who are

27:46

needing that boost that you get so um and this came along so I it's a

27:52

basically a breast cancer nonprofit and it's a journey of documenting um their

27:59

process and and they could be anywhere in the process so basically I've had a couple different um clients come in they

28:05

say hey I was just diagnosed I would like to take a before have a before

28:11

session a middle middle of the road session um when I when I finish I've had

28:16

clients that have not finished um and sad um but I've had people that have

28:22

come through and they they didn't make it through in their Journey right um I have a lady right now that's in her 60s

28:27

that has has been documenting um through through her whole process her double myectomy all the things and she just

28:33

wants to be able to come out on the end and say hey I made it and this is what all I went through so basically I they

28:40

come in and they they're they can get down as raw or however they authentic as

28:46

they want to be um you know and then at the end they can be as glammed up if

28:51

they as they want to be yeah um and we I basically just make them a book and so

28:56

they get to go through and pick their images and figure out what they're doing but also the secondary part of the

29:02

journey is so like one of my clients had a double myectomy and she um was missing

29:08

a part of of Womanhood and she wanted prosthetic I don't can we say nippes

29:15

sure I mean she radio she she lost she lost that she didn't have you know she

29:22

didn't have areolas and so I purchased her some because she felt Dew womanized

29:29

she she didn't feel feminine and so that was something that my my nonprofit provided for her that's awesome um other

29:36

things was you know the chemo messed up her fingernails like she had really rigid fingernails and they were very

29:41

brittle and and so I paid for her to go a couple times for her nails to be done and so you know it's just providing a

29:47

service that is you know really underrated or underestimated or

29:52

something that they just feel like they um they need and and they do need and so

30:00

it's just empowering because um I typically take four clients a year and um I have two already this year um

30:07

ideally I would like to be able to present um something to the breast cancer center or the cancer center in

30:14

itself to say this is what I provide right um within reason and I have a

30:20

board to help me decide and um and so that just came along because I I had a

30:25

couple people that were interested in and I was okay let's do it yeah um and of course I don't I don't charge them

30:31

and it's part of the nonprofit and I love your heart with it because so you know cancer has affected my family very

30:37

heavily um at least on my father's side my my grandmother died from it my dad uh he's currently in remission but there is

30:44

a there's a beauty in documenting that process I believe um I I wish I wish you

30:52

know back when my dad was first diagnosed that I would have done a better job um at documenting even his

30:58

process cuz I remember all the trips down to vanderbel I remember uh some of the the darker times that even my dad

31:05

had and now that we are on the quotequote other side of it um for now

31:10

like I I visually have those in my brain yeah but there's also things that I'm like man if if I would have had the the

31:17

forethought to document those things it would just make it I hate to say special

31:22

I don't I don't think that you know a terrible disease can be special but it can show great outcome um and and a good

31:29

positive light uh whenever somebody does um make it through that so I do I love

31:35

your heart um on that specific Mission with with what you do well I think I think that even transcends like just

31:42

specifically into photography though like yeah you I I

31:48

cannot I'm GNA understate this but because I can't I can't state it properly but you are literally freezing

31:54

a moment yeah right good or bad good or you're moment and like you know hopefully we

32:02

all keep our memories all these things and you're going to remember it but like there's something to be said for literally having that photo

32:09

yeah as as the Vivid yes VI vivid memory of that moment like you you see details

32:17

in the photo that may have been blurred through the sands of time that so my

32:23

most current client has been in she literally has left the hospital had drain

32:28

come in and she I would show her the back of the camera and she just cried

32:33

because she was like that's what I look like she hasn't even seen herself yet she hasn't even she hasn't even put you

32:40

know she just put her clothes on and come over and so it's very difficult

32:46

seeing these clients in that state right I mean yes I have clients that are in

32:52

various different states um as far as their mental where where they are yeah

32:57

but that it hits different it's it's just different they don't um they don't

33:02

see thems on on that yeah on that side and and it does hurt and you know every

33:09

time she's come in she's just said you know I I still can't believe that this I'm having to go through this or I'm I'm

33:15

doing this or that I've already made it this far that's one of the biggest things I've heard lately is I cannot

33:21

believe I've already made it this far right um I didn't think I was going to make it this far and so we've got now

33:28

almost a year worth of documentation of documentation of different things and sometimes she just comes in and she's

33:34

like the last time she just came in and she wanted to sit in the chair and look out the window because it she was just

33:40

pondering like all of the things it has nothing to do with any kind of it's just

33:45

where she's at part of her story that's part of the story of her journey yeah that's so like

33:51

again you're doing a very specific uh Mission there I I I guess

33:56

that to to General just the importance of Photography and why I feel so passionate about

34:03

photography you've got to take the photo yeah you've got to take the photo um how many I don't know anybody who has ever

34:11

regretted taking the photo no never whatever it is family vac whatever like

34:17

take the photo because you don't know like what that's going to be 10 years down the

34:24

road you you I mean heck it truly it could be the last time somebody's ever in that say you don't know who's going

34:30

to be and who's not going to be still here we do we do yearly apple butter yep

34:36

and I know at some point the photos that I'm taking and annoying everybody to

34:42

death with at some point someone's not going to be in it the next year yeah right well we've all seen it we we've

34:49

seen that you know I've lost grandparents lost we've lost friends and and it's it's um it's hard it's hard to

34:56

to have that next year where you're like I wish so and so was in this photo yeah they were in that

35:02

last year or or I wish I would have taken more photos so and so again it's usually the inverse that you regret so

35:08

just take the photo well and like we go on vacations and I make a point to like

35:13

find a photographer there and and do the things because when are we going to be

35:19

wherever again or we try to travel and I can't I can't be in the picture and you

35:24

know like I can't take both so you're pretty smart in that I I'm the one that brings like 67 cameras with me and then

35:31

we have to like tripod one group shot and that's the only shot that I'm in the whole vacation well it's funny I always

35:36

joke with my wife uh I because I take all kinds of photos obviously and by

35:41

taking them you're rarely in them I joke with her all the time I'm like listen if we ever if I ever pass like you've got

35:48

great solo family album photos uh or you know if we get divorced or you know

35:54

whatever like you've still got all the photos of just you and the kids I joke

35:59

with her me and Sarah have a running joke she always gets a picture with her and the kids I call that her divorce picture just you never know hey as

36:05

someone who was divorced you need those things see it's so I don't know it cracks me up but that's honestly this is

36:12

a really good segue to basically kind of what I would love for the entire second piece to be here mhm

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Episode 36 - Jennifer Horton Johnson chats about her journey to Premiere Boudoir Photographer - Pt2

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Episode 34 - What we've learned Podcasting & How to Start yours - Part 2