How to Boost the Impact of Your Photos with Steven David Johnson

Episode 020: How to Boost the Impact of Your Photos with Steven David Johnson

Shownotes: ConservationVisuals.com/20

(Digitally transcribed, please forgive any typos)

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Jaymi Heimbuch:

As photographers, one of the biggest challenges is staying creative, really exploring new areas of your photographic style. And that can require delving deep into your technical skills and bringing along with you into that dive. Inspiration from all areas of art and life, whether it's fashion or architecture. Graphic design, or sculpture Bringing with you inspiration from the art on the artists of our entire history as a species and breaking through to new creative levels may also mean getting laser focused on one very specific area where you can apply all of these ideas and techniques and explorations until you finally crack into something that no one has seen before.

That's a pretty big aspiration, right? And I think that it's an aspiration that all of us, especially as conservation photographers who really need to grab attention in an age of being just overburdened with visuals it's really important for us to crack that code and do something groundbreaking and something that makes people stop the scroll and look and explore our images. While one photographer is hatching into a whole new realm of his photography and is doing so by visiting one area again and again and again, and diving in, quite literally, to discover what fresh images he can create through underwater photography of amphibian species and all kinds of other teeny tiny species living in vernal pools.

So Steven David Johnson is a professor of visual on communication arts at Eastern Mennonite University. He's working on a project right now called vernal pools of Appalachia, and what he is creating is a masterful blend of art and science. It is the kind of elegant but fascinating photos that are what all of us dream of creating from salamander eggs, clutches that look like Galaxies floating through space, two frogs that look like Rembrandt paintings. And yet, even though there is this artistic, painterly quality, it's still very much a really natural history photo that draws us in as interested people learning more about the species that are inside of these pools. It is amazing there's so much going on here that I had to get Steve under the podcast and ask, How are you doing this? And not only how are you doing this, but why This interview is so inspiring, and it is full of tips and insights and importantly, sources of inspiration that you can also go and explore and potentially add to your critical thinking about your creativity as a photographer and how to approach something in your own special artistic way and in a way that can provide the maximum impact because you'll be doing something that nobody's seen before. All right, let's hop into this really inspiring interview.

Welcome to impact the conservation photography podcast. I'm your host, Jaymi Heimbuch. And if you are a visual storyteller with a love for all things wild, then you're in the right place, from conservation to creativity, from business to marketing and everything in between. This podcast is for you, conservation visual storyteller who is ready to make an impact. Let's dive in.

Welcome to another exciting episode of impact. Now, before we dive in, I want to let you know that this episode is sponsored by conservation photography courses. This is the only online education platform that is designed specifically for conservation visual storytellers, and it's exciting times right now because enrollment is opening soon for the digital course. Conservation photography 101 This is my signature program for helping you master how to uncover, photograph and pitch a powerful conservation story now, whether you are brand new to the scene of conservation, photography or you have experience, but you really want to take your skills to the next level, you likely already know that you need a systematic approach to discovering and photographing fresh stories and a strategic way of getting them into the hands of editors. And that's what my signature online course offers. It is a road map for finding a compelling story, crafting your storytelling images and writing an eye catching pitch to send two publications. Enrollment for this in depth educational opportunity is starting soon, so head over to conservation photography courses dot com Tow hop on the wait list, and you will be first to know when doors open. All right, let's get into this episode.

Welcome, Steve to impact the conservation photography podcast. I am so excited to have you here today as a guest because you are posting photography right now that every time I see a new post from you, it blows my mind, and it's blowing the mind of so many other people who are viewing the images that you're creating right now, you're doing something that I see as a totally unique approach to underwater images of amphibians in vernal pools and not just amphibians, but copepods and fairy shrimp in. And these tiny beings, it's extraordinary to see what you're creating not just from a technical side, but from an artistic side. Your images are fresh and new. So I'm thrilled to have you here to talk about how you're accomplishing this, but also your artistic vision and how you're thinking about these extraordinary images that you're creating.

Steven David Johnson

Well, thanks so much for having me, Jaymi.

Jaymi Heimbuch

Awesome. So, um, let's just start out with what exactly are you doing? What are you creating and what are you using to create these amazing images of frogs and salamanders and eggs and shrimp and everything else going on in these vernal pools?

Steven David Johnson

Yeah. So I got started on this project. Um oh, probably five or six years ago, when I was out with Wild Virginia. This this non profit? Ah, they took me out of these pools. They were amazing. Salamanders are kind of the biodiversity story of the central Appalachian region. So I became so intrigued and I wanted to understand their bigger life cycle. So part of that became going underwater because that's where so much of this actually happens. So my underwater setups, they actually vary significantly, uh, everything from a really small pocket camera. I've used an Olympus TG four. Ah, but I also then started getting into work with a DSLR in an underwater case that started off as a canon camera in a large like a light case with some underwater strobes. And then over the years, particularly in the last couple of years, I've started to get into some Sony equipment also with some underwater cases and strokes.

Jaymi Heimbuch

Awesome. And is that what you're using to also get these really detailed shots of fairy shrimp or the salamander larva inside the egg that before it even is formed and hatched?

Steven David Johnson

So one of the things that I became really interested in recently was getting in in closer detail on some of the very smallest creatures that live in the pools. And I had photographed Laval salamanders before, which are quite small. Sometimes only a few centimeters. I'd photographed egg masses, often in relationship to salamanders or frogs, but then I would see these tiny, tiny little creatures next to the salamanders. Some of them were copepods. These very minute crustaceans. They're fairy shrimp. Ah, there are things called Daphne Yah, but they often just looked like specks, particularly things like the copepods. So whenever I get an idea, I do a lot of pretty obsessive research about it, and in this case, my idea. Was Could I do ultra macro stuff in this freshwater environment? I had seen some of this work in the ocean, but I knew that my approach was going to have to be a little bit different. Equipment wise, uh, one of the most popular approaches for doing this type of ultra macro stuff in the ocean is to add on something called a wet lens. Um, basically, it's an attachment that goes over the port on the front of your underwater system. The only issue with that is I'm working in such shallow water that in order to make the system work, you actually have to have a water contact with your lens at all times. And if you're working in, say, an inch of water, that can be really difficult to dio, the water might start to fill up between your wet lens and report and then drain out again. So then I thought, Well, I might have to do something a little more traditional, actually find an ultra macro lens and in case that in my entire system so that the water doesn't drain out. So I did a lot of research, uh, found the website for Lao er, this Chinese manufacturer that's been doing some really interesting work with some specialty macro lenses, and I found that they had a lens that would go from 2.5 times life size all the way up to five times. Then it became a matter of figuring out Can I find a housing that will actually make use of this land's? So I did a lot of measuring, uh, some enquiries with the company and finally made the jump and ordered this system. So right now I'm able to photograph at 3.5 times life size. That's really difficult. You're when you're underwater, you know you're working in this three dimensional space. It's not like you're going up to a flower, and you have all this time to kind of move your lens around and maybe do focus stacking. I get one shot and the field of view is about one centimeter so kind of you moving my lens around in the street dimensional space. The depth of field is less than one millimeter. Wow. And there are these things They're just floating around in space, so there's a lot of experimentation to get a single shot. I think the first night I went out with this system, I would say my keeper rate and I keep a rate. I mean, anything that wasn't focus at all was maybe one out of 50. So, uh, maybe one thing I have going for me is I'm kind of patient and kind of persistent thistles. Why? My family does not enjoy going out with me in the field because, ah, once I hit a pond and sort of get in the zone, I might look up again four hours later. So, yeah, that's a little bit of the behind the scenes.

Jaymi Heimbuch

Well, I think that patience and persistence are too absolutely critical qualities of a photographer, especially a nature photographer, especially someone trying to do what it is that you're doing so well done on having through those two qualities right now.

Steven David Johnson

Thank you.

Jaymi Heimbuch

So we kind of had a chance to nerd out about how the how of you getting these shots. And I love how much research you actually put into figuring out what exactly equipment you needed to accomplish your vision and then putting in the research to make it work for you. And I have no doubt that there's gonna be people reaching out to you wanting to know more about that. But one of the reasons why I'm just totally blown away with what you're doing is you are giving us a view into vernal pool ecosystems that we really just haven't seen before. And you mentioned earlier that you're working in three dimensional space and that it's like you're trying to capture images of things that are floating in space, and that's kind of what it feels like. Toe. Look at some of your images. It feels like looking at planets or orbs or a galaxy, and you haven't extraordinary artistic approach as well. A CZ a kind of scientific, technical approach to your work. I would love to dive into talking with you about how you have refined your artistic vision for this project and how you're approaching these images in such this like, beautiful, ethereal way more than scientific snapshot. Sort of a way.

Steven David Johnson

Sure, uh, I would say your first of all, it's my background is in studio art. So I went to college. I was an art major. I was trained by folks who were largely working in traditional fields, like painting and drawing and printmaking. I did concentrate in photography, but it was dark room work at that time, and it was very much within a fine arts context. So that take away from me was that design was important and art history was important. Oftentimes, when people ask me about my influences, the first person that comes to mind is actually the Dutch 17th century painter Young Vermeer. And that's because off the way Vermeer used light. Actually, a lot of ah, recent scholarship seems to think that for mere May have actually used a camera obscura to construct the compositions off his paintings. So in some sense he might have actually been in earlier, an early photographer. Ah, just he had no way of fixing those images except by by painting them. But there's kind of this painterly and photographic way of using light that comes together his work. That's been very inspiring for me. I also think of his work in terms off, off sacraments or archetypes. If you take a look at one of his paintings. Ah ah, woman standing by the window, opening a letter or, uh one pouring a picture. It's like there's this tiny moment that becomes eternal just the way the light transforms it. And I was always taken by that even wrote about it as a college senior. That kind of sensibility, the way light can transform an object has really stayed with me.

Jaymi Heimbuch

Well, how it I don't think that I ever would have thought about it in quite that way until you said it. But when I think about that, the way that you describe a single moment becoming eternal because of the light. Now, when I think about I'm particularly thinking about one image that you shared recently with. I believe it is a treat for it's a frog, but I can't remember the species, and it's laying almost draped over an egg mass. This white

Steven David Johnson

wood frog

Jaymi Heimbuch

wood frog. Thank you. I could not remember what species it was, And that is exactly how I would describe that image this moment that is now eternal because of the way that this light falls on it. It's just extraordinary. Are you thinking about that actively while you're shooting?

Steven David Johnson

Sometimes I sometimes you just stumble on things. Um, I spend a lot of time in the field. I have the good fortune right now to be on sabbatical for my university, and my sabbatical project is fleshing out this vernal pools work. So I get to do a lot of field work that's not typically possible with my academic schedule. That means, uh, you know, I might go out for for eight or 12 hours and just wander around a pool and this one This one. Late afternoon, I saw this frog scene kind of almost in a Stasis, and it buried itself on top of this egg mass like it was sleeping on this cloud. It was such a just a remarkable, intimate little moment. I spent some time photographing yet So some of the vision, uh, sometimes I'm able to pre visualize things. Other times I come upon a moment and start thinking about how am I gonna frame this like this? In a way that's compelling on. Of course, you know some of this comes in selection process to I might make 100 images and then decide what one really tells a story the best. And then it becomes about post processing to I spent a lot of time post processing, often to do fairly subtle things like Think about how my framing the composition, how is light driving the viewer around the composition? I would say in terms of inspiration for that one of the people that I think of his Ansel Adams, you know, back in the dark room days, Ansel Adams was working with a view camera. He would create these giant eight by 10 negatives, and I love the way he would talk about them. He would say the negative is a kind of score and in musical terms, and then the print is a performance, and I think about that now with my raw images that the raw images are kind of like the musical score. And then the finished piece, which may be uploaded digitally or may become a print. That's kind of performance. So when I'm doing post processing, I'm I'm trying not to move it into the realm of fantasy. I I wanted to still have this very concrete connection with what I saw before me, but I make a lot of subtle changes with dodging and burning to just even light out. Ah, to think about it in kind of a painterly

Jaymi Heimbuch

way. So what has it taken really mentally to push yourself into these creative Rome's? Because you have these inspiration, sources and ways of thinking about things and a long background of really studying art and photography. And yet I feel like with this project, it's it seems like from an outside viewer like you're getting more and more of this refined, clear vision and style with it. And I'm curious about what goes into pushing yourself into these creative areas and refining that vision as you go through this project.

Steven David Johnson

Yeah, s so I mentioned that. I mean, you're a university professor, and so I spent a lot of time with students talking about imagery and how it functions, particularly in the social media age. One of the text that we read is by ah, thinker named Villain Flew sir, who wrote this little book called towards a philosophy of photography one of the phrases he uses in that book is redundant imagery. And by that he means imagery. That doesn't really tell you anything new. Uh, we've seen it before. It gets recycled over and over again. And, you know, this is this was something he was writing before the age of social media. Um, back in the eighties. But he was sort of predicting what sometimes become an issue with platforms like Instagram. So, you know, oftentimes an instagram there's there's an algorithm that reinforces a certain type off look and we see the same images over and over again. That can be that can come through the feedback cycle off liking images and then that feeds back into the algorithm. So I think I'm aware of that, and I'm aware that images can be pretty cheap these days. So I think I've become more selective and what I post because that's how a lot of people are experiencing these images. I often think to myself, Is this communicating something, something new about the world, something that that might provoke wonder, uh, something that gives a sense off the kind of amazing encounter that I was actually having as photographer. I think you early in the series, I was just happy to see Oh, yeah. Oh, there's a spotted salamander! Great. E got posted. Uh, so I think you're part of what you're seeing is I've become more selective and And what I what I want to show.

Jaymi Heimbuch

awesome. I really love that awareness and almost a artistry in selection in order for because you're thinking so clearly about how other people are going to be experiencing this. And that is a perfect Segway into a question that I really excited to ask you, because I feel like your work in creating images of amphibian species is allowing us to see them in a way that we've never seen them before. And I mean that quite literally so. Not only in an artistic this gorgeous, experiential way, but also I have never seen ah salamander growing inside of its egg before, and you've provided us a way to actually see that. So I think that you're bringing this new interest in this engagement some potentially very important conservation topics. And that could be everything from the plight of amphibians right now with habitat loss and with be sow and with chytrid fungus and also the importance of vernal pools and healthy habitats for amphibians. So as you explore vernal pools, what has been your underlying goals in engaging people through your photography on the vernal pool project or issues with amphibians?

Steven David Johnson

That's a great question. You know, sometimes I think about this in terms of the short game and the long game. So sometimes in conservation photography, there's kind of, you know, the short game. Um, there's a really particular issue that you want to address immediately. Maybe you're on assignment. I've done some work on raising awareness about pipelines that has very measurable goals and kind of a compressed timeline. This is a longer game for me. This is, Ah, long term, natural history, passion project. And sometimes there are really measured goals that come out of it. For example, the pipeline that I mentioned is going to go within about 500 feet off a pool that contains a Virginia state endangered amphibian, the Eastern Tiger salamander. So by documenting that I can feed that back to state agencies and give them a sense that yeah, there are still these creatures that live here, and they might be impacted by this industrial development. But probably the longer term goal is, too, to impact a whole bunch of people who might never have thought about this particular environment. And that's gonna be difficult to measure in the short term. Although I get a lot of feedback from folks who have visited exhibitions or seen my work online, or contact me and ask you, Can you take my kid out to to see one of these pools? I think we're The photographic aspect comes in is a lot of this stuff is just so hard to see from above the surface. And that's where a few different reasons Infineon's live in this world that's just below the surface of the water. There, the meaning of amphibians means both live, so they're on the land. They run under the underneath the surface, but it's difficult to see below the surface. There's lots of reflections. Sometimes water could be a little bit murky, and then the stuff that I'm doing right now is on such a small scale that if you crouch down to see it at all, if you want to find where these pools, the things look like specs. So I want to give people the sense that there's this'll really intricate, uh, incredible world that's full off color and life and fascinating interactions that exists just beyond their front door. But maybe they've never been able to view it before. The long game ideas you. Eventually, they're going to be issues that come up around wetlands developments like the pipelines that I mentioned development that's maybe more prosaic, like building homes, cutting down forests, draining swamps. I want people to be thinking about these images that they've seen and the kind of encounters I've had as they come up against those types of issues in the future. So in this particular case, I think I'm building a framework.

Jaymi Heimbuch

I think that's incredible. I love that You really point out the difference between a very clear, measurable, short term impact and then something that can have. Even if it is difficult to measure, you know that you are causing a long term influence through what is a passion project. I think that's something so important for us as conservation photographers to consider as we get going on projects. What are your very defined clear goals and how are you going to achieve them? And then what air? You're more nebulous, higher purpose goals. And how are you approaching it in order to to hit those as well. And you actually mentioned that you get a ton of feedback, which I am not surprised about on your work. And so I have sent quite a few of my conservation photography. 101 students. This is the digital course that a teaching. And right now we're in the middle of all of our live Q and A sessions where they're working on their project and we hop on board, um, and and talk through stories that they're working on and getting, you know, them really inspired and fired up. And during that, I'm like, Oh my goodness, you have to go see Steve's work. He's doing really amazing things, So quite a few of them have been sent your way to get fired up about the potential with their own photography. What do your students say to you about your work? Because you just everything about your voice in your approach, I can tell that you are an incredibly inspiring professor. So when your students are looking at your work, and they're wanting to get fired up or really figure out what they're doing with their project. What do they come up and say to you about your work or how it's impacting them, especially when it comes to the idea of of exploring something so intricately and refining a personal style around it,

Steven David Johnson

huh? So the honest answer to that is, I think students, at least college age are a little intimidated to get a lot of feedback on the professor's work. I I think where I see more of the impact is maybe in my enthusiasm for the subject. So one of the courses I teach is in conservation photography, and so we spend this master doing a lot of field work together, often partnering with different nonprofits. But to prepare for that, we go out in the field together, and I feel like that's where the students really come alive. You know, I'm a middle aged guy and, you know, oftentimes, as professors were back in a classroom, there's, you know, not really inspiring lighting. And then we're out in the field and suddenly we're all trudging together through the forest, and then we come upon pools and streams and rivers. And oftentimes, if students never done this before, they'll they'll look in the water. I don't really see anything. And then there's this moment where they've spent long enough. Maybe they're looking the same spot for 15 minutes, and suddenly they see you know, the first creature, and then it's like to get their eyes on. And when I see students light up like that where the world starts to come alive And they told me Oh, you know, I saw something now and then I noticed that it stays with them, and after they leave the class, they're continuing to post work. Or maybe after they graduate, they're continuing to do this type of work. That's really exciting to me.

Jaymi Heimbuch

That's so awesome. And have you gotten feedback from students who have continued on afterward working in photography or even particularly conservation photography? And they're coming back to you and updating you on their work?

Steven David Johnson

Yeah, um I mean, students have gone into different past with this, so I haven't been doing this long enough that I have a lot of students who are full time in the field doing this. Ah, lot of them tend to combine it with something else that they're doing. So maybe they're working for, you know, some sort of marketing professional, uh, and then continuing to do this work on the side. Or maybe they're a biology student who, uh, did some work also in conservation photography. I had a student who did this amazing work documenting would turtles underwater. And he's continued to do that with the Smithsonian, and that's that's his job. Now he he works, tracking would turtles with radio telemetry. But then he also uses his photography to document this amazing stuff. Did he seeing in the field

Jaymi Heimbuch

Wow, that I feel like is where just the trifecta happens? You have someone who is doing science but then able to communicate science in an artistic way. Let's just he sounds like a powerhouse.

Steven David Johnson

It is, Yeah, real fantastic Student.

Jaymi Heimbuch

You have provided so many amazing examples of where you found inspiration and sources. Outside of photography. Ears are related to photography, where you have found inspiration or kind of guidance, and I'm curious. Are there any So someone is looking at what you're doing, and they're getting really excited to explore their vision. So Maybe they already have a passion project that they're working on. And they really want to understand how to delve into their own particular style or their own approach that is unique. That is not redundant imagery. Do you have any insights or tips for them about just kind of getting going on that road?

Steven David Johnson

Yeah. Okay. So, Jaymi can I do a little plug for you? I think you joining up with organizations like NANPA following the work from i L C P Fellows, International League of Conservation Photographers. I know if you've hosted folks before, like Morgan hime clay Bolt following those people, it's important maybe the you know, the particular question that you asked about sort of developing your vision. Uh, one of the resource is that I've used with students before is ah, books by David Do Sherman. He's had, you know, ah, real influence on how I think about going deep with a project. So you some of his advice to students putting together something like a portfolio and thinking about career is photographer is don't be afraid to go deep into a subject. Uh, it's very difficult to be a generalist and photography, and but I think some people think, well, I'll never make an income unless unless I'm trying this and that and maybe that's a good way to get started. But eventually he recommends finding your your niche and then go in really deep with it. And it certainly I found that Good advice, Uh, would I do with the vernal pools? Project wealth and some people might look at that is a very narrow niche. In some ways, it iss uh, but it's also something that people can relate to because it is really in their backyards. So that's one of things I would say. Don't be afraid of going deep Another. Another influence I wanted to mansion is Dorothea Lange as as a photographer? Uh, a lot of people are probably familiar with her most famous image. Migrant Mother. You don't know it. You might want to look it up. Migrant Mother. This image that she made for the Farm Security Administration, it shows this'll woman with her Children in a tent camp. She made several images and chose this particular one, and it's had this incredible staying power, and I think in part it's because it draws on this language of archetypes, which I mentioned before. So if you look at it, it's it harkens back to imagery of, ah, Madonna and Child from Renaissance paintings. And I think that sometimes when we make imagery going back and looking at our history and what came before to think about compositions, to think about archetypes, to think about what's become, become part of our cultural consciousness, even if we can't name it, that could become really important. For me is a photographer. It's it's often about maybe going back to something that that's older, letting it stir around in my mind and my emotions and then in a photograph, maybe adding something new to that language. So it's kind like a spiral. You go back to something, and then it spirals up and you're adding in something new

Jaymi Heimbuch

that is such great input for getting started. I kind of feel inspired right now to just go to the library and pick and I'll and sit down with some books and see where inspiration comes from. Whether it's a photography I or the field guide, Isler the philosophy. I'll just to sit down and dig in and see what influences might make my own spiral spin in a certain direction,

Steven David Johnson

you know. And there's so many contemporary folks to have mentioned a lot of people from 20th century in 17th century. But their contemporary photographers like Hank Willis Thomas, they're Abstract Expressionists, color field painters. All of these folks have had have had influence on my work.

Jaymi Heimbuch

Well, I am definitely going to link to a lot of the resource is that you've mentioned, like David Do shamans books and the Nampa organization, and I'll see P Where can people find you? And I'm gonna warn you it. Anyone who listens to this interview, I feel like they're gonna be inspired to reach out to you. So where would you like people to go in order to explore your work as well as to get in touch if they wanna just chat about photography?

Steven David Johnson

Yes, Steven David johnson dot com.

Jaymi Heimbuch

That's easy enough. I will leak to everything in the show notes and meanwhile, thank you so much for being on sabbatical for dedicating so much time in these environments and for really like, you said nitching down into what it is that you're focused on because the work that you're producing from it is incredibly inspiring and engaging. There's and I don't say this lightly. We're in a kind of world where it's very easy to see an image, have a quick reaction and scroll, and it's really difficult to achieve an image where you stop the scroll and your work always makes me stop scrolling and stare for a while. It's really extraordinary. So thank you for everything that you're doing artistically and in the conservation world and as an instructor, getting other people excited to go out and do the same thing.

Steven David Johnson

Thanks much, Jaymi.

Jaymi Heimbuch

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