I... I hate beginning any bit of writing with a personal pronoun, but I must confess that as I type this the crown of my skull and upper vertebrae are spiking with pain after my little videographic adventure today, but I digress, I really ought to tell you who I am and what you'll be reading about in my blog.. then will get to the video I produced and starred in today.
My name is Robin Scott Johnson, and I am a photographer in North Platte, Nebraska. This is a new professional career for me, as up until April, I had done this on a strictly pro bono publico basis for friends, family, associates, and the curious world around me. Videography comes into play as I have always idolized adventure travel documentary directors such as Alby Mangles and Jacques Cousteau and in my imagination, I am just like them, but without the money and/or scientific expertise.
To compare my life to a great cliche, I feel a bit guilty, but indeed my life has indeed been a roller coaster. Born in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands in the Unite Kingdom, I was dragged around the world by my father and family, first to Australia where I lived until the late 1980s, and then to Pennsylvania, Texas, Arizona, Hawaii, California, Montana, Pennsylvania again, Arizona again, California, New Hampshire, and finally Nebraska, where I found a career as an intercontinental trucker, shuttling freight from the central United States to all points in the world's second largest country, from the top of Vancouver Island to St. John, Newfoundland. A few years ago, however, I began to realize that I was wasting my talents, my dreams, and the hours, days, and years of my life on a career I had long since stopped enjoying. Come to think of it, I never really got used to trucking, it simply became so automatic that it felt like "my life." I'd get up, drive, go to sleep, and drive again... days off were spent taking pictures and making movies.
For a companion since 2003, I've had a large black cat called Lava, who was even featured on Animal Planet's Cats 101 programme, when a producer for the show in Boston saw my videos on the popular video sharing site Youtube.com. A producer flew down and met me at Lakes End, Utah and a film crew contracted out of Salt Lake City traveled with us into eastern Utah, before wrapping up for the day. It was real work, and Lava the Cat has fans all over the place.. once a few rough looking bikers rode up to us near the Louisiana state line in Arkansas and asked if that was the cat from Animal Planet, laughed, and then said that they were huge fans of him.. even had me take their picture with him with their cell phone cameras.
In December of 2009, my father died after a long illness, and I contemplated buying a real DSLR and getting out of trucking forever, I had always thought he had some sadness that in 33 years I had not amounted to anything more than a lorry driver. When he was 33, he was a high ranking executive in the international division of Sperry Univac, a massive and now non existent computer company. He had a pilot's licence, three children...even an American Express card. Me? I was a truck driver with an old Pajero, a black cat, mostly broke, no credit, and at the end of my 33rd failed relationship with a woman. It occured to me that he might actually think I was gay or something, not that he would have been judgmental, but I'm not, nor did I blame the women in my life for causing the failure of my many relationships... I was the one gone all the time, and often times, I was bored with them within the first week, if not the first night.
I wrestled with the idea of moving to Phoenix again and starting over, starting a record label called Dark Flare Records, but I had a fallout with my then business partner, and former best friend Trianna. Someone who can only describe as having a Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde complex...and so I resumed trucking after taking six weeks off to handle my dad's estate and resumed trucking.
Sometime around March I found myself back in Phoenix, sitting in my friend Brian's borrowed Jeep Wrangler when I found myself communicating with a reporter back in Nebraska by the name of AJ Williams. I sat in front of the QT convenient store in Chandler, with a pint of Ben and Jerry's on the passenger seat, a lit fag in the ashtray, and exchanged a half dozen e-mails. My thought was that she was out of my league, and too successful to be interested in someone like me--a nobody--who at that moment was on the precipice of being nowhere and even further in the rut I was already in. Then the e-mails stopped and I figured my chances were as good as done with the woman... wasn't surprised.
A month or so later the e-mails returned.. and soon she seemed eager to meet me. To make a very long story short, we did.. and it clicked in such a way as I've never had happen before. A month ago I asked her to marry me and presented her with an engagement ring.. I can't say I've ever seen anyone happier. So that's that. I'm engaged.. and will be married in March in Las Vegas in what I hope will be a classy event.
So my current career, a professional photographer. The trucking ended on 1 October '10 as AJ and I started a photography studio and company called RAJ Photography Studios (R[obin]AJ).
I spent all of my money, including cashing in my 401K and put it into the business and feel somewhat satisifed that we're doing it right. I have friends on Twitter that I really not only respect but sincerely like, such as @janewynn who have be not only supportive, but genuinely helpful! AJ is still working her tail off at the TV station, but has been instrumental in the thinktank department, and I have high hopes that by this time next year we'll be in the black on the biz... cross your fingers.
Here are some test shots I've done in the studio that I really like. I spend a lot of time editing and thinking of different scenarios. Some of the shots were done in studio, others out and about...which obviously are harder because of lighting and other natural and man-made factors.
BTW, the ones of me are self portraits which I used a remote control and the cameras self timer. The only hard part was manually focusing to where my eyes would be. I use a Nikon D90 currently.
Well enough of that... now this is the video I made today and it's why I'm in agony right now..Click the link..and just wait till the end! LOL.. and thank you for reading my blog.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hSiaxE45Yo&hd=1
