Official Crafty Bastards Photographer and Washington City Paper alum, Geoff L. Johnson, knows a thing or two about taking a really good photograph.

A photographer since he was a teenager, Geoff’s love of documenting friends and the spirit of his personal photography is at the heart of his professional work.

Having been friends with Geoff for the last 7+ years, I can’t even begin to describe how talented he is. Here is just a small glimpse into mind of Geoff Johnson, Photographer.

1.) How did you get into photography and what led you to doing wedding photography?
I was first taught black and white photo’y and basic darkroom skills in high school, just outside of DC. after graduating from SCAD, with a degree in graphic design, I worked as a designer and art director, all the while still making photo’y. then about 10 years ago, some creative-minded friends that were getting married asked me to take photos at their wedding.

2.) Many photographers do only wedding photography and many won’t shoot weddings at all. Do you do other types of photo’y?
Yes, I take on editorial projects (such as documenting the always exciting Crafty Bastards)… model and fashion… I love location and travel photo’y… the only thing I don’t do is studio photo’y.

Wedding photo’y can be tiresome, repetitive, stressful work. my work process keeps wedding photo’y fun for me and I think that comes through in the images. I limit the number of weddings I do, travel as often as I can (Jamaica wedding in October) and always make sure that I’m a good fit with the couple. I document real moments as they happen, by working unobtrusively and spontaneously. looking through my wedding galleries (www.geoffsphotos.com) you’ll see an approach that is: part fashion photo’r, part photo-journalist, part travel photo’r.

3.) What other photographers or other artists do you admire most?
The last 2 books I bought were a Joel Peter Witkin and Cindy Sherman. In June I attended the “Festival of the Photograph” (www.festivalofthephotograph.org) an annual photo’y festival in Charlottesville, Va. The 3 key speakers were Mary Ellen Mark, Joel-Peter Witkin and James Nachtwey, all world-reknown with decades of experience. I’m a fan of straight photo’y, as opposed to digitally manipulated, so I’m generally drawn to artists that work that way. I’ve always loved Henri Cartier-Bresson, Sally Mann, William Eggleston, Bruce Davidson, Wim Wenders. and there’s so much great stuff happening today that you can’t even see it all. I look at blogs, national geographic shooters, www.aperture.org, www.magnumphotos.com, www.digitaljournalist.org…

You’ll find Geoff shooting his way through 25,000 people at this year’s Crafty Bastards DC. After the fair, you can check out his handy work on washingtoncitypaper.com/craftybastards.

Geoff Johnson is available for commercial and personal projects, big and small, locally and globally. To contact Geoff or check out his portfolio, go to geoffsphotos.com.

From now until the fair, we’ll be spotlighting awesome items that you will find at this year’s Crafty Bastards. Check out the complete vendor gallery to plan your shopping!

Steve Strawn has a story to tell. It is a fascinatingly beautiful tale of robots kicking the crap out of us. Since he is the world’s only photojournalist war correspondent sending back photos from Great Robot War, I was lucky to get the chance to ask him a few questions about his photography. Here we go:

Question: How long does it usually take to set up a scene for your photos?

Answer: It can take from minutes to days, depending on the inspiration, complexity, and the amount of stuff needing to be blown up. In particular, if something is to be destroyed, the setup needs to be much more meticulous, because the ligthing needs to be exact.

Question: Are you constantly searching for new toys to use?

Answer: All the time. My wife is convinced it is an excuse to just go ahead and buy more toys. It kind of is.

Question: Your robots are very simple, unlike most toys in stores today, where do you get them?

Answer: They are from Stikfas, who makes these wonderfully unbranded and incredibly articulated toys. They are not Power Rangers, they are not Transformers, they are some ambiguous robot from another world who is perfectly posable.

Question: Do you build/make any of the items in your photos?

Answer: I am starting to build more of my figures. There’s a lot that goes into my shoots that is hand-built, and a lot that is store bought. I do want to get away from the store-bougth stuff more for creative and lawsuit reasons, though.

Question: Do you have a true fear of the kinds of attacks that you are creating in your photos? Are they therapy? (That question isn’t meant to be rude, most of what I make is about zombies, even though I am not afraid of zombies. I am really afraid of sharks and seamonsters, actually!)

Answer: Robot invasion scares the shit out of me. Zombies are scarier because they were once people, and now they are something else, and for some reason that is far more terrifying than an automaton that’s here to tear us up. That being said, a zombie can only do so much damage, a robot can blow shit up hard, and really wreck things badly. And yes, it is therapy.

You can pick up some of Steve’s work at Crafty Bastards on September 28th at the Marie Reed Learning Center, 2200 Champlain St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, DC. Check out more of Steve photos at www.splutphoto.com

Tina Seamonster blogs her life and craft at I Like Seamonsters.com. Her biggest fear is men with shark heads. What the hell does that mean?