Bio
how i got started
Hello! My name is Sam Johnson. As of March of 2026, I am 18 years old in high school as a senior. I am planning to attend college in the fall in hopes of studying and majoring in philosophy.
I first picked up a camera when my brother, Kelton, had me take his picture for the process of selling his prints for his own (very cool, and very good) photography. As he started talking to my dad about the specific print he was taking a picture of, I started pointing the camera down at my dogs and taking pictures of them and something clicked. I didn't know what it was at the time, but I found it so rewarding and exciting. Thinking about it now, I think it was being able to capture a moment, an experience, a flicker of life. Anyways, a month or two after that first shoot, I was at my first ever outing and wildlife photography experience with a pygmy owl (courtesy of Kelton and his super cool photography friends). That experience set me over the edge. After that I spent much of my time out seeking and finding that same experience of capturing these flickers of life.
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wHAT i WANT TO ACCOMPLISH
In my life, I have found few absolute truths. I think one of the most clear ones to me, is that life is the most valuable thing we have. It sounds redundant, but it's more than "the most important thing in life is life". What is life really? Is it living till you reach your end? Is it experiencing it with others? Is it feeling emotion? Is it having the ability to make somebody else feel emotions? In my meandering and pondering of this enormous, nuanced, and unanswerable question. I think it is an amalgamation of it all. Life gives us the opportunity to do all these amazing things, feel, experience, and share. And the most beautiful thing about that, it is completely inherent. We were all given a life, whether it be from a divine creator we've never seen, heard, or met. Or a random explosion with the most miniscule odds that happened 13.8 billion years ago. Whatever way it happened, it's all amazing. That we get to be here on this Earth, at this time, at this year, this month, this day, this hour, this second.
I don't think this amazing thing that we call life doesn't just apply just to us weird human beings. It applies to all creatures on earth. I feel not enough people realize that. We take a look around us and we see these amazing creatures that can fly, creatures that can get up to speeds well over 200 mph, creatures that rival that of giants, creatures with unimaginable strength. And yet we turn around believe and that life is only experienced in us humans, worse yet, want to destroy this unequivocal masterpiece we call Earth. Excuse my french, but I call bullshit. I think the most selfish human alive can find peace what beautiful life nature has to offer. Better yet find themselves in it, and improve and find life and love for themselves and others in it.
If I can somehow convey that life of Earth through a stupid camera, so be it.
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And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.
-The Beatles
