Phoenix, Arizona · 2007–2023
Craig Johnson
Craig (and some of Connie) Johnson’s photographs — two decades of diving, desert walking, and the trips in between.
90 galleries · Roatán, Truk, Bonaire, the Sonoran desert
Archives
Newest first, grouped by year — the same trips as the old homepage, with Craig’s captions still under the pictures.
90 galleries
In March of 2023 I took an adventurous trip to dive in Truk Lagoon.
In August of 2023 I returned to Roatan for two weeks at the Reef House Resort where I put in ... 11 dives. I got the bends on day 1.
In December I returned to the Reef House Resort with my daughter and her friend Kate to learn scuba.
Grace and I traveled back to Roatan again. She spent a week, I spent two. 34 dives for me.
For the first time, I joined my cousins for their annual fishing trip to Minnesota.
I took the motorcycle up to the north rim of the Grand Canyon for a couple of nights to visit my daughter Emily.
Grace and I took in the Renaissance Festival again, this time with our friend Cathi.
I decided not to wait until September to go to Roatan again, partly because Grace really needed a little vacation. Being a non-diver I was worried Grace would get bored at the Reef House, but she found plenty to do and loved it! This is part 1 because part 2 will happen in September.
Most of my time in Roatan is spent getting ready to dive, diving or recovering from diving and processing images. But there is more to see and do in Roatan than just diving. Here are some images I took on Friday before flying home the next day.
For the second year in a row, I returned to Roatan for two weeks of intensive diving and photography. 37 dives later you can see the results.
I took Grace on her first visit to Hawaii, staying in a condo north of Lahaina on Maui. We went in July and battled enormous crowds, and the condo had no air conditioning, but we managed to have some fun anyway. Craig went on three scuba dives.
Diving · Kula Botanical Gardens · Haleakalā · Road to Hana · Iao Valley · Other photographs
In June 2018, Grace and I visited a resort in Negril Jamaica. They offered free diving each day, so I went on 12 dives. Though all the dives were very short (20 or 35-minute bottom times), I got a few decent pics. Used my Nikon D180 mostly, but one day I used my backup Sony RX100 for a few different shots.
Once again I went to the Renaissance Festival with some friends.
My daughter Emily and I had only 5 days to try to drive to North Dakota in April, 2017. For me, it was the only US state I'd never visited. For Emily, it was a chance to visit several National Parks and strike them off her bucket list.
In 2017 I returned to the Reef House Resort, Oak Ridge, Roatan (Honduras), this time for two weeks. I went alone and concentrated on underwater photography, although I also took a short boat ride through the mangrove swamp. I got in 37 dives, and have lots of images to show for it.
I put some of my images up of the area around where I live in northern Phoenix. This may be a desert, but that doesn't mean it is barren. These images will show you a little bit of what it's like to walk around in the Sonoran desert. They were taken as far back as 2008. Some scenery, some flowers, some wildlife, and a lot of cactus... MORE images at www.cjcphoto.net/arizona2.
Each year Connie and I hosted friends and family for Thanksgiving. Connie cooked and I set up umbrellas, strobes and a backdrop for formal pictures. This was the last Thanksgiving for Connie as she died 3 months later.
The last trip Connie and I took together was a cruise in the Baltics. We started in Copenhagen, then cruised to Norway (Olso), Germany (Berlin), Estonia (Riga), Russia (St. Petersburg), Finland (Helsinki) and Sweden (Stockholm). We had a wonderful time, suspecting all along that Connie's days were numbered as her pancreatic cancer had come back.
After a couple of years of cancelling the trip for health reasons, we FINALLY got to visit China. And we had a wonderful trip!
For the third year in a row I went diving in Roatan. This time with the best camera I've ever had for underwater photography.
Here are some pictures from a short trip I took to colorado in June 2016 on the motorcycle.
In December, Connie and I spent a week in a timeshare at Humacao, Puerto Rico, followed by a week-long cruise. We traveled to St Thomas, St Croix, Antigua, St Lucia and Grenada.
One of our bucket list destinations was Tahiti (French Polynesia). We managed to stay two days in over-water bungalos in Moorea, followed by a 10-day Oceaania cruise through the islands, with a little diving, snorkeling and shore excursions.
Here are some pictures of my motorcycle, a 2015 BMW K1300s.
The family makes another trip to Iowa, including the Iowa State Fair.
Craig & Connie and seven friends travel to the ReeF House Resort in Roatan for a week of diving in 2015.
After many years (since the 1980's) I took another motorcycle trip to Dillon, Colorado for a week in a timeshare condo with Connie. She drove her car, I drove the BMW K1300s.
We needed to use up a timeshare trade week, so we went to a condo in San Diego for a short week. Mostly we relaxed with friends, but we did go on a whale watch trip and take some drives down the coast.
In December 2014, we visited the Phoenix Zoo to see the Christmas lights there. --.
I went to Roatan for a week of diving with a friend of mine. Didn't spend any time seeing the island, because I was there to dive every day, but I did take some shots of the Oak Ridge area where the Reef House Resort is located.
I went diving in Roatan with my buddy Steve Hope from Sep 27 to Oct 3, 2014. We returned to the Reef House Resort where we had been diving in 2008. Fabulous diving conditions - 85F water temps, and we were the only two guests in the resort, so we had the dive boat all to ourselves. The 'close eel encounter' starts on page 19. Still shots of the spotted eel eating a lionfish start on page 29. Link to some diving videos, including feeding eels.
Connie finally got to see Italy. And a bit of Croatia, Greece and Turkey too! Three weeks of driving and cruising the Mediterranean was quite the experience.
Just some highlights of the Mediterranean Trip.
Each year since 2009 I've photographed a local Great Horned Owls nest near my house. Here are some shots from 2013.
A few pictures from Nassau in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, 2012. We visited the Atlantis Resort, went on a Powerboat Adventure, and ... ate at the Poop Deck.
We went on a Blackbeard's Cruise (scuba dive boat) in the Bahamas for a week of diving in February 2012.
Right now, this page covers a lot (!) of travel I did with my late wife Connie from 2006 to 2011. I still haven't caught up with the travel shots from 2011 to present, but I intend to add them in here.
A trip on the Dolly riverboat on Canyon Lake in Arizona in November, 2011.
I went to a school Christmas play to take pictures of my granddaughter. I ended up taking pictures for the school yearbook partway through the play! The kids did a fabulous job. They were also quite amusing when they didn't think anyone was watching them.
Craig and family spent two days at the Iowa State Fair in August 2011. Craig and Alicia even rode the Ejector Seat. Emily went on rides until she puked, and then went on some more!
More vacation pics. New Orleans, Carnival Cruise, a bit of diving in Belize, a bit of sightseeing in Cozumel, etc.
Craig takes a balloon ride with his daughters.
Seven weeks after a horrible motorcycle wreck near where we live, I photographed items left at the scene.
On a business trip to Georgia, I took time off to see my friend race his motorcycle at Road Atlanta.
Another trip to the Phoenix area Renaissance Festival 2011.
My first chance to get photos of the Hoover Dam from the new bypass bridge.
Some images from my week at Novell's BrainShare 2011.
More scuba diving in Cozumel and Costa Maya.
October 2010, Bryce Canyon.
Why did it cost us $139 to replace a microwave bulb? Here's why.
Desmond is a Siamese, born May 24, 2010.
Bella is a Shih Tzu, four-months old on March 26, 2010.
Connie attended training sessions in September, and we went to a luau as a perk.
We got together with some friends on a rainy day in January 2010 and visited the Renaissance Festival.
Some scuba diving in Cozumel. Sharks, eels, lobster, crabs, Splendid Toadfish (really!), and more.
Cozumel residents hid their children, rubbed their rosaries, and lamented the times when our dive group set out to drive around the island.
Our second trip to Maui, in September 2010. Shorter trip, more diving, less driving.
Did more diving on our second trip to Maui, including two trips to Lanai. Dove the Carthaginian along with a submarine!
Connie and I drove to Utah and spent a week with our Novell friends. Rode quads for the first time.
Some images from my week at Novell's BrainShare 2010.
Testing various lenses on wildlife in 2009 and earlier.
Our first trip to Maui, in May 2009. Also visited Lanai, and Molokai.
We dove Molokini Crater (front and back walls) and Turtletown. Saw (and handled) an octopus. Saw sharks, turtles, and even a manta ray at the back wall.
February 2009 - This is a web show (images and movies) made into a slide show with music. It's pretty big, as these sorts of things have to be, at 100MB+. However, it's a beautiful show, and I'm proud of it. You will need to click on the image in the center or on 'loop all' to start it. (It should start playing without having to download the entire show, but it's still a lot of bytes.) If you don't have the Photodex viewer installed, it should prompt you and then install it automatically to your browser.
Camping with friends at Kartchner Caverns during the Orionids meteor shower.
Portraits done during Craig and Connie's Thanksgiving 2009.
San Carlos scuba dive trip from July 26- 29, 2008. (Early) underwater photography. As the years have gone by, our underwater photography has improved a lot over this, but the sea lions at San Pedro Island are still a treat.
Portraits done during Craig and Connie's Thanksgiving 2008.
Here are some examples of sneaky fish and the like.
I have often wanted to show people that my dive pictures simply do not come out of the camera the way everyone sees them. In fact I post-process nearly 100% of my images, whether taken above or below water. But I process underwater images the most. Here are examples of what they look like out of camera, and again after I've edited them in Adobe Lightroom.
Our favorite bar burned down in a case of arson. The iconic Buffalo Chip saloon in Cave Creek, Arizona was completely destroyed and will have to be rebuilt from the ground up.
Craig & Connie went with Mike and Annie to Out of Africa zoo in Camp Verde to see some animals and to zipline over them.
While in Dillon, Colorado over 4th of July, I got some nice fireworks shots.
We had a discount for a tour of the Sedona area so decided to check it out. Connie had been hiking in the area many times, but I had never really been off the main highways.
Here is a video of Alicia and Craig riding the Ejector Seat. (You need to install the Photodex plugin (which should happen automatically on a Windows pc.).
A few shots of unusual stuff.
Examples to show your wife why you do not now, and probably never will, be the best example of someone with 'too much camera gear'.
Here are some examples of using a 10.5mm fisheye lens on a DX format camera.
I'm slowly getting landscape shots up.
Some shots I like, cropped to 1680x1050.
I wanted to post some examples of higher ISO shots I've done over the last couple of years, with a D300 and a D700.
Various lens and camera tests I've done.
My Thinktank Airport Accelerator camera bag loaded with as much camera gear as I can pack onto an airliner. Two camera bodies, nine lenses, two flashes and misc stuff - 31 lbs currently. I wear this on my back, and the Speed Racer on my front (holding point-n-shoots in underwater housings) when I fly. And I pack a tripod and other gear in a suitcase. Yes, I do not travel light.
My Thinktank Speed Racer camera bag loaded with camera and lenses. This gives an idea of what fits into this very comfortable and useful bag.
In memory
Oslo, Norway, 2016
My beloved wife Connie died of complications from treating pancreatic cancer on January 22, 2017. She is, and will always be, sorely missed. Many of the images from our years together are from her camera. Connie was an excellent photographer, and I learned a lot from her. This picture was taken in Oslo, Norway, on our last trip together in September 2016.
About
Craig (and some of Connie) Johnson’s photographs — two decades of diving, desert walking, and the trips in between.
I live in northern Phoenix, on the edge of the Sonoran desert, and I spend an unreasonable amount of time underwater with a camera. Roatán has been a second home for years; Truk Lagoon, Bonaire, Maui, Fiji, and Cozumel are in the logbook too.
Almost nothing you see here comes out of the camera looking like that. Underwater files especially get a pass through Lightroom — there is a before-and-after gallery if you want the receipts.
Many of the older travel frames were made with my late wife Connie. She was the better photographer, and I learned a great deal from her. Those years are still here, in the archive, in the order we lived them.
Email is still the same. The address is written the old way so scrapers have to work for it:
phxazcraig at gmailExport from Photo Mechanic into a new folder, drop a cover in mainpage/, then paste a card at the top of the newest year. Copy this:
<article class="card" data-category="underwater" data-search="roatan june 2024 honduras">
<a href="roatan2024/index.html">
<img src="mainpage/your-photo.jpg" alt="Roatán — June 2024">
<h3>Roatán — June 2024</h3>
<p class="meta">Roatán, Honduras · 2024</p>
<p class="caption">Two weeks at the Reef House. 36 dives.</p>
</a>
</article>
data-category must be one of: underwater, travel, desert, family, wildlife, craft. Change href to your new index.html and src to the cover jpg.