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Photo finish

Local man's picture wins place in book

Michelle Balleck

A local man’s passion for photographing his children is paying off. Last month, Shane Johnson took a photo of his son, Cody, 4 1/2 years old. His wife, Shanna Toft-Johnson, submitted it to an online amateur photo contest.

The couple recently learned the photo would be published in a book.

“(Shane has) been taking pictures for over 20 years,” Toft-Johnson said. “This is one of the best pictures he’s taken recently.”



The International Library of Photography, which operates the Web site http://www.picture.com, is the contest sponsor.

Toft-Johnson said the photograph, featuring a close-up shot of Cody with a pool cue, would be published in the book, “Endless Journeys.”



The picture also has been entered into a contest for cash prizes. One prize is as much as $10,000.

The family entered the same photo in a Kodak contest but hasn’t gotten word of the contest results.

Toft-Johnson titled the picture, “Budding Pool Hall Junkie,” because her son’s favorite movie is, “Pool Hall Junkies.” The photo captured one of the family’s pastimes, she said.

“Our children have been around pool since conception,” Toft-Johnson said.

She said she thinks this will be valuable exposure for Cody. She and Shane have modeled in the past. She modeled as a live Barbie doll in Texas, and Shane has posed as a cowboy for several international magazines, she said.

“With our backgrounds we figured we should expose our kids to the same kind of thing,” Toft-Johnson said.

Cody is the oldest of three children, and Toft-Johnson is pregnant with the family’s fourth child. Cody won a tri-state baby contest in Oklahoma City, Okla., when he was 14 months old.

“He’s always been comfortable in the spotlight with people paying attention to him,” she said.

Toft-Johnson said she hopes photo contests would help boost her children’s chances of becoming young models.

“We would really like to get all of our kids into modeling contracts, and that seems to be the easiest way to get the exposure,” she said.

For information about the contest, visit http://www.picture.com.


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