Mary Lou Johnson captures lure of Longboat

Mary Lou Johnson never intended to publish a photography book.

But when a client said, “I’m running out of wall space, but I want more (photographs), why don’t you put them in a book?” the wheels in Johnson’s head turned a tiny bit.

Without thinking it would ever amount to a book, she started a folder on her computer called “If I ever do a book.”

A year and a half later, she sat down and started sorting the folder. She added some photos, then she took some out. At the end, she thought “Tourist season is coming. It’d be smart to get it out just before they come.”

The book, “The Lure of Longboat Key: Sunrise to Sunset,” was published in 2013, and now, it’s a Publix best-seller. It retails for $65, and a portion of the proceeds benefits Selah Freedom.

When Johnson first approached Andy Lappin, a former manager, about selling the book in the store, he wasn’t sure. Publix is a grocer after all, not a bookstore.

Johnson persisted, though, because it was Longboat Key.

“We love Longboat,” she said to Lappin. “You know how people just love Longboat.”

Lappin, who is now retired, called the corporate office vendor, who told him he could try selling a few. In Johnson’s words, those books flew off the shelves, so Lappin asked for more. Then some more. And then even more.

Five years later, more than 1,200 copies have been sold, making the book the most successful private book sold in Publix stores.

Johnson said the book has turned into a portfolio for her art, which is displayed at Artists on Main in Sarasota or in her home studio on Longboat Key. 

People ask her, “Could I have a 4-by-6-foot of page 23?”

“Yes, you can,” she tells them.

Johnson’s first memory of owning a camera is from fifth grade. She remembers being on a field trip to Tarpon Springs — she grew up in Tampa — and spending the day taking photos.

When her oldest daughter was getting ready to leave home for  college, Johnson decided to take advice she’d given to countless clients through her marriage- and family-counseling practice.

“I’d always told clients when there’s a loss of any kind, a job, a person, a friend, a maid, whatever, do something different, something special,” she said. “Do something you always wanted to do. Do something you hadn’t done in a while.”

So, she signed up for a photography class at the University of South Florida in Tampa and her passion, or obsession as her husband calls it, grew.

“The more I learned, the more I realized I didn’t know,” she said.

The more she learned about lighting and composition, the more she got involved in photography. She joined multiple professional photography associations and began winning competitions, which fueled her even more.

She decided to enroll in a three-year program through the New York Institute of Photography.

“It was, on a very personal level, God’s gift to me to show people the beauty around us,” Johnson said. “I really feel like I’m just a conduit. It allows people to bring God’s world out there inside their homes, inside offices.”

Johnson said she is working on another book that is about 85% complete. She jokes that her grandchildren are her top priority, not book editing.  

Now she’s passing the photography baton to her grandchildren.

“I gave my first granddaughter her first camera when she was 2,” Johnson said.

While finishing the new book, Johnson continues to photograph regularly. When she has her photos, she paints them over digitally on her computer with an extra-large screen.

She rarely goes anywhere without her camera, and on the chance she doesn’t have a camera, like when she is jogging, she snaps a photo with her phone then goes back later with her camera. She has never thought about photography as work.

“It thrills me when other people can have that moment, that lighting, that special time. I mean it,” she said. “I just see myself as this little piece of getting it out to other people you know.”