An interview with myself 

Jon: Tell me about this photograph 

Jon: My Dad, sister and brother and I were in San Diego at an internet marketing conference in March. We took a couple of hours off from the conference to get some sunshine. We stopped by the Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego. 

Jon: Why there? 

Jon: I like it. I took the kids there a couple of years ago. They loved it. Plus a really cool lighthouse sits on top of the bluff. I blogged about it before here. 

Jon: Did your family like it? 

Jon: Not as much as I did. After an hour I was really getting into it and my sister said “I’m done sightseein” and then it closed anyways. 

Jon: What were you, a photographer, doing at an internet marketing conference? 

Jon: I am intensely interested in marketing and sales systems. It’s a new mountain for me to climb. 

Jon: Why? 

Jon: Because in my 12 years in portraiture one thing that I have learned one million times over is that the marketing and selling are the most crucial parts to success. I want to learn as much about those processes as possible. 

Jon: What else did you do in San Diego? 

Jon: Zach and I shot a couple of television ads for one of our products, Seize the Job. They’re here and here. 

Jon: What’s different about these ads? 

Jon: We shot them with my super 8 movie camera. Zach and I conceptualized the ads and storyboarded them. We had a great time. We shot another one of a couple on a date but haven’t edited it yet. 

Jon: Did you do anything else? 

Jon: We walked around a couple of neighborhoods. Pacific Beach and Lemon Grove. I photograph homes that I find interesting. I like to do that. 

Jon: I saw the photographs. What is this all about? 

Jon: It’s a strange fascination with the way people live. I think that a person’s house says volumes about their thought process. It’s been said that you can learn a lot about a person by their shoes. If that’s true how much more does the exterior of their home say about them?

Jon: What kind of shoes do you wear? 

Jon: My wife gave me a pair of converse Chuck Taylors for my last birthday. I wore them as a youngster. She remembers me wearing them and thought to help me remember myself as a younger man. I opened them and my 11-year-old said “Dad, are you really going to wear those?” My 9-year-old said, “You look much younger with those shoes on.” So now I wear them all the time.  

Jon: What can you determine by a 37-year-old man wearing those shoes? 

Jon: That he is cool. 

Jon: So you think you’re cool? 

Jon: No. But my shoes say that I am. 

Jon: Back to the neighborhoods. Do you have a name for the neighborhood portfolio? 

Jon: The residence series. 

Jon: I think it’s a strange thing to photograph.  

Jon: Take it easy on me. I’m you, remember. 

Jon: Oh yeah.  I’m really getting into this. What can you tell our readers about yourself that none of them know? 

Jon: Since my life is an open book, I guess I can tell them that I’ve spent a great deal of time watching the television series 24. Every year I tell my wife that I’m not going to watch it but I always do. This year is the series ender and I feel sad. That’s my confession. 

Jon: That’s a lame confession. 

Jon: OK, how about this one. I have only thrown up one time in my entire life. I was 14. I went to the Fower’s house for pizza and the olives were bad. I threw up in a stranger’s yard while I was walking home. Sometimes I wish I could throw up but I can’t.  My body won’t allow it. 

Jon: That’s still not a confession. That’s a factoid. 

Jon: I have a wife who is due in three weeks. I am afraid…It’s distressing to think of her going through the labor. She has her babies at home in a pool of water. It’s amazing, it’s miraculous, it’s scary. 

Jon: That’s better. Thanks for opening up. 

Jon: I can’t wait to meet our new baby, Kimi. I love to hold my newborns. It’s one of my favorite things! I love meeting new family members. 

Jon: Thank you for your time. 

Jon: You’re welcome.