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.
I look so distressed in this shot! and I remember that I was such a great day too….
So we have something else in common, bro…I only remember throwing up once in my life too and I can’t even remember how old I was it was that long ago! We must have iron stomachs or something….
BTW…love how you interviewed yourself here…fascinating. And I CANNOT wait to hold Kimi either!!
Nice interview Jon. I thought the guy in the picture was you.
All the Ball clan look similar.
You don’t look distressed. You look like it’s not the best moment for you. Do your remember saying “I’m done sightseein?”
yes I remember saying that!! I wasn’t really dressed for a day at the beach either!