About Me

OK, so this is a blog about me…mostly about photography, but also about other things both of a business and a personal nature.  So this “About Page” departs a little from the standard and delves into more of the personal side of your photographer.  Here are 25 things about me that I think people would find interesting.

1. I’m a Navy brat. I can remember living in 10 houses before the age of ten. There were even more homes before I can remember.

2. My favorite place to live was the Philippines. My least favorite was Brazil.

3. I was a hopeless firebug as a child and have the scars to prove it. So does the jungle in the Philippines. And my friend’s deck and garden. And probably my mom’s basement carpet.

4. I love to cook, but rarely use a recipe preferring to just throw stuff together. In January 2009 I purchased James Peterson’s “Cooking” to improve my improvisational abilities.

5. I aced engineering calculus in college without ever attending class. There was a note from the instructor on my final exam that said “Nice Test”.

6. I started playing trumpet in the 5th grade after my parents wouldn’t let me play the saxophone. I think saxophones were too expensive. Plus my dad played trumpet growing up. I played all the way through college, but have only occasionally played since then. I now have the nicest horn that I’ve ever owned and it spends most of its time sitting in the case.

7. I went to the U on a music scholarship, but after two years switched to engineering because I didn’t want to be a teacher. After another year and a half I dropped out of school altogether and never went back. I later worked as a mechanical engineer for five years and hated every moment.

8. I’ve been a professional photographer in Utah for over ten years. I carry a camera everywhere and will take a picture of pretty much anything. This habit has seemingly rubbed off on my oldest daughter.

9. I’m a hopeless sucker for a redhead…so I married one; but not before stupidly marrying a blond first. Or maybe it wasn’t so stupid. Well, actually, it was definitely stupid, but at least I think I might have learned something from it or at least realized something important. Thinking about that 5.5-year train wreck makes me appreciate my wife Jody all the more and understand just how amazing she is. I’m hopelessly in love with Jody and can only aspire to be deserving of her.

10. I tend to be a night owl and often do my best creative work very late at night when everyone else is asleep. This tendency has chronically caused me grief in other areas of my life. “Hi my name is Jon and I’m addicted to late-night life. As of today I’ve been in bed before 1AM for 27 days.”

11. I once pulled a man from the burning wreckage of a car crash. He was hanging upside down from his seat belt semi-conscious with his face half torn off and his truck was engulfed in flames. I still have PTSD induced nightmares from time to time.

12. If I wasn’t so tied down to the Salt Lake Valley, I would move at the drop of a hat. I’ve deeply missed the ocean since I was ten in the Philippines and want to live near the coast. I feel truly at peace sitting by the ocean and feel some kind of an inexplicable and profound connection with it.

13. I was robbed at gunpoint and shot at in Brazil. This probably accounts for the permanent bad taste in my mouth for the place.

14. I go through 3-4 gallons of skim milk per week.

15. I’m a movie freak. I think I inherited this trait from my father who always took us to the latest blockbusters. I’d much rather watch a movie than TV. I like to read, too, but have gotten lazy in recent years and mostly just listen to audio books.

16. I could probably sell refrigerators to Eskimos if I wanted to. Unfortunately, I hate the cold, would find selling appliances boring…plus that would just be plain silly.

17. I have an unusual fetish for comfortable brown leather shoes. I also have a silly habit of taking pictures of my own feet. I have just about the highest arches I’ve ever seen and my second toes are longer than my big toes.

18. I’ve probably spent more time fishing in my lifetime than any other leisure activity. I love to fly fish, but just couldn’t get excited about tying my own flies, so I just buy them. In the Philippines they have a certain species of fish that can get out of the water and walk for short distances. When I was 8, I once caught a whole bucketful by waiting for them to jump out of the water and running over to pick them up. When I brought them home, I told my sister Patti to watch them while I went to get our mom. When we got back, the fish were walking back to the water and Patti was crying. I later cooked one in the microwave and ate it. Our live-in maid Gloria was LHAO…I think it was the equivalent of eating a carp out of the canal.

19. Unlike most men, I love to shop. And yes, even (especially) for clothes with my lovely wife Jody.

20. All the moving as a young kid had an interesting effect on my personality. I make friends very easily. On the flip side, I can pick up and leave at the drop of a hat and not even really miss anyone. I usually don’t even call any of the friends I just left. As a result of the moving around, I don’t really have any “lifetime friends”. I’m trying to remedy this trait. Facebook is helping a bit.

21. My two oldest kids from my first marriage live about an hour away, just far enough to be inconvenient, with their mother. I feel guilt about the distant relationship every day.

22. I have an ugly lamp on my nightstand that my father built in wood shop in grade-school. I’ve had it since I was around 13 and it’s the last thing I turn off every night. Think Frazier’s dad’s recliner. Jody and I are under negotiations for lamp removal, but are still years away from any kind of ratified treaty.

23. I wear my watch on my right wrist ever since I got rear ended in a car accident in June, 2007. I have nerve damage in my neck that radiates down my left arm in the form of numbness and tingling.  In December 2008, I got rear ended again which totaled my car and re-aggravated the nerve problem. Oh well…I guess I’m getting used to it.

24. I tend to be irrationally afraid of the dark and still sleep with a light on in the house. I get that “someone breathing down my neck spine-tingle” when walking up the stairs from a basement or out of a dark room.

25. At 40 years old, I have six-pack abs for the first time in my life… Holy crap I sound like an infomercial.