Jon Ball

{photo by JON BALL}

A family moved into my parents church/ward I think in the beginning of 2007. They had small children, and moved from Idaho. He was a photographer, and this was a time when I wanted to do nothing but photography. So I attached myself to him and his business. He took over -Phillip Stewart Charis Portraiture- in San Juan and reinvented it as much as possible. Thankfully, he hired me as a secretary/assistant and I got to see what goes on with with their large format cameras, how he poses, and how to set up shoots. Jon is a great, influential photographer and I wish I could have stuck around after graduation just to learn more from him. He inspired me to one day switch over to JUST photographing with film (very hard & challenging to switch over). I just found out he is moving back to Idaho with his growing family, and am so bummed because I didn't get to say goodbye! I'm sure I will see the Ball's again someday.

Anyways, I just heard of his BLOG. It's a diary of his family, and an ongoing collection of BEAUTIFUL images. You will all see why I admire him so much.

He also did some wedding footage of us outside the temple with our family- shot with a Super 8 film/video camera. It was so cool he did that because we didn't even really research any videographers because my main focus was on the photography. So when Jon offered, I couldn't have been more grateful. And I am so thankful NOW because I have it to always look back on.