Startup utility player / guy who asks too many questions / usually excited. Vices include photo books and donuts. Cofounder at @JobPortraits
The Year in Pictures (of Miki Johnson)
I sat down a few days ago to dig up some photos-of-not-Miki. But there she was. A few hours later I’d looked through every album dated 2015. In fact, besides client work and photos of my feet and/or some weird thing on the sidewalk, the vast majority of my pictures from the year are of Miki.
I guess that’s what happens when you live and work with your wife in a 1-bedroom apartment! In some sense this is the story of her year…but through my eyes…which, considering the way we share stuff, we may as well call Our Year. I’ve had a ball sorting through it all, reliving some choice moments. Here, for the viewing pleasure of friends, family, and probably a few strangers, are her/my/our favorites.
—Jackson and sorta Miki
PS: The captions are definitely mine.
The righteous struggle of walking up stairs when already tired and being photographed by your husband. Also hard not to break a smile.
In the spring we hiked a particularly verdant creekside trail on the backside of Mt. Tam; Polar bears like omelettes, too.
Miki was singing the praises of spirographs one day, and then the next week I found this massive vintage one on the sidewalk a block from our apartment. The universe delivers.
What’ll it be this month, honey? Pay our rent on time or drink fancy juice ere’day? To wit:
We don’t think this was a formal trail, but we weren’t the first to walk it and the views of Ocean Beach were fantastic.
Some imaginative kid in one of these houses is probably screaming: “A woman has emerged from the forbidden forest! Witch! Witch!”
Ohio → Shade (the town) → Childhood home → Patio → Zzzz.
A still frame from the forthcoming feature film “Looks Can and Do Kill” (working title), a feminist retelling of The Terminator.
Oh, client work. Startups inspire many emotions.
Elevator Yoga, the next big thing for busy professionals. This shit’ll be on Oprah in no time.
Ocean Beach again; Miki leads Nissa (the rat) in a stress relief exercise.
Speaking of rats: We lost three this year. Granted, they only live 2–3 years, but it’s never fun to lose pets. We performed a burial ceremony for each.
We bought a kitchen mat online. Pretty sure it was full of maggots, because the next day our apartment was buzzing with ~200 flies. Miki justly went on a killing spree.
Egads! A pleasant photo! How did this get in here?!
Another walk on Ocean Beach…or was this on the set of Miami Vice? Feeling forgetful…
Early in the year we hopped a cruise to Alcatraz to see the Ai Weiwei exhibit. Despite the grim face of the island when viewed from San Francisco, foliage abounds.
Enjoying the moonlight and/or unable to sleep because of all the cop cars outside. Sometimes our neighborhood is friendly. Sometimes.
Good morning! Gooood morning good morning good morning!!! Get up get up get up get up get up get up!
Pinecone golf with a rolled up window shade, still in its package. Oh boy.
As she nodded off at a client’s office, she dreamt of better days to come…
Hiding from the high-volume, non-stop bickering (with love) that is my family’s natural state. IE: We visited my folks in Seattle for a few days.
Holy shit we bought a car! And voted!
Some family friends went on vacation and gifted us their CSA box. In short order Miki rolled an immaculate organic watermelon down their front steps.
Different hikes in different seasons. Matchy matchy otherwise.
Check Miki’s Instagram feed and there are MANY photos of me dozed off. Remember, babe: everyone sleeps.
Indeed, there is an “As seen on TV” store. Miki had to pry me away from the Slap Chop. Apparently I should “just learn to use a goddam knife already!”
Awwwwww!
At one point this summer it got so hot in the main apartment, we did a few business-related meetings in the (much cooler) bathroom. If only our clients knew…
In order to empathize with out clients — to truly understand the problems they’ve hired us to solve — we need to put ourselves in their shoes. And their massage chairs.
Bird; burst.
The bag hand is actually a sad story (a pet death is involved), but at some point we cheered up. Oh, and a tree in a drought. Life’s a fragile thing.
“This goddam view again? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Terry chomps a necklace and Ira practices, err, just sitting there. They’ve both since passed. They were good rats.
When we do a photo shoot at a client’s office, we typically steal away for 15 minutes during lunch to clear our heads. Thus, Hidden-Corner-of-Office-Park Yoga.
Lucky for him, this Ohio farm girl had come to hike. Otherwise we’d still be eating venison.
A gazillion layers of down clothing / Michelin Woman; Miki not paying attention to me.
Oh snap, the tide has turned!
…And Miki would like to share a few of her Instagram photos of me, so as to retain a bit of agency amid my good-natured objectification. Thanks for tolerating this, baby cakes. *Smooch!* 2016—upwards and onwards!
