Sisters man recounts career as photographer, adventurer

J. Wesley Jones in his favorite habitat -- the forests of Sisters. photo by Becky Coffield J. Wesley Jones of Sisters has had plenty of "lights, cameras and action" over the course of his photographic career, which has spanned 40-plus years since his father gave him his first camera at 13.

Jones took to photography with a passion, and became so adept that he regularly taught his high school photography class. Upon graduation from high school, Jones commuted daily from New Jersey to New York, where he attended the School of Visual Arts and The New School.

His first big break came in 1972 when he was hired by a sales promotion company to do in-house photography. The rest is photographic and cinematic history -- and Jones is a leading star in this incredibly competitive, continuously evolving art.

Still life photography dominated his work from 1973 to 1982.

"Those were the golden years of photography," Jones said.

He was shooting for such products as Revlon, Black Velvet, Lipton Tea and Hershey Candy among others.

"I had opened my own studio by then and ran a day crew and a night crew. The night crew did all the catalogue work - J.C. Penney, Avon, Sears, Bloomingdale," he recalled.

In 1983 Jones, at perhaps the pinnacle of his photographic career, laid down his camera and went into film.

He has since garnered numerous Clio awards for his notable commercials for such products as Heinz Ketchup, Diet Pepsi and Colgate Toothpaste.

But his work was not just about the awards. Because Jones was so innovative and successful, he was picked by Sony to be the first to test high definition digital versus film photography.

"The industry is constantly changing," he said. "Now everything is being done through computer graphics imaging. The stuff I do with a camera, they're doing right on the computer.

"In the film world one has to be constantly evolving and looking for a new look, a new style, a new media," he said.

And that is exactly what Jones has done. One of the benefits of his evolving career is that he no longer has to work in just New York, Los Angeles or Chicago.

"The industry has gone global, which allows me to work in Sisters, Oregon, as well as Rio de Janeiro," he said.

Jones is a man who not only works hard, but plays hard as well. He is an avid fisherman, hunter and backpacker and spent five days last summer backpacking with Bend entrepreneur James Farrell, the original creative director of Wine Now, which eventually became Food and Wine magazine.

"We ate well!" Jones said.

Jones has hiked into the McKenzie mountain range in the Northwest Territories.

"I love going where other humans have never set foot. I have seen grizzly bears who have never seen a human before. I am very fortunate," he said.

His love of the outdoors has also led him to be Number 603 in the world in the Grand Slam, which means he has taken all four wild North American sheep: a Nelson Desert Sheep, a Dall, a Stone, and a Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep. For one of these he spent 21 days backpacking in the Yukon.

Jones is also an intensely dedicated conservationist and received the Audubon Society Conservationist of the Year Award in 1990 for his efforts in protecting the blue heron in Pennsylvania.

One of Jones' future goals is to open a museum in Sisters.

"I want to give back what I've enjoyed in my lifetime. It will be named the Sisters North American Wildlife Museum and will feature animals indigenous to this area and North America," he said. "I'd like to educate people on the value of what our natural resources are. I am looking for other people who'd like to get involved in this project with me."

Between his work and recreation, he is volunteering his time and talents along with Rick and Bob Johnson in making a local commercial to raise parents' awareness of their chldren's alcohol and drug use.

This is being done in cooperation with Sisters Community Action Team, SOAR and Deschutes County.

It's yet another project for a man of "action."