m.e. studios photography

I've seen a few posts on the web about "Who is Randy Johnson's wife, Lisa?"

You're in luck! I will tell you my experience working with Lisa and her two sisters, Teresa and Yavonne for the 2 yrs, 7 months I worked at their Bellevue, WA, One Hour Photo Lab from Dec 1988 to July 1991.

This is a hard working family.

The father, James (aka Jim) and his wife Vita Wiehoff had a contracting business, Wiehoff Contracting, Inc in the Kenmore, WA area.

Jim and Vita had four children: Lisa, Teresa, James Jr (aka Jimmy), and Yavonne.

On December 23, 2011, Jim passed away at age 69. He was a nice person to work with. He was very nice and very helpful.

Around 1981, Jim opened up a One Hour Photo Lab in Woodinville, WA called; Woodinville Photo & Gift at 13210 NE 175th St, B6C, Woodinville, WA 98072. This Photo Lab was managed by Teresa until it closed in 2000.

Jim opened another One Hour Photo Lab in Redmond, WA. I don't know who managed this one but maybe it was Vita because I was told that she owned a Photo Lab after their divorce.

Jim opened another One Hour Photo Lab in Bellevue, WA. Lisa was the Manager for this one. One day Lisa told me that she had to work out of a hot trailer parked in the business parking lot for a long time before getting into their location at 103A Bellevue Way N.E. Bellevue, WA 98004.

Lisa and Yavonne worked at the same location, Bellevue, WA, until it was closed about a year after I left and maybe the same time Lisa married Randy.

Lisa was nice to work with and she was always professional. You can ask her a question and she would return a nice answer back to you. When Lisa and Yavonne worked together, just about everyday, there was a lot of laughing and talking during the day, back and forth between the two. They had a good time at work.

I started working their in early December. They were going to have a Christmas party for the employee sometime that month on a Yacht. Lisa told me I should go. So I did. I was still kind of shy and I also knew Yavonne for a few weeks now. After we took off on this Yacht, I was so bored. I sat in one place for the entire time. At one point, Lisa, sitting across the way from me, talking to her friends, came over and said, Hi, and she talked to me for about a minute or two. I thought that was nice of her to do that because I did not know anybody. I think during the conversation she encouraged me to get up and walk around, so I did. I went up top and saw Jimmy, Yavonne, and friends or co-workers, looking out over the lake. I went back to my seat and sat their the whole time. After the trip was over, the next working day, I found out that their was a $500 deposit on the Yacht and that someone, Teresa, got sick and made a mess on the bottom floor. I did not know what Teresa looked like at the time. So if she walked by me I would not have known that was her.

One day, about summer time, I over heard Lisa talking about playing softball and she was on a team. So I asked if I could come out and watch. She said, sure. Told me where it was. This was after work that she did this. So I went and watched her play. I had nothing to do and thought this might be interesting. After the game was over I remember saying something and her remark was not a good one. She was not mad at me. It was because she was not happy the way she played or the way her team mates played. I think the baseball field she played at was in Issaquah, WA.

One day, I asked Yavonne if I could photograph her. This was after I bought a set of professional flash equipment for $500. Before I asked Yavonne to photograph her I photographed people from my apartment building with my new professional flash equipment. I studied photography since my early twenties. She said, Yes. Little did I know that she was going to have a professional make up artist do her makeup and hair. This told me this the next working day I saw her. I was already and a little nervous but Yavonne's positive attitude made me fill comfortable photographing her. Before she came to my place I asked her to look through many Glamour magazines and cut out the poses you want to do. So Yavonne did her home work and we were ready. The photographs I took of Yavonne are on this site. On the day, Yavonne and her sister Teresa came to my place and it was raining a little but Yavonne did not let me down. She showed up and was ready to go. This was the first time seeing Teresa in person. At work I would talk to her on the phone a few times a week about orders. When I first saw Teresa. Wow! What a beautiful woman! Over time, she would brake my heart two times. No joke! I was not her type and she made that clear. I did take a picture of her. Its also on this website. She looked like she also had a makeup artist do her because she looked like it. After Yavonne looked at the photos. She was so, so happy that they turned out so good. I did color and black & white pictures. She said that my pictures were better then what a professional photographer did. All through the day Yavonne would say good things about my photographs. When I was photographing Yavonne. I saw so much beauty in her. Every time she moved I would said, hold it. Always giving her positive feedback. Yavonne was so, so easy to work with. We tried a red filter on top of a small flash I had and it worked great! I like the red filter because she wore a top with red in it.

One day, after work, it was raining and I needed to pickup my truck down the street at the dealership. So I nervously asked Yavonne if she might could drive me to the dealership so I could pickup my truck. I was so surprise when Yavonne came back with an answer without skipping a beat and said, sure I'll take you! I never asked anyone for anything. I just went to work and went home.

One day, their was a cute female employee filling in for someone at the photo lab for a day or two. A few days later while coming to work I saw Lisa and Yavonne in tears. I said nothing and kept walking to the back of the store where I worked because I thought this was a family problem. As the day went by, I don't remember if Lisa or Yavonne told me but that girl I saw was stabbed to death with scissors. Someone thought it was because of a ring she was wearing. I never found out what happened.

Even today, Lisa and Yavonne are still close as ever. They both live in Arizona, near the same city. While Teresa and Jimmy also live in Washington, near the same city.

I see Randy is now a photographer. I think he should setup a dark room and add a color head enlarger and try to print his own pictures with color negatives. A good website is B & H Photo. I think he might get more enjoyment out of it being a photographer. I know because I had my own small color head enlarger. I developed black and white film and made prints from them. Then I bought a motorized print drum for printing color prints so I could make my own color prints. Its harder to make your own color prints from color negatives and it will be a challenge. If Randy tries making color prints Lisa can help him color correct the prints. This will be a team effort! Have fun Randy!

Here's one I found on B&H Photo: Jobo CPP-3 Film and Print Processor Kit with Lift at $3,990.00
Mine was smaller and different. Cost me about $200 back in the 1980's. 

• Maybe Randy could try taking night photos:

1. Like Sunsets with a person in the foreground minutes before the sunsets. I did this.
2. Take a picture of the pool or in front of your home. 
3. Take street lights with cars going through the lights and having all colors of the street lit up without over exposing the whole picture. I did this.
4. Take a picture of car with the background in lights. Like a city background. And use a zoom lens for an effect like the one I did when I photographed my trunk with Seattle in the background. 
5. Take pictures of a business just before sunset with their lights on.
6. Try different things, like take a long exposure of the pool, then put a cap on the lens while the shutter is still open, turn off all the lights, rotate the camera to the side, take the cap off the lens and have someone use a flash on a person, then shut the shutter. If you do this right you should end up with a ghost like image over the pool.