Tough women don’t need guns

Step aside Sarah Palin.  Toting a machine-gun, hunting down wolves and bears in the Alaskan wild doesn’t make a woman tough.  (Especially not if she’s shooting from the air.)  How about this for tough?  Being surrounded by cranes, tractors, all sorts of heavy machinery, building materials, debris, and endless vehicles passing within feet of you at high-speed.  Women highway construction workers are found everywhere in our country, even in the “elite” Northeast.  So?  What’s your definition of tough?  Shooting wildlife from an airplane for sport?  Or, putting yourself in harm’s way building and rebuilding our nation’s roads?

A New York woman on the job, rebuilding our roads

Machinery designed to build, not kill

Highway construction worker keeping things safe

Portraiture

In a portrait you can see a whole world.  Every person is an amazing story.  After the lighting, composition, and all the technical details are in place, the photographer only then begins creating the portrait.  When the right note is struck and the ambience enjoins subject and photographer, the subject will emerge.  And the portrait is made.

Marjorie Borgia in her home posing in front of an oil painting of her by her late husband Cesare Borgia. Margie has enjoyed a long and successful career as a professional cellist. As an 80-something senior, she still plays the cello regularly and is a member of the Yonkers Philharmonic.

Marjorie Borgia, then and now. Music and art transcend time.

Marjorie Borgia, a brilliant and seasoned cellist, performs privately for me. Can I get any luckier?!

Summer, still.

Labor Day 2008 has come and gone.  As always this time of year the buzz is that summer is over.  What?!  Summer is NEVER over until mid-September, so there’s another few weeks.  (September 22 is the official start of autumn this year.)  This is late summer, arguably one of the most beautiful times of the year.  So, the beach, yes, the pool, definitely, bbq, of course…be outdoors and enjoy every remaining moment of summertime.  Once it’s really over, then it’s a long, impatient (for me) wait until the glorious warm weather returns.

Lazing by the pool at Fire Island