Summer’s over. It’s gone. The cool air and winds have arrived, and to celebrate they dumped half a maple tree onto my deck and shed in the backyard. It was my neighbor’s tree, and when he asked what the heck I was making jokes about, I replied, “Well, it missed the house and no one was hurt. And besides, my wife’s wanted a patio where that deck is for years.” There’s a bright side to everything, and that’s carried into every stumble and tough assignment we’ve taken on in the past several weeks. It’s been really, really busy, and  we’re hoping that attitude has shined through for clients regardless of the rainstorms on our sets, malfunctioning autofocus, and everything else that’s tried to dog us lately. Still chuckling about Casey almost being blown away while attempting to keep a 5′ octobox up in a field for one shoot! At 100lbs soaking wet, we’ll need to get her her own sandbag when the winds top 25 mph.

We had an amazing time meeting and photographing the legendary Norman Lear, an icon in the television production world. I mentioned that Sanford and Son may have been my favorite of his, but just stating that I saw the show, albeit on reruns, dates me – so maybe I shouldn’t mention that at all. Great guy and full of sprightly  vigor, his new memoirs just hit the book shelves.

We also returned to the offices of CitiBank in Long Island City for more executive head shots, and by this time we have the procedure down pretty well when it comes to getting through security – the trick is to pack gear bags compact enough to go through the x-ray conveyor.

I never really wear sneakers to assignments – they would be out of place at most of our gigs. But when Long Island University’s Post campus called for marketing coverage of their Homecoming celebration, I slipped on the ‘ol comfy Merrell’s for a day in the field. At least until the dinner event later. You know what? Football players are fast.