I have learned alot from my mother,  not the least on which is my sense of humor. Unfortunately, I also learned the snobbish attitude that my opinion being the only right opinion. One of her favorite expressions was a variation on the heading which – roughly – means There is no accounting for taste. Almost always, with my Mother, it meant My taste is right and yours is wrong but I will not argue about it.

I thought I had moved past that attitude. OK, not much, but a little. I once took a photography class – actually a spectacular trip down the Grand Canyon, actually, two spectacular trips down the Grand Canyon – with Dewitt Jones. At the end of each class – trip – we played show and tell while Dewitt critiqued. Every once in a while, Dewitt would ask what the photographer was trying to show and make a suggestion or two, but – usually – the critique would go What a great picture or What a great solution and then another – totally different –  picture would be shown by the next guy and Dewitt would say Another great solution.

It was the photographic parallel to really listening to somebody and being open to their point of view. I was very impressed.

A couple of days ago, I saw an ad for the new HBO series Game of Thrones and I thought it sounded very interesting. Then I saw the first 15 minutes as a promo piece on HBO and was pretty sure I would not like it. Then I read a question answer piece with the director Tom McCarthy in which they asked him what he thought the best science fiction / fantasy movies were. He named ten movies and put Aliens by James Cameron higher than Alien by Ridley Scott. All my snobbery came up. What – impossible! Now I know I won’t like Game of Thrones.

no, not from me, from a French aerial photographer, Yann Arthus Bertrand.

I think the shoots are just knockout and, as a bonus, a nice shoot of Syria showing lots of satellite dishes. No wonder the Syrians are trying to revolt; they can see the world they are not part of.

These shots were taken from Buzz Feed which has a larger sample or you can go to his? website.

March is Women’s History Month and, in that spirit, for the last two years, a friend – Kathy Dieden –  has organized a lunch to honor women veterans. As an aside, it is also nice that this month – for the first time – two women are the top commanders in a military operation. End aside. Meanwhile, at The First Methodist Church in Alameda,  the honorees ranged in age from the oldest  who served during WWII to women who are still in the service. I was there to take photographs. Partially as a favor and partially because I am interested – maybe obsessively at times – at how our society is changing from a primarily white male society to a multi ethnic male/female – polyglot – society and because I enjoy taking simple portraits.

I was fascinated, especially, by the older women, a couple of who were wearing white gloves, from World War II.  They seemed so staid and formal. So old fashioned. It is nice to to remember that – in a formerlife – some of them had ferried war planes across the Atlantic to England and were were anything but staid.

The main speaker for the day was Vice Admiral is Jody A. Breckenridge and the guest of honor was former Petty Officer 2nd Class Kristin Lunkley. Admiral Breckenridge was the first woman to command the Coast Guard Pacific Area and Petty Officer Lunkley – who saved a man, trapped under a boat,  in our own San Francisco Bay in 2008 – was just awarded the Coast Guard Medal for heroism. According to the Coast Guard, To justify this decoration, the individual must have performed a voluntary act of heroism in the face of great personal danger of such a magnitude that it stands out distinctly above normal expectations.

After the ceremony, everybody retired for lunch and I got a chance to shoot some portraits.

Including Petty Officer Lunkley was also anything but staid and also had a very nice tattoo.