Exploring the World with a Smile

I received an email from someone who I hadn't heard from in about a year and a half. I recognized the name immediately and figured it had to either be spam or ... well, it had to be spam. 


The email is one of those all-too-frequent "Hey everyone, I've been hacked so please disregard previous emails." 


No big deal. Some people aren't in the habit of cleaning out their address books. I am an advocate of keeping mine up-to-date but that's neither here no there. I really didn't mind the fact that he had me listed in his email but what I do mind - strongly mind - is sloppy use of "TO" when it should be "BCC." 


TO vs BCC
I don't need to see the hundreds of other people listed in someones address book. I also don't need anyone seeing my email address. 


For any mass distribution via email, use BCC. In fact, if you know your friends or acquantainces don't honor pressing "reply" instead of "reply all" then you should a…

Janine di Giovanni ... my oh my, she's one hell of a woman. Her decision to leave and then return to war reminds me of Peggy Orenstein's book:  Flux. 

In Love and War: Four Questions for Reporter and Writer Janine di Giovanni 
by Antonina Jedrzejczak


“War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading,” was Thomas Hardy’s argument in the early 1900s, but perhaps he would have been inclined to change his mind had he read Janine di Giovanni’s searching memoir,Ghosts by Daylight, out in September from Alfred A. Knopf and excerpted in theAugust issue of Vogue. Di Giovanni met her war-photographer husband, Bruno Girodon, in 1993 while they were both reporting on the siege of Sarajevo. After a tumultuous near-decade-long courtship, the couple married and settled in Paris in anticipation of the birth of their first child. But away from the steady soundtrack of constant battle, they were forced to renegotiate a relationship suddenly locked into the routines of regular life. While…

Photographing homes well is essential to attracting future buyers. We are an internet-based world so that has to become a primary consideration when marketing a home for sale. No matter if it is a real estate agency or a for sale by owner, professional photography helps market a home.

The real estate market in South Florida hasn't recovered from the recession but that doesn't mean homes should sit on the market for a year or longer. If clothes fly off the racks when they are 50% off, don't you think homes should as well? Especially when they are located in beautiful, serene South Florida? In fact, some homes in Palm Beach County cost less than a new car because of the drop in prices. Real estate investors are always interested in homes and, with so many people losing their homes, renting has gone up. Buying up any cheap property in Florida can yield an incredibly lucrative return.

The market will recover eventually and all the people who invested in a home now are going t…

I'm speechless.
I'm not used to being in this position. I'm the person who always has a quick-witted reaction to just about anything. Yet, suddenly I find myself ... missing words ... and saying ... ummmmm, really and wow ... all too often.
Why all the stumbling and mental ... ummm ... blanks? Because I am dumbfounded by the outpour of support for my wonderful friend who was injured in Afghanistan.
To be honest, the speechlessness first begun when I got a phone call from the Big Guy - that's my friend's name because he's 15 inches taller than me. I hadn't heard from him in months. I figured he just fell off the Earth. I hadn't realized that the world he fell into was pretty dark.
Months ago, something happened while he was on a foot patrol in Afghanistan's Helmand province. A 24-year-old Marine was killed and my friend was medically evacuated. It was one month after the attack that I mentioned to my boyfriend, "I think something happened to m…

Where are the voices of our combat-injured veterans?Who hears their stories? 



It's only on occasion that American service members' stories break into mainstream media. Otherwise, they are randomly posted on websites and often overlooked. There is a disconnect between those directly affected by war and those who have no personal ties to service members or the sacrifices they make. I want to bridge that gap.

I recently found out that a friend of mine, a fellow military photojournalist, was seriously injured in Afghanistan. This has compelled me to think beyond my immediate capabilities and delve into a rather costly  but worthwhile undertaking. I am going to travel to his naval hospital to document his recovery and share his story.
Combat-injured veterans have remarkable stories to share. As a freelance photojournalist and OIF veteran, my love for fellow veterans runs deep, however, my pockets do not.

I have put together a donations page through PayPal so fellow patriots, famili…