Rocco Galatioto, nice photos and good food

All things said, the Empire State Building still remains the symbol of the Big Apple. I believe it's followed in second place by the Statue of Liberty. It's a great piece of building architecture that never seems to get dated.

This old fisherman was my next door neighbor in Sicily who sadly passed away a few years ago. Here he was cleaning some shell fish that he had caught in the morning. Not a very talkative man but he the ethos of the hard working, old time fisherman that you could see from his eyes.

This superb image was made by mt daughter Jen who is an accomplished photographer working as a professional photographer in Oregon. I'm extremely proud of her and hope that I had some influence in her development.

Horace Hagedorn was a very kind and gentle man. He started the Miracle Grow company that he eventually sold to Scott's. What made him so special was his philanthropy. This photo, one of my first digital images shot with a Nikon Coolpix 900, was made at the opening day of the Hagedorn Family Resource center. It shows the daycare area. This was an old school that was renovated and converted to a multi service center that he donated to Family an Children's Association of Long Island, my client. I just love this image that was totally candid and not posed.

What can I say, I really do not like winter but some nice images are always possible

Castellammare del Golfo has become super touristy. These images from the summer of 1990 show a kind of transition to the modern era. The marina was a working marina ittica meaning there still were  respectable of fishing boats still operating. It has now become a marina turistica , meaning that a very large number of pleasure boats are docked in a huge number of floating piers plus a plethora of restaurants, bars, hotels and game parlors has sprung up like mushrooms. Sadly the number of fishing boats has dwindled to a precious few. Progress can be very irksome because in my humble opinion, this marina no longer has a sense of being. For example where there were boats moored, there are now large chairs for the costumers of the caffè and ristoranti. It's a opinion that when I put forward is usually received with hostility. You see every one is betting on tourism as the cash cow of the future.