It’s not unlikely that these will be the last few people seen in The Basement Gallery. Now that I’m healthy again, no one seems to want to visit me! Okay, I’m kidding about that. More to the point, I need the space where I had the studio set up to use all those fun power tools I’ve got. That kitchen won’t remodel itself, you know.

In this round I got to see a few people I hadn’t seen in quite some time! Caroline Couig, with whom I worked down in sunny Florida, moved up to the DC area about a year ago and I’ve had the chance to catch up a bit with her on her visit. We lamented the death of some of the old familiar news services we used to know, and made fun of each other as much as possible. Fortunately, I get to edit these photos. Another colleague who came by for an all-too-brief visit was Nanine Hartzenbusch, in the hectic days before she moved down to the Carolinas.

One of the first weddings I shot a few years back was that of Jill Feinberg and David Fishkin. We’ve actually managed to remain quite good friends after the whole “vendor-client” relationship was wrapped up. I got to go to Jill’s sister’s wedding in Massachusetts, and I still get a card from her parents once in a while. Now they have two adorable daughters—Stephanie and Rebecca—and in one of those rare incidents where all the stars line up, Rebecca took her first steps while I was taking pictures of everyone in the basement. Note the expression of shock and awe on Jill’s face!

Another couple whose wedding I attended and who are now good friends was Chris and Allison Bucchere, who are enjoying parenthood these days as well. Their daughter Madeleine, who had her own logo before she was born, brightened up the house with her folks in the spring.

The most rambunctious group we had here, and the most fun, was the Bugnaski tribe. Mark is a very dear friend of mine from our days at The Sun and he and his wife Sabine are raising a whole bunch of lovely children out in Michigan. They brought just three of them along as they made a grand tour of the east, so I got to meet Maileen, and the twins Zoe and Eva. Not only did we run around the house playing for the day-and-a-half they were visiting but we also spent more time shooting pictures of them than I probably ever had with anybody. When they finally drove away, Edna and I BOTH had to take a nap!

Wrapping this all up is a photo of Edna and me that we took one evening during one of our goofy moods. Over the winter I got a nice toasty set of footy pajamas (old-timers call this a union suit) from Andy and Jennifer Pergam, whom I’d come to know the year before. This turns out to have been a mighty special gift to me, and during the chilly months I got a lot of wearing in it. It takes a bit of practice to work that flap! But with Edna’s help here I got it right.

Maybe, if the mood strikes, I’ll reopen the basement to photography sometime down the road. Doing this work, which was quite different from about anything I’d done before, was a very enjoyable experience for me and in fact didn’t seem like work at all. To all of my “victims,” I’m very grateful not only that you let me use and exploit you but also that you took the time and effort to come see cancer boy. In no small part do I owe my recovery to each of you, so, thanks.