There are pictures and there are Pictures.  Lansing photographer Danielle Cook Gerritsen takes Pictures.  Blending art, action, emotion, composition, and storytelling, Gerritsen 's pictures always tell a story about the people they portray.  This brings them to life in a way that most pictures can't approach.  "I l like looking at a photo and being able to see a story, a picture in your mind," she says.  "That's really helped me to be able to capture relationships and emotion in other people."


Gerritsen specializes in weddings and events, commercial and portrait photography.  Based in Lansing, she has worked as far afield as New York, East Aurora, Saratoga Springs, and Scranton.  While she does a lot of wedding photography, she also works with businesses.  Locally she works with such businesses as Sincredible Pasteries, the John Joseph Inn and Elizabeth Restaurant, the Blossom Beauty Spa, and Michaleen's Florist, and has photographed many fashion shows.

The Grey Barn on Peruville Road in Lansing was an antiques store for so long that people still wander in to shop.  But the building is anything but an antiques shop today.  Now it is a fully equipped home for people who need one for just a few days.  All you need to bring is groceries and clothes -- everything else is there.

"It is for cyclists, for people visiting friends and families, for families of people coming into hospice, for people coming to the hospital to visit family, for any kind of idea," says owner and proprietor Sarah Thomson.  "I'd like to have a yoga retreat or a business retreat.  I'd like to have meetings here.  If somebody can think of something, this might be a good place to do it."

As you talk to David Penepent he repeatedly emphasizes his mission statement: 'Nothing but the best care and compassion for the living and the dead.'   "When we get a call -- even if it's an institution and we could wait until morning -- we immediately go out," he says.  "We don't hesitate.  We provide immediate response to care and compassion from the very beginning from the very first phone call and long after the bill is paid we still extend that care and compassion to the living and to the dead.  We show respect at all times."

Penepent is the Funeral Director at Herson Funeral Home.  Founded by Matthew J. Herson in 1935, the mansion is located in the center of Ithaca on Geneva Street, back to back with Matthew's parents' Albany Street home where he began practicing the funeral business.  Because most funerals were conducted at the deceased's home, the building was used primarily to conduct business and provide indigent services.  But as times changed so did the business, and Herson added a wing to conduct funeral services in 1955.

Homespun BoutiqueThe Homespun Boutique has been a part of the Ithaca landscape for 32 years.  In fact this week the fibers and fabrics shop is celebrating it's birthday.  Located just east of the Ithaca Commons, it is packed with fabrics, yarns and supplies for sewing and knitting.  It has a cluttered, homey feel, welcoming and warm.

"My favorite part is watching people bring in all kinds of miracles that they've been working on," says owner Julie Schroeder.  "They'll get a little piece of fabric and spend hours, weeks, half a lifetime working on a treasure of a project.  Beautiful quilts, sweaters, clothing."  She also enjoys keeping up with textile trends and new fabrics.  "Right now there's a lot of research going into fibers from unusual sources like corn and soy," she says.  She has bamboo yarn on the shelf that is quite soft and vibrant.

Just about everyone who passes the big brick house on Peruville and Van Ostrand Roads has wondered what it would be like to live there.  The house has been a part of Lansing history since the late 19th century.  Today owners Jase Baese and Emily Franco want to satisfy that curiosity for people who want a unique vacation experience.  They are making their home available as a vacation rental.  Groups and families can rent the main part of the house for a week.

"A few years ago we had a vacation experience where we stayed in a vacation rental," Baese  says.  "We had never done that before.  It was a lot of fun.  We went with my parents and our daughter.  It's so nice to travel that way.  We hope people will come here and experience what we did."

Some large corporations descend into communities to draw out as much income as possible.  Others invest in the community, helping it to grow in positive ways and becoming part of the community itself.  That is what Vice President & Business Specialist Ronald Poole says HSBC does in a quiet and effective way.  "We strive to not only be a strong, profitable enterprise, but also to be socially responsible," he says.  "One of the ways that we are very proud of that is with our green initiatives."

This philosophy funnels down from a world-wide corporate policy to the individual employees in each of the company's 10,000 branch offices in 83 countries.  And those employees then influence the people they come into contact with.  "It's changed the way that I do things in terms of light bulbs, paperless accounts, reusable bags when I shop, trying to walk," Poole says.  "So HSBC has profoundly affected my personal life, and we all take that same view.  I'm proud to work for HSBC."

For many years hydroponics was something that was done in high technology settings.  Over the years people have learned how easy it can be to grow plants in water in their homes.  In Ithaca, equipment as well as expert growing advice can be found at Hydroponic Shops of America.  Partner Jon Finlay shares his passions there for hydroponic growing as well a brewing beer at the Willow Street store.

"You can grow anything hydroponically," Finlay says.  "You can grow heirloom tomatoes that will taste wonderful if they're picked fresh.  If you grow local and sell local you're picking things when they're ripe.  Restaurants could be using tomatoes for salads that lunch that were picked at 8 o'clock that morning.  You get the full flavor, with nutrients, nice and fresh."

When Image Masters owner Les Jinks and his new wife Pat first moved to the United States from England years ago he couldn't possibly have envisioned that he would be creating steaming media Web sites.  That is certain, because it would be years before personal computers were introduced, and the Internet wasn't yet on line.  But television was quite popular, and the first step toward his journey to Internet work started there.

Jinks came upon a fatal car accident on Aurora Street he happened to have his movie camera with him.  "I called Channel 12 in Binghamton," he recalls.  "They jumped at it.  I spoke to the news director.  The format was eight millimeter, so they wouldn't be able to use it.  But he said, 'Would you be interested in working for us on a part time basis?'  I said "sure,' so he gave me a 16 mm camera, loaded me up with black and white film, told me what to look for and to buy myself a police scanner."

Integrated Business VenturesWhen you want to sell your house everybody knows you have to spruce it up, fix those rusty pipes, replace the faded wallpaper, give the kitchen a makover, then put a sign in the yard.  Selling a business is more complex, but the concept is similar.  The business must be prepared for sale to attract the right buyer.  That's where Integrated Business Ventures comes in.

"We help sellers provide succession plans and implement the plans for their businesses," says partner Michael Matteson.  "We typically work with owners of two million to 20 million dollar per year companies. The geography is upstate New York, particularly the Finger Lakes area from Rochester to Syracuse, down to the Southern Tier."

Ed Marion is standing in front of a painting he is working on in the light-filled cavernous white box of an art studio. He's not alone. On the stereo's speakers, Louis Prima is leading a full orchestra and Marion is teaching his art students to paint pineapples.

Yes, pineapples. Students are comparing their work to his and each other and people with no prior art experience can't believe they are making the painting before their eyes. Is this a dream? A short fiction story?  A deleted scene from the film “Big Night?”

How is a REALTOR like Kleenex?  They're both registered trademarks that have entered into the common vernacular.  To be a Kleenex® tissue you have to be made by Kimberly-Clark.  And to be a REALTOR® you have to be a member of the National Association of REALTORS®.  In Tompkins County that means joining the Ithaca Board of REALTORS ®.  Not all licensed real-estate brokers are members, but the benefits are such that most join.

"It is a trade association," explains Executive Officer Rebekah Coleman-Brahler.  "We are affiliated with the national Association of REALTORS and the state Association of REALTORS.  We work to bring back knowledge and information about the industry, business building tools and a lot of other resources for our Realtor members to help them run their businesses as professionally as possible."

Flowers, food, and gifts are a triple whammy, especially in the holiday season when you may not know what to give.  Put it in a basket and you have the perfect gift.  "It's a good gift for the person you can't come up with something for," says Ithaca Flower Shop owner Doug Gumaer.  "Everybody likes food."

Ithaca Flower Shop has been part of the Tompkins County landscape for 32 years.  While flowers remain the staple of the business, Gumaer has been emphasizing the gift side of the business since they bought the shop four years ago.  The front room of the Ithaca Shopping Plaza storefront is cluttered but homey with gifts of all kinds.