Our subject pilots a passenger ferry many times daily across the Nile in Upper Egypt. I am standing with camera and longish lens on a raised platform making up the second-tier of his boat.

Later on the observation deck — seated alone — I wonder about the gesture and open look bestowed on me by our skipper in that exceptional fragment of time. What sign is he making with his hands and why? He might seek camaraderie — I am practicing my skill and he is about to employ his own specialty of grasping a steering wheel and navigating with it. Study his eyes and you must conclude as I do that he loves his job. It still excites him. We could be seeing simple expressions of joy from a person in the midst of a satisfying livelihood. He is messaging personal pride. In that respect the hand-motions might point both inwardly and outwardly: forward and beyond toward the imminent river-crossing, and at the same time symbolizing his inner life — his image of himself, riverboat captain and proud of it, with a long history on the water.