My approach to photography is to seek out special moments and bring back what I experienced in the form of a photographic print. Sometimes the image represents long planning to be in the right place at the right time. Often, the right time occurs around dawn or dusk, a time that some photographers call the "magic hour," when the sun is close to edge of the horizon and the warm light of the sun mingles with the cool darkness of the night. And the best part is that no magic hour is like another.

 

Being in the right place depends on the imagination of the photographer as well as some dedicated preparatory work. Anticipating a combination of light, place, and natural events can produce memorable images, such as knowing the exact time a lunar eclipse will cross the tip of the Washington Monument or being aware of the few days in April that an ordinary tract of woods in Virginia will be transformed into a blue and white carpet of wildflowers.

 

Luck also plays a role.  Once, as I was photographing an extraordinary sunset from a high bluff over the Pacific, a backpacker suddenly stood up on a promontory about 200 yards away. Silhouetted perfectly against the purple ocean, he paused just long enough for me to take a single shot and then he disappeared. The result was the best image of that evening and one of my all-time favorites.