When I travel, I operate on the 'what if' principle. In other words, I will look at a scene or a background and think, "What if the perfect subject just happened to be there?" I try to imagine the best case scenario, and then I do my best to make it happen. When I was in Burma, for example, my photo tour group and I photographed these incredible banyan trees. They were beautiful without any further embellishment, but I thought how perfect it would be if a monk happened to be walking under one of the huge branches, or if a horse cart came by at the perfect moment. Through my local guide, I made that happen and this is the result. I learned a long time ago that conceiving the best possible imagery is the first step. The second step is follow up. You have to figure out how to make something happen. In foreign countries, arranging things can often be accomplished by your local guide, a taxi driver, the hotel concierge, or a local photographer. In Spain many years ago, I arranged to have lights turned on an old fortress by speaking with the local police. I shot this with a 24-105mm lens, and the settings were 1/250, f/8, 1000 ISO.
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