Rainstorms can change a scene quickly – from dramatic, to light, to cloudy again in an instant. The weather in Vermont had been incredibly rainy on our trip, and I had already been fortunate to capture a wonderful photo of Kenyon’s Barn about 20 minutes prior during a brief moment when the sunset could peak through and create some color. After the sunset, the remaining clouds became darker and more ominous, while fog begin to rise from the wet ground. Enough light remained that I could still find some pictures, and I settled on this wonderful barn that I had passed by many times but never photographed.

When I think about my many photos of Vermont, this one has long been one of my favorites. And like so many of my photos, this one has a story about combining timing, location knowledge, and weather. They all aligned to let me take this photo, and any one of them could have ruined it otherwise. Thankfully, the end result is a nearly perfect capture of Vermont as a place and a feeling. 

I took this photo on the same early morning in Zürich that I took my Boats in the Fog photo. My original vision for this morning had been to capture the extraordinary Grossmünster church at sunrise, but the weather in Zürich turned out to be rainy and foggy the entire week I visited. Thankfully, the rain let up one morning and gave me an opportunity to explore the city and take photos.

Weather can have a profound impact on photos, and bad weather can sometimes be good weather for a photo. However, when dealing with bad weather, improvisation is a critical skill. This turned out to be crucial on a trip to Dartmoor in the southwest of the UK, where overnight storms made the morning dreary, foggy, and gray. I wanted to photograph an ancient 13th century bridge in the hamlet of Postbridge, contrasting it with the fog and rain, but finding a good angle that worked in the conditions turned out to be difficult. Fortunately, a solution happened to be right behind me.

Waking up early can be a great way to find photos, and on this trip to Zürich I was lucky to find this early morning scene of boats in the fog. I was moving quickly looking for subjects, and I ended up shooting this entirely handheld without setting a tripod. The resulting photo worked well, although at ISO 6400 it is a bit noisy.