In 1923, George Mallory, the British mountaineer, said this in response to a reporter asking him why he wanted to climb Mount Everest.  That’s about the best answer I can ever come up with when anyone asks me why I’m a photographer. Being ‘there’ is what’s most important to me.

Photography can be an intensely technical endeavor. Everything from the equipment, to making a photograph,  to processing a print can leave one feeling like they need a degree from M.I.T. just to say they understand it!

But photography is so much more than that. For me, it’s about being ‘there’. It’s becoming so connected with a subject that it becomes a part of me. That connection gives me an understanding of what I’m photographing, and that understanding gives me the patience to take all the time necessary to photograph it.

Being ‘there’ means that I don’t fret so much when waking up at oh-dark-thirty to meet the sunrise, or staying long after everyone else has gone to catch the magic of twilight. A lot of the work that goes into a photograph can be daunting, but when the subject is a part of you, it just doesn’t matter.

Whatever it is that you do….be ‘there’ while doing it.