Vermont is one of the most beautiful places in the world, and I have always found the sunsets there to be magical. On this summer trip in 2013, I was out and about scouting for a photo during the sunset hours – trying to find that miraculous combination of subject and background. I took several in different spots around this area northeast of Stowe, and it wasn’t until I stumbled across this farm equipment that I finally found my photo.

Whenever I travel to California for work, I usually leave my camera behind. My work trips are always packed, and I know I just won’t have much time to take photos. I feel bad about this, so on one of my recent trips I made it a point to take my camera and put photo time on my trip schedule. I picked an evening when I knew I would be near the Stevens Creek area, and after my meetings I set out to capture some photos. At least, that’s what I intended.

I originally took and posted this photo in 2009 before I started geotagging my photos, so I’m not completely certain where we were when I captured this. However, I know we were somewhere on Iceland’s extraordinary Snaefellsnes Peninsula on the west coast. Iceland is such an incredible place to visit, and at this time of year we were able to experience these incredibly long and spectacular golden hour sunsets that lit up the world and made everything look fantastic.

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.

Right after I wrapped up taking my photo of The Barn at Mountain Valley Farm, the owner suggested I check out the view from his apple orchard up the hill behind the barn. The light was fading quickly, and by the time I made it up the hill, the scenery was lit only by an orangey glow from the setting sun behind the Green Mountains. In my mind, I knew I wanted to compose the barn and mountains against that orangey sky. The question was how exactly to do that?