Why I Rise Early

I have been awake before sunrise on roughly nine thousand mornings — not because I am virtuous, and not because I sleep poorly, but because the half hour before the world begins is the half hour in which the world is most willing to be looked at. Every one of those nine thousand mornings has paid back something I would have lost in bed.

The early hours are quieter than they have any right to be. The air has not yet been stirred by traffic, the river has the night's cold still in it, and most of what you will photograph is also up early, having reasons of its own. The light, when it arrives, arrives the way light is supposed to: slowly, and from below.

I do not recommend the practice to everyone. I recommend it to anyone who has ever wondered why their photographs feel like everyone else's. They do not feel like everyone else's because, between the hours of nine and four, the world is being seen by everyone. A landscape photographer's only real luxury is being there when no one else is.