Chapter 5. The Photographic Image

I BEGAN THIS BOOK with a discussion about the photographic ideaseeing creatively and visualizing the end result. Chapter 1, "The Photographic Idea," is one of the most important chapters in this book, because if you don't have an idea of what you want to record with your camera, then you're clueless about the story the photograph should tell or the emotion it creates for the viewer.

Sure, you can take fun shots and play around with them in Photoshop to your heart's content. I do it all the time. It's OK to have fun! But I take my photography very seriously. I consider myself a photographer first and foremost, striving to get the best possible in-camera image. Therefore, I thought a logical final chapter for this book would be about the imagehow I get my imageswhat I'm thinking and feeling when I look through my camera's viewfinder.

To illustrate this chapter, I'll share with you some photographs I took on a 2006 trip to "The Land of the Thunder Dragon," more commonly known as Bhutan, a remote Himalayan Kingdom that sits on the right shoulder of India.

LET'S ENCOUNTER THE DRAGON.