Luck

Some of the best images in my collection — and I am betting this is true of every photographer — are due to sheer luck. Not to say that we don’t plan — plan for bad weather (not a joke), good sunrises or sunsets, difficult locations, appropriate seasons, and the like — but sometimes its surprise that gets captured best.

Proof point — the panoramic image above, of the city of Florence taken from Piazzale Michelangelo, was completely a matter of luck. Having done zero prep for where to shoot Florence from, I was rushing down Viale Galileo towards the parking structure across the Arno, just so that I can rush to one of the bridges (Ponte Alle Grazie) to shoot the famous Ponte Vecchio in the luscious Blue Hour, when we chanced upon this parking lot which was more crowded than Times Square on NYE.

Curious to take a look, we spent the next 20–25 minutes finding parking, against every logical rationale to rush towards Vecchio, and pushed our way towards the front, camera in hand. With the sun almost kissing the Apennine mountains goodbye in the distance and the fog rolling in, we were rewarded with the most breathtaking panorama of the romantic city you could ever witness.