Winter in the Eifel

(Don Dale 1967 photo)

I always thought this shot would make a nice calendar picture. You could put the month and dates in the lower right-hand corner and label it February.

This was taken on the road to the castle at Vianden in Luxembourg. We were still in Germany, but we were near the border. I saw the stream and the copse of trees, turned the VW around and went back to see if it was really as picturesque as it had looked at 80 kilometers an hour. I decided it did, and I'm glad I took the picture because of the memories it evokes today of the beauty of a stark winter in the Eifel Mountains.

I'm not claiming that this image is art-gallery quality -- far from it. But I think two of the secrets of taking good pictures are taking your camera with you and editing severely. You can't take a good picture unless you do drag that camera around, and if you show other people more than about 20 percent of your pictures you're including too many losers.