(Originally published in 2012, this piece shows Art's wonderful mind and work and simultaniously illistrates how far our digital photography has come) - Ed.

People may imagine great photographs are composed in a flash of inspiration, arriving in the world fully formed. While that can happen, most of the time we fumble toward a great shot, refining the composition with each exposure. This was certainly the case with my image, The Night Fishermen.

Pic 1 The Night Fishermen

For centuries fishermen on the Li River of Southern China have partnered with cormorants to catch fish. Each fisherman has a complement of half a dozen or so trained birds. The light of a lantern attracts the fish, and the cormorants return to the boat, fish in beak. They can’t swallow them because the fisherman fix a band around their necks, but they eventually get their share.

In the first image, I grabbed this shot of two fishermen approaching the shore. While the fishermen are working, they see enough touri...