How can you weave a little more magic into your sunset photographs? This photo, taken on the Greek Island of Paros, presented some real opportunities. Instead of standing upright while making the shot, I crouched down low next to the water to create a sense of boating, swimming, or floating. I shifted the horizon to the extreme upper edge of the image and that painted a beautiful, murky-black mystery at the bottom.

Although I kept the mountain peak in the center of the image, adding the mast and thin rope lines at right created a kind of kinship of triangular shapes—one opaque and one transparent. I stayed patient with the light until it hit an eerie, peaceful softness—very much like a watercolor drawing.