Rosalind Smith

As a newspaper photographer, you never know when you show up in the morning what you're going to be working on--sometimes it's an environmental portrait, other times a feature, or a documentary image that is posed," San Francisco-based Peter DaSilva says.

"Whatever it is, I need to produce a picture of quality every time I'm sent...

They call him the picture taker, a humble phrase for a man whose every image is a small miracle. His name is Ken Elkins, retired chief photographer for The Anniston Star in rural Alabama. His new book, appropriately titled Picture Taker (published by The University of Alabama Press), transports us from life as we know it to a world most of us will never encounter.

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Imagine living on a beautiful island: Look to your left and see the sun rise in the morning; look to your right and see it set each night.

The secret nuances of color on the horizon where the sky meets the sea and the sea meets the shore have drawn photographer Alison Shaw to Martha's Vineyard off the coast of New England, where she has lived and photographed for...

"The parade was at night. It was a beautiful evening. There were two to three hundred marchers and New Orleans actress Becky Allen became Queen Katrina, the reigning monarch of the Halloween parade this past October.

"New Orleanians have a way of turning tragedy into humor and some people came dressed as refrigerators. I was overcome with the celebration and...