To me, the most amazing sight offered at the Abbey of Melk is this spiral staircase that connects its library to its church. Awestruck, I stood at the bottom, looked up at the golden spiral exploding in a burst of painted illusions, and created one of my favorite travel images. The subject itself is very disorienting, and I wanted viewers to feel its dizzying pull. However, I also wanted to make sure that the picture was organized simply and cleanly. To do this, I start the spiral on its merry way by placing it in the lower left hand corner of the frame, and letting it explode diagonally upwards and to the right, until it comes to rest under a decorative orange dome just to the right of center. Most of my pictures have a focal point, a place for the eye to go. In this shot, it's that orange dome, which also makes the point of the picture. The orange dome is much smaller than the flights of stairs that lead to it, and its relatively small size shows us how large this staircase is -- a remarkable feat of engineering for its time.