The narrow streets of the Netherland's largest city are filled with pedestrians -- surging crowds crackling with energy. I wanted to make a picture that would best represent that energy. I put it together as I would a sandwich -- the couple in the left foreground have just come from the nearby Van Gogh Museum and are waiting for a tram that is slowly making its way towards them. The tram appears in the right background -- the curve of its track will carry it right to them. I needed something to happen in the middle zone of my sandwich to provide the "meat" -- something that would capture the eye and make my point about energy. Fortune smiled upon me as a woman pushed a stroller into the space I had reserved just for her, kicking her heel into the air as she sailed through the crowds. The camera stopped this action and recorded what some might call a "decisive moment" -- an instant where everything fell into place to tell a story.

Rush hour in Moscow's Metro is a spectacle of speed. Crowds surge along its platforms as trains roar in and out of its stations. I wanted to express a sense of speed, and did so by once again shooting at 1/30th of a second. Unlike the previous example, where the subject is entirely blurred, in this shot I contrast a blurred train to the stationary passengers waiting for it to come to rest. By contrasting blurred to non-blurred subjects in the same picture, this moment in time provides a bit of incongruity which helps tell the story. Because it is blurred, the train appears to be moving even faster than it is. And because the passengers are sharp, they appear to be all the more patient as they wait for it to stop. I chose this particular group of passengers because of the "x marks the spot" symbol created by the straps on the back of the woman in the middle of this picture. When will this train stop for her? That's the point of this picture.

Moments after I made the previoius image, the Samba band resumed its march up and down the aisles of Montevideo's Old Town Market, a huge shed crowded with large restaurants and bars. The noise was deafening, as hundreds of people clapped and sang in time to the beat of the drums and blare of the brass. I wanted to capture contrasting responses, and at one restaurant I struck gold. The light was low, and so was my shutter speed, down to a slow 1/20th of a second. Without using tripod or flash, I was able to blur the women seated in front, contrasting their spontaneous clapping and singing to the more sedate fellows behind them. The camera's ability to both extend and freeze this moment in time helps me tell my story -- some like to sing and clap, others don't.

A bull elephant, recently imported to Addo from Kruger National Park, claims his spot at a water hole with a gentle shove. When I shoot wildlife, I am interested more in how animals interact with each other and with the landscape than I am in merely describing their appearance. I trust my camera's ability to capture the moment of interaction, even when it takes place at a considerable distance. With telephoto converters and the ability to crop the image as needed, I am able to reach out across both space and time to tell the story I want to tell.

Dancing is all about motion and interaction. Both are expressed in this photograph I made of a performance at an Argentine Gaucho Ranch outside Buenos Aires. I do not use flash in my photography out of courtesy to the performers and because I want my colors to be as natural as possible. I wanted to incorporate the stage lighting into the picture because that, too, was integral to the performance. I selected 1/40th of a second -- a shutter speed slow enough to blur this particular kind of dancing, but fast enough to offer some detail for context. I included the singer at left who was accompanying the dancers, as well as some members of the audience in the background. Above all, I wanted to express the flow of the dance, and the way the dancers worked with each other. I took many photographs of this dance, but this was the moment that said everything I wanted to say about it.