There’s a radio tower on the top of the hill above Trinidad, Cuba. My reward for hiking up it was a commanding, 360-degree view of the countryside. My punishment was the unnecessary verbal tour (and subsequent petitioning for a tip) from the tower’s caretaker.

I quickly learned that all that can be avoided if I stopped short of the radio tower. On the right, a little more than half way up the hill, is a set of ruins, slowly being overtaken by the brush. In the week I spent in Trinidad in early 2000, I probably spent four evenings at those ruins, watching the sun dip down into the Caribbean – each one spectacularly different.

Of the photos I took, this was my favorite. Taken with a long lens, I focused on the plant in front of me instead of the clouds and ocean in the distance. I like the colors and the composition, and I love how the simple inclusion of a foreground subject transforms this into something more than a common sunset photo.

I returned to Trinidad at the end of 2003 and was saddened to discover that the dense, thorny foliage has almost reclaimed the ruins and because most of the bushes are quite a bit taller than my 6’ frame, I was unable to find a place where I could duplicate this shot.