Not long ago, the Wall Street Journal published  an appreciation of Izaak Walton’s classic work on fishing, The Compleat Angler, on the 360th anniversary of its publication.  Walton, a retired ironmonger, was a pious soul who offered practical tips on fishing while extolling its spiritual benefits, principally as an aid to cultivating quietness.  The book's final words, borrowed from St. Paul, were: “Study to be quiet.”  I am not an angler and cannot attest to fishing's efficacy as an aid to contemplation.  But as a landscape photographer, I have had many an occasion to put on my Wellington boots and to go tramping in the woods and along streams at first light with my camera and tripod.  The qualities that Walton demands of a fisherman would apply also to my calling: “He that hopes to be a good angler must not only bring an inquiring, searching, observing wit; but he must bring a large measure of hope and patience, and a love and propensity to the art itself…”  More