I’m not really a photography expert, but I know what I like, and if you ask me, there’s a lot to love in this shot of Elijah Wood from the September cover of H magazine. Like a great story, it’s got tone, mood, character, texture, lighting. And face it, people, Wood is just plain gorgeous here.

In my past life as a magazine editor, when I assigned a photographer to a story, I told him what it was about and suggested what might work, but, ultimately, I trusted his artist’s eye. Sometimes, I traveled on assignment and had to be both writer and photographer. Each time I clicked the shutter, I prayed that eye would be there for me.

When proof sheets came in, I poured over them, searching for that one shot that supported the story visually and told its own even if you never read a word of the copy.  Sometimes it took a whole roll of film or five or ten to get just the right one. But as they say, film is cheap, but the perfect picture is a pearl beyond price.

I gotta hand it to the photographer here. She’s got the eye. Or he does. Whoever. It’s beautiful.