The Canal de Bourgogne at dawn is a scene that the 19th century left behind intact: plane trees overhanging the towpath, the water mirror-still before the first péniches begin moving, a mist that sits on the surface and diffuses the light into something without a clear source. An image made before the light has fully arrived requires a different kind of attentiveness — the composition chosen in advance, the exposure bracketed, the patience to wait for the surface to go mirror-still in the way that canal water does only in the first minutes of dawn. The canal has been in continuous use since 1832; the plane trees are older than the canal; the mist arrives every clear morning regardless of the century. This image was made before the first boat had moved.