Most people I know think I have one of the best jobs in the world—and honestly, they’re not wrong. Low stress, a bit of travel, beautiful scenery, great weather (usually), and the chance to work with friendly people on some of the best golf courses anywhere. It really is a fantastic way to make a living as a creative.

That said, anyone who works outdoors knows: the weather doesn’t always cooperate. Sometimes Mother Nature has her own ideas about when the skies should open up or cloud over. Tournaments get postponed, routine maintenance gets disrupted, and now and then, I show up with a camera to find a golf course looking more like a pond. That was exactly the situation last week when I arrived in Fairview, Texas, to photograph Heritage Ranch Golf and Country Club. The GM greeted me with a heads-up: the front nine was closed due to flooding just a few days earlier, and a lot of water still hadn’t gone where it was supposed to.

A challenge for sure—but that’s part of the gig. My job is to tell the story of a golf course—even if I don’t have access to every square foot of turf. When a GM or Director of Golf looks at a hole, they see design and strategy. When a superintendent surveys the course, they see conditioning, recovery work, and mowing patterns interrupted by standing water. I see those things too—but through the lens of a camera, I’m looking for a compelling, authentic image. I might clean up a bunker or smooth out a green, but I won’t stage something that doesn’t represent the course honestly. I aim to show it at its best—whatever conditions we’re working with.

Monty Ashworth, the superintendent, gave me a tour of the course and showed me how to navigate the more waterlogged areas of the front nine. I then spent the afternoon shooting reference images and exploring angles that could still showcase the course’s strengths. Skipping the front nine? Never crossed my mind. My focus was simply on finding photographs that told the story of Heritage Ranch... authentically.