Do you remember the first time you knew you were a Ring Nut? I do. My first Ring was in spring 2009: the dress rehearsals for the final performances of the Romantic Otto Schenk production of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen—the raison d’être for my book, Wagner’s Eternal Ring.

I took nearly 10,000 photographs sitting on the wooden armrest of Row 16’s center seat, using the uncommon but fluid monopod, which gave me the exact eye line I wanted, and allowed me the freedom to draw closer to the emotional reality of the drama—in effect, to enter Wagner’s world.