Looking at the picture, "I had a visceral reaction," he said, "and I knew it was a turning point in my life. Intellectually, I reasoned that this was artwork of some kind, whether it was by clever humans or something beyond. I didn't know or care, but I really wanted to see it and I felt it was extremely important."

"When I saw the image in the New York Times, I immediately booked a trip to England and left in 30 days later. But when I got there, the circles were gone. They had been harvested. Nevertheless, I got to know the area and I met some people, which set the stage for the journeys to come."

NS: What equipment do you use when you photograph crop circles?

RR: "A Nikon F3 HP Highpoint. It's an absolutely fabulous camera with a 55-135mm Nikkor Zoom, which I hardly ever take off. For film, I use Fujichrome Velvia, which does a very good job with greens. And since I'm flying and taking pictures of fields, hillsides, etc. I want the colors of nature to be a bit posterized and stronger."

NS: Is there any particular time of day that you prefer?

RR: "Yes. During the middle of the day, I visit circle formations and photograph detail on the ground and people. For that, I use a point and shoot Yashica camera with a 28 mm Zeiss lens that I carry in my pocket. And again, I use Fujichrome Velvia. I also visit sacred sites during that time. But when I go to take the shots that I've become known for, I want a stronger angle of light from the sun. So we do the flying shortly after sunrise or just before sunset."

NS: So you're going for the golden light.

RR: "Yes, and the atmosphere. Because the glyph in the field is pressed down, almost like an embossing in reverse, I want to be able to bring out the dimensionality of it by long shadows."

NS: That makes sense. What can you tell me about the types of aircraft you use?

RR: "Our preference is a Cessna 172 that has a window that opens. But not all of them do, so sometimes we're stuck with a lousy plane. A second choice is helicopters. The reason we prefer the Cessna is that it costs 150 pounds for the aircraft and pilot and we get up to 1-1/2 hours of flying in. In contrast, a helicopter costs about 600 pounds/hour and they're military about exact minutes. When we fly in a helicopter (such as a Bell Jet Ranger), we usually try to get 4-5 people to come with us and split the cost. That way, everybody gets a window."

NS: Do you use a polarizing filter to block out reflections off the glass?

RR: "No. We try to avoid using them. In the helicopters that we rent, every seat has a window slot that opens, so we point our cameras out the window and if necessary, the pilot will tip the helicopter so that we can get the right perspective. Sometimes we rent a smaller helicopter like the Roll Royce Scout that the British Army uses. Three of us (including the pilot) can fit and we take the door off."

"If no plane or helicopter is available, we go up on ultralights (a.k.a. microlights in England). We just remove the door, or if we're going up in a Pegasus, there's no door, no nothing. But they don't go very fast, so we have to rent one in the area. Generally, there will be up to several dozen crop circles within a given area, so that we could capture a lot of them on one trip. We know where all these are because they're often plotted on a map by other croppie's (crop circle enthusiasts)."

NS: Are there any special arrangements that you have to take into consideration, such as trespassing or over flights?

RR: "This area of England (Wiltshire) is peppered with military bases, so there are all these no-fly zones. Sometimes the crop circles are in those zones, so the pilot has to get permission from that military base to make a quick sweep, but it doesn't always work."

"As an example, Boscombe Downs (an active military base) is right next to Stonehenge, so with the odd exception of a few minutes, you can't fly over Stonehenge. Also, you can't make a beeline flight from one place to another, you've have to take a serpentine route. That's why we like a fast aircraft. Helicopters are slower."

NS: When you want to visit a sacred site on the ground, what arrangements do you have to make?

RR: "Most of the popular Neolithic sacred sites of interest such as Stonehenge and Avebury are little parks that are owned by the crown and have access paths. With Stonehenge, they have a big fence around it and then they charge you 5 pounds to go up the fence and look through. It's pretty weird. I have found a way to rent to rent Stonehenge from the British government for private research and we rent it for an hour for sunset when the park closes."

NS: What do you like most about crop circles?

RR: "In the nine years that I've been in England, I've discovered that it's a secret art and I love recording it and sharing it."

For more information, visit Ron's Web site at: http://www.cropcircles.org. You can also write to him or call him at: (303) 341-1947.

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