The case for cropping

Sometimes I come upon a scene that just cries out to be photographed.  Such was the case when I walked through City Park in Denver last week during an early season snow storm.  The leaves were still on the trees, and the contrast of the fall color against the grey sky and white snow was captivating.


I pulled my camera to my eye, and made the first exposure, seen above.  It has a nice sense of balance, and scale, and gave a sense of contrast between nature and made made objects.  All well and good.


But for me, the goal is to go beyond the obvious and look for more dynamic, evocative images.  In reality, the real draw was the color of the leaves against the snow.  But upon careful observation, it was the darkness of the tree trunk and branches that gave the needed contrast to make the image sing.  So I decided to look for a composition that showed those three values-highlight, mid-tone and dark in a more concise way.  And one that would involve the viewer in a more intimate manner.


I zoomed in quite a bit, eliminating the building on the right completely, and lowering my angle of view to make the leaves in the foreground surrounded by pools of snow more important.  The resulting image, which I think conveys the feeling of the location and the day, is below.  

So my suggestion is when something grabs your attention, take the photograph that called to you.  And then, go beyond that to the next level.