Photography - Get Tight!

“If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” Robert Capa.
Truer words yet spoken in the art of photography up to this point. What Capa was trying to say is, basically, focus on the message that you are trying to convey. Why did you take that shot? Was it meant to be just a 'pretty' shot? Or are you trying send a message to your viewing audience? Don't get me or Capa wrong, every picture need not bring your audience to their knees. But for those of us that want to encourage our viewers to discover those bound emotional forces within our person, it is of the utmost importance for us, the photographer, to define the focus of your intention behind the lens.

My personal experience has been exactly that. Yes, I can conjure up an emotional response from a panoramic, but it is not until I get in close that the tears, and emotions, begin to roll. There is no mistake as to your message. It is as plain and clear as daylight. "If one person feels, we all feel" I say. Again, you 'can' achieve an emotional response with a wider shot, but, as I have discovered, only if the subject of your focus is framed properly by the natural setting. You can see that in my pictures, "The Mourning Angel" & "The Pony."

Look, it's all up to what you want to do with a camera in the field. But I'm asked time and time again, "How do you do that?" So I'm telling you. I see a composition that makes me feel something emotional. I then determine what the emotion is; whether a memory or an impassioned natural response. With that done, I go in for the kill!!!
Also, you have probably already noted that, at times, I have darkened the surrounding background. That is quite obviously intentional. I do take some creative license, as do many, in truly framing out the focus of my message. Just a little extra fencing to keep my audience corralled. Hope this helps a bit. Don't deny your feelings, or be afraid of confronting the deepest of our humanity, just get in there and shoot!
All three from the same statue in Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.