Cropping

The next time you're out and about, I hope you'll try this simple exercise in perspective: form a rectangle using the index finger and thumb from each hand. Then use this crude device to crop out details of things around you.

Aside from looking like a total geek - which becomes more enjoyable over time, I promise you - you will over time realize that stuff looks different when it's cropped away from everything around it.

My big mistake when I first started shooting was thinking I had to get everything into the frame. And so my early albums are filled with images where the real focal point is but a tiny dot in the middle, too small to have any storytelling effect. The context does nothing to explain what the picture is all about. Most folks would yawn through the experience.

These days, I try to get in a little closer to see the pictures that most people would miss because they're too embarrassed to lift their fingers up in front of their face and view the world with a slightly offset eye. Viewers may not always know what they're looking at, but it makes for a much more interesting conversation.

Your turn: Anyone want to hazard a guess re. what this is and/or where this might have been taken?