Simple cropping creates intimacy.

The combination of orange and purple is so lovely.

As I write about my photography and the love I have for the adventure of making new captures, I think about the concept of working a subject. So often I will come across a gathering of colorful flowers or an interesting building, maybe old dilapidated cars or playful children. I can't just take one photo or two. I have to snap and snap from all different angles until I feel satisfied.

Then of course it's a matter of downloading my photos and playing with them in the computer. I always feel like a kid in a candy shop as I click from one pix to the other. Great rainy day fun. It's wonderfully entertaining. Guess that's another advantage to being a photographer. I always have something to look forward to, and that makes life pretty terrific.

Often I have a vision in my head about what I am looking to accomplish within a picture. Maybe it's a feeling I want to communicate. Perhaps it's a focus on certain colors, lines in architecture, or even rust on a truck.


Close cropping creates intimacy to your subject.

The photos I'm showing you today illustrate the beauty of springtime tulips at the Botannical Gardens in Buffalo, New York. I want to give them credit because their spring flower show is always breathtaking. These particular tulips were a new color. I hadn't seen them in previous years.

What I'm aiming to show you here is how you can play around with simple cropping to get a closer, more intimate look at your subject. This is something every one of you can do. Play around with what you have in your picture, and sometimes you will find delightful results as I did here.

I've learned to use the same technique with animals and children too. There are often subtleties you can highlight by focusing on a smaller area. That intimate focus draws the viewer into the experience. Here for example, don't you feel like you want to pick a tulip or at the least bend over and look inside each bloom?

Comments welcome. May your Easter be delightful.