The humble crop tool is so much more powerful than we sometimes give it credit for. A photo of a vineyard I captured recently reminded me of that. When I looked closer at the image, the really story was in the midground and background. A healthy crop got rid of all the extraneous parts of the image and let the stronger story come through.

Whenever I make a tight crop like this in post processing, it is a reminder to look a little deeper when in the field. Spending just a moment or two to understand the scene before you can be the difference between filling the frame with a strong story or tossing away loads of pixels in post. Sure … I’m glad I can do that with the digital tools, though it does limit some printing options.