Simplicity of Space - San Gimignano, 2005

Aside from being a great musician, Miles Davis was probably most known for not playing. To him, space was just as important as filling up the measures with notes. The same can hold true in photography. As mentioned in a previous post, here the background or the area surrounding the subject is important in that it provides breathing room and balance. When objects are in motion or appear in motion in the frame, it's usually best, though not universal, to provide more space in front of the subject. I prefer the bottom (original) image to the top (crop) because the space leads the eye from right to left and out of the frame, whereas the bottom image is too tight, increasing viewer tension because we cannot see that the space in front of the pigeons is empty.