With a single shift in contrast, your arrangements can become more poignant, more meaningful, more important. I can’t say with certainty when it happened, but at some point early in my career, when I started shooting with a macro lens, I began to notice how the slightest shift in my point of view could alter the overall contrast. This was particularly true when shooting sidelit flowers in the garden. When I moved to the right, for example, even just a fraction of an inch, the unsightly “black hole” to the left of my yellow gloriosa daisy would disappear. Now, when I look up through the branches of a tree at a lone red cardinal with my 70–300mm lens, I am quick to notice the bright white holes of distant, overcast sky showing through the leaves. With a subtle shift in my point of view, a bit to the left or right, forward or back, I am often able to reduce, if not eliminate, these jarring shifts in contrast, allowing the viewer to focus on the red cardinal, for example, without any visual interruption.