Filling the Frame
Filling the frame is a great way to draw attention to your subject and to provide an ‘endless’ reach to the image. The fact that we can't see where the beads end in the image below, mean our minds determine this for us. The Mardi Gras beads were shot in New Orleans and screamed out to be shot in this way, telling the story of Mardi Gras in a different way to the usual ‘people in the streets’ shots and still providing a full 'story' of when and where we are, while leaving something to the imagination.
Filling the frame can work with a whole host of topics and bring a very different perspective to your shot. The gallery below shows examples and captions show reasoning behind my decision to shoot the topic that way in that particular instance.
Filling the frame also makes a portrait very personal and does work well with children, though be careful with cutting off limbs as this can look very awkward. If you do cut off limbs do it in an aggressive way to avoid the look of a shot that went wrong when someone moved out of frame.
The technique does seem to fit very well with floral subjects whether they are in groups or singular, perhaps because we all know what a flower or leaf looks like, but close up and filling the frame our interest is renewed.