Make Me Care: The Art of Clarity and Concept In Your Photography.
Why is it that you can take two photos of the exact same subject with the same equipment and identical settings, but yet one may be inherently more engaging than the next? The answer is context. Creating context and point-of-view within a photo can be a difficult challenge, but it can also be the thing that makes or breaks your shot. This can be interpreted and defined in different ways, but at the end of the day, if you don't take some type of emotional stand when creating a photo, your audience will tend to be emotionally underwhelmed by the results. Additionally, if you make technical (camera settings) choices that don't suit the idea of the shot, then you're most likely not going to get the response that you're hoping for.
One thing that many inexperienced photographers tend to forget is that their audience doesn't know everything that they know. During my time as a layout artist on Frozen, I was constantly reminded of the "Joe in Kansas" rule. I apologize to anyone from Kansas that this may offend, but the idea behind this rule is that if you create some type of storytelling notion within your sequence or shot, it needs to clear enough for anyone to understand it regardless of who they are and what context they may already have about your subject matter. This brings me to my next point..... SHOW! DON'T TELL. There's a difference between making something clear and making something a dead giveaway. The art here is really in the balance... you wan't your audience to think that they're really smart by being incredibly clear with your visual storytelling, but you don't want to spoon feed them so much that they FEEL like they're being spoon-fed. This can be a delicate balancing act, but if done properly, you'll have strikingly clear moments that empower your viewer, but don't make them feel like they're being treated like a stupid person.