My assignment was to shoot for high contrast that day (a small flickr group that has weekly themes). But your observation speaks to the need to work with the conditions rather than fight them
Thanks, Kathy! You are spot-on. I try to be aware of my tendency to include so much that the story is muddied.
Linda in my earlier years I had a professional photographer who to look at an image, decide what adds to, or detracts from. If it doesn't add to the story, crop it out. Sometimes hard to in original compositions - one I continue to to work on. I believe you ' got it'.