Many photographers prefer to make portraits as a head and shoulders. I generally prefer portraits to go beyond description to interpret the subject instead of describing it. In this case, the weathered features of the subject are a timeless symbol of rural China and the ethnic minorities who work its land. So I stressed the head – since that’s where the “story” is here. However I did two things that many head and shoulders shots do not include: I added the hand on the staff, and used a horizontal frame instead of the traditional vertical portrait framing approach. The horizontal framing allows the diagonals formed by the scarf and the shoulder to work more dynamically. I also include two of the three primary colors in this portrait – the blue shawl and the pair of softly focused red signs over the shoulders.