Recent practical example: I had a lot of trouble picking which photographs out of 20-100 of a subject to use. Enough were sharp, well-composed, and properly exposed to make it near impossible to pick.

I've been watching James Popsys' videos[1] lately. He doesn't take the greatest photos in the world from a technical standpoint, but there's a theme that runs through most of his videos and pictures: tell a story.

It's a lot easier to pick the best photos out of a bunch of technically decent photos when "best" is well-defined. And it turns out fit in a story about the subject is a solid criteria for best.

When I got my camera, I got this photo of a squirrel: https://kyefox.com/2020/05/20/squirrel-surprise/

It's fine. Not bad, not great.

Then, after thinking about that advice, I decided to tell a story: https://kyefox.com/2020/06/20/eastern-gray-squirrels-at-play...

They're all worse in technical terms than that one photo, but they're better because they fit into a story.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6WYZrzBuNQnz_2F4EqjhDQ