Close-ups of hands, feet, heads, guns, etcetera, are often a clever way of portraying action, while allowing the viewer to exercise some imagination. There are often opportunities to use the compositional techniques of repetitive pattern and leading lines, when similarly dressed pageant participants are doing the same thing at the same time, usually in a military context. Short telephoto lenses are ideal for this kind of shooting. (Citadel, Halifax Nova Scotia)

Photographs of tough, grizzled drill sergeants instructing small children are always winners. It’s my observation that when parents yell abuse at their children, the children cry, or call their lawyers, but when a guy in a uniform and a three-day beard does it, they laugh and giggle, and work hard to please him. Go figure. 

In this image, made with a 24mm lens with polarizer and warming filter, the instructors, with ramrods in their hands, are teaching the process of loading the Brown Bess musket. The British Army could get off three shots a minute with this weapon on a good day, and the kids are learning just how that was done. (Fort Niagara, Lewiston, New York)

Environment shots of military equipment are always effective in helping to portray the feeling of “being there”. Here, the stacked muskets specify  the period of military history, more closely defined by the Union flag. A bit of fill flash is useful in striking highlights from any brightly reflective surface. (Battle of Gettysburg, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)