Only show what you need to

A Yangon dockworker takes a smoke break.

​In the West, do we understand what work is?  Work for the impoverished of Myanmar, also known as Burma, is usually done in tropical heat with little pay.  I found this dock worker in Yangon having a smoke break from carrying 100-pound sacks of fertilizer out of the cargo hold of a riverboat.  The face, the homemade cigarette, and the sweat all combined to make a beautiful environmental portrait.  My thoughts  for pictures like this one come down to one idea, "only show what you need to."  Clean backgrounds, even, flattering light and reducing the visual elements down to as few distractions as possible, and I do that with a 135mm lens.  Today I photograph with a mirrorless Fuji X pro-2 and carry only a few lenses.  What I have found works best for me is to take two cameras, one with a 35mm and one with a 135mm.  For me, no zooms.  I use my feet to zoom in or out.