It is all a matter of scale.
 

I saw this giant fork and spoon in Virginia City, Nevada. I love Americana, and this is a classic piece of Americana so when I saw it I knew I had to photograph this hold-over from the not so distant past. 

Here is the original in camera photo: 

Not a bad snap shot as it was in camera but I had a different vision in mind when I shot the work. In post processing I went to work to create the image that I saw in my mind's eye. This was the result:

After all was said and done, I had indeed created the image I had seen in my mind's eye. However, one thing was missing. The thing that was missing was a sense of scale. I had always envisioned this image without the two electrical outlets. I felt they took away from the scene, but I soon found out that by removing them, I just a had a photo of a fork and spoon and not a photo of a GIANT FORK and SPOON. So I had to put them back into the photo (thank heavens for non-destructive editing).

The finished photo, with the electrical outlets, allows the viewer to stand in my shoes and understand just how large these giant utensils really were. The take away here is that sometimes an image needs something in it to give the subject of the image a sense of scale. In this case without the outlets, you have no way of knowing how big the utensils are and most likely you are left wondering why I took a photo of some letters and a fork and a spoon. In your own photography you might need to show how high a water fall is or how small a miniature figurine can be. In cases like these, remember to give your audience a reference point by which to judge, or the audience might just end up asking why they are looking at some letters and a fork and a spoon.

-- Enjoy