You're selling yourself short, Steve, that's some pretty dang fine work!  Figures, rigs, water work, and the doc all look great.  You should be able to get some excellent story pics out of this beauty!  Ruck On!

Yep, there is cropping, but not much, Amigo.  Getting the camera to get in close like that is a matter of where you let it focus, that's all.  No need for heavy cropping or zooming the shot in Photoshop. 

As for planning a lot of this, more like, all of it.  This starts way back at the layout, Barley.  I try to keep it as simple as possible and get a story line in there when I plan how the figures interact, is it realistic enough, and then any vehicles, etc.  I'm no super dio builder, there are many more talented than I when it comes to painting a story, but that's my goal, to direct the action for the viewer.  When I shoot the scenes I plan ahead, but I also like to have the scenario simple enough that if you saw this in person, you'd catch it quickly.  When I plan a scenario, I like to get my face right down to figure eye level, so I can see what the figure should see, there in, the camera sees.   I recon that is a simple as I can make it, if that helps.