Project 52 - Week 45: Framing

This week is all about orientation--landscape or portrait--and how you choose to frame your subject.  What usually happens when I read the week's assignment is:  I will go to my past archive of photos and review my tendencies.  Having done that I can tell you, I definitely lean toward a landscape orientation in my work.  I do think I have been trying to move more in the vertical direction, but I tend to like to see more of a scene than less.

Cropping down to a vertical orientation requires a few things for me.  First, I have to make sure I have enough of what I want to include in the impact of the photo before I crop it down.  Second, I want to be sure that I am narrowing the viewer's eye to the specific things I want them to see.  Finally, it has to make sense.

I noticed that I generally go to a tight, vertical framing when there are a number of extraneous things in the scene that I don't want to include.

There was quite a bit going on around this puppy at a park event, and even though there is still an eye full of things behind him, a vertical orientation on this photo helps to narrow the eye to the subject and helps the viewer know where to look.

What to leave in and what to take out when framing can sometimes be a dilemma.  Sometimes you have no choice when trying to capture something...there might be things everywhere you look.  The concentration on the Pointer below was something I didn't want to miss.  Had I changed my angle, the resulting change in gaze wouldn't tell the story I wanted to tell, so I widened my aperture and blurred the background a bit. 

I have had opinions on cropping this down, but I honestly like the dog/human bond that nonchalantly going on just behind all this, which lends itself to telling you this was a "dog and people" event.  Framing this vertically would not have told the correct story for me.

Finally, I recently did a rescue transport of two dogs going to foster care.  My only opportunity to take their photos for the rescue coordinator, was in the hand off, which was in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel.  As you may or may not know, Cracker Barrel parking lots are not the best "studio" experiences.

It was a bit later in the day, and we parked a distance away from the main doors.  The first photo lent itself to being framed close to the dog (whose name was Pilot and who was sweeter than sugar). Pilot was also a stellar model and not afraid of the camera one bit.

My second passenger, Church, was a mover and a shaker who really did not want to stand still, was not completely convinced that my camera was a friendly thing, and who didn't understand that beyond the 10 minute pee break, he had one more leg of his journey and we needed to hustle.

I decided to use the entire parking lot scene as part of the story, almost like "I'm hitchin' a ride to freedom."

A few things about this image.  I used a wide angle lens which helped me tremendously when I had to edit out the person who was standing directly behind Church.  Yep, the next driver was walking him and her head was directly above his at the end of a long leash, and her legs were between his back legs.  Editing is a wonderful thing.

The sky did not look like this.  Sky overlays are also phenomenal when you have dull, gray blah.

Church's mark on his shoulder was something I left.  It is from a gunshot wound.  He is recovering.  It reminds us that some humans have no respect for animal life and think animals are throw away items.  Church is not any worse for having had humans who weren't the best.  In fact, he gave me small kisses on my cheek from his back-seat driver position on the way to his next stop.

So there you have it.  Framing and orientation.  The rule is, there is no rule.  Just be sure that you are satisfied that your photo is telling the story you want it to tell, whether you need to use the complete picture or not, and whether that story would look best in a landscape or portrait orientation.

You know what's next.  Head to the blog circle and see what's up in the rest of the world in terms of framing.  I think we have a brand new participant this week.  Welcome to Jessica Wasik of Bark & Gold Photography.  It's always great to welcome another photographer to the circle. Be sure to look for her blog post in the lineup. 

Get started with Darlene Dykas Woodward of Pant The Town Pet Photography, serving Massachusetts and New Hampshire.  Enjoy your weekend!