Framing The Shot

The only worse thing than traveling with a photographer is traveling with someone who thinks they are a photographer!  Over the years, Todd has been quite patient with me as I try to get "the" shot. 

For some reason or another (to the best of my knowledge, it's not an official photography phrase), I started calling this little back-forth, crouch dance -- my equivalent of a dog circling (and circling and circling!) its bed before plopping down -- "framing the shot."  My mind does some visual mathematics... figuring out what needs to be added and subtracted from the shot.  Most frustrating is when people (or an unacceptable number of people!) are in the shot.

In the digital age, it has become a bit easier. While it may still require some waiting around, a lot of the finessing can be done after the fact.  I don't tinker around all that much Photoshop (Elements), but I love cropping... my photo software BFF.

While a big fan of photo composition, I am not obsessed with it.  96%+ of my photos are the standard, point-and-shoot, vacation variety... purely for the memory, not for some higher artistic purposes.  I like getting compliments on my photos as much as the next person... but when you are fortunate enough to go to some amazingly (and naturally) scenic places, it's hard to take too much of the credit.  On top of that, and again, thanks to digital, you are bound to stumble onto a quality picture when you have a large quantity of them (particularly when you can review them the second after they're taken... ah, the things today's younger generation will never know!).

But there's still that 4%-ish that I try to do something a little different.  I thought this shot of my MINI's roof atop Mt. Evans was going to be one those...

While I think it is a pretty cool shot, for me it was a better idea than end result... not quite what I was going/hoping for... little did I know, the very next shot would make up for it.

This one has depth (thanks to the road) and better contrast (thanks to the pop of blue from the car) vs. above w/ pretty nondescript, "just by itself" white roof... plus, I still got my rain beads (a rare thing for my MINI). 

Honestly, the main reason for this picture was a PT Cruiser parked right behind me.  A full side shot of my car would have been too crunched up... so shooting just the front end was the solution.   A nice side effect was that it gave this picture a feeling of solitude, which couldn't have been further from the the truth as there were a few dozen cars and people milling about just out of the frame.  Upon closer inspection, you can even see a some of the clouds reflected just above the front wheel. 

Quite a bit of luck, but I'll take a little credit too!

(Click on either pic for a larger/better view... I'm testing this whole posting pictures here via Flickr thing)

Comments

[Kenna]

I like both shots. I love the clouds in the first one, and the way the road rises up to meet the racing stripes on the second one. Good job!

[Jeff]

Wow, these are really great!

[Glenda]

i really like the bottom one!! i'd like to save it and use it as my background....is that ok???

[Scott-O-Rama]

Those are very cool shots. I love the first one especially.

[Craig]

Awesome shots :)