It’s Amy’s turn to challenge us. She writes in her challenge, “This week, we’ll explore “Framing Your Photos”. The purpose of framing a photo is to create a pleasing composition, so we can direct the viewer’s attention to the subject of our photo.” You can read her entire challenge post here.

It appears the folks who designed the visitor center at Meteor Crater in Arizona didn’t want to shut out the view of the San Francisco Peaks by building their brick wall around the complex. So they graciously left a glassless “window” framing those beautiful mountains near Flagstaff.

Near Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, the Iron Mountain Highway (U.S. 16A) connects Mount Rushmore National Memorial with Custer State Park. The 17-mile (27 km) journey has 314 curves, 14 switchbacks, and three tunnels designed to properly frame the memorial mountain.

The tunnels aren’t the only design elements on the road that frames the memorial. The drive through the beautiful Black Hills features many stops where visitors are all but obliged to stop just to take a look to see how the highway designer framed the mountain at that point.

Here’s what ChatGPT says about using frames in a photograph. “Framing in photography entails employing elements from the environment, whether organic or constructed, to craft a visual border within your picture. This approach aids in directing the viewer’s gaze toward your focal point, while simultaneously introducing layers, background, and narrative to your depiction. Diverse approaches exist for applying framing within a photograph.”

OK, so much for the 10-dollar words to describe the basic technique of finding something in your composition that helps isolate the subject. In my example above, the ram was conveniently sitting behind two trees. Shifting left or right adjusted my framing before capturing the image. A viewer, unless really studying the image may miss at least one of the two other sheep in the photo.

At Natuwa Wildlife Sanctuary in Costa Rica, this napping youngster framed himself in a tree just off the trail so that the many visitors would take his photograph while he slept.

Photographers can take advantage of architectural framing that exists for other purposes as in the opening photo, but walls with windows and doors aren’t usually found in nature. Sometimes, as in the cabin above, a nearby tree helps to frame the subject from above, and other trees provide the sides to the frame.

Another example of an architectural frame is the bridge that serves to direct the viewer’s eye toward Christine Falls, according to the National Park Service, probably the most photographed waterfall in the park.

Deep inside an underground bunker, a docent tells the story of life underground during the cold war at one of the many missile sites that dotted North Dakota and acted as a deterrent to potential nuclear war. At the Oscar-Zero Missile Alert site, now open for visitors, this docent describes the duty station for the two on-duty missileers in the nuclear-hardened bunker. The docent is framed by the 36-inch (1 m) thick blast door.

As an avid photographer of trains and associated railroad gear, one of my favorite ways to capture the image of the engineer is to frame his image with the cab of the engine. The engineer is almost always leaning outside the opening to see forward and that adds some depth to the image.

I had completely finished my challenge response on Monday, then I went out to lunch with a group of pilot friends on Tuesday. I happened to be looking out the window and noticed a construction project underway. I thought to myself as I grabbed my cell phone to take a photo, “These guys will do anything to get themselves posted on my blog. They are even building their own photo frame.” >grin<

Thanks to Amy for a challenge that allowed me to share one of my favorite composition techniques. I’ve put together all of my images in a Flickr album for those who like to pixel-peep in 2k HD. You can find the album here. If you’d like to create your own challenge response but aren’t sure how to get started, click here.

I am looking forward to two days from now on Saturday, August 19. At around noon Eastern Time, I will be hosting next week’s challenge.

John Steiner