I love looking for frames within the camera frame. We look into frames all the time. Take for example car windshields, television screens, smartphones, doorways and alike. Be it a square, a rectangular, or whatever, the camera frame is a natural extension of this. Placing a subject in that frame is a sure way to get a viewer’s attention. The process is even more fun when things are on the move within the frame. Such was the case with the blaze orange photo above, taken opening night at this year’s Western Idaho Fair in Garden City. My wife, myself, and relatives had come to the fair earlier in the day when the light was harsh and the temperature even harsher. I spotted the photo op when the rides were still, hoping photo gods would look down upon me later.
I lined up a shot where the two Ferris wheels didn’t converge and waited as the sun sank lower on the horizon, producing a more vivid sky by the minute. The swing did not spin continuously. Of course not, people have to get on and off. The moving chair lift didn’t always have a rider. So it was a bit frustrating when things weren’t coming together. I shot quite a few frames (see below), upping my ISO as I went along to hold a fast enough shutter speed to stop the riders.
Framing people in chair lifts is not new for me. I shot the image above at a ski resort near my hometown when I first started out as a newspaper photographer. I was pretty proud of this image until I took a weekend class from National Geographic photographer Sam Abell. Abell’s photo of branding and castration at a Montana ranch in the 1980s is one of the go-to examples for capturing frames within moving frames. During class, Sam also showed a wide-angle image he shot at a baseball game. All the players on the field framed within their own separate diamonds of a chain-link fence. Not your average Sports Illustrated shot for sure, but it blew me away. I spent the majority of my high school baseball career starring at teammates through our dugout’s chain-link fence. Thus I understood and appreciated his picture.
Two of the best examples of frames within frames aren’t even photographs. Da Vinci’s Last Supper comes to mind. Jesus is front and center (there’s also some nice leading lines too). Then there’s Hitchcock’s Rear Window, my all-time favorite for studying the art of composing frames within frames.
I’ll keep looking for that perfect frame within the frame. I hope you will too.