FRAMING THE PHOTOGRAPHS

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I wanted to take a photograph with Nitro as the main subject. I also needed the surrounding space around him to show how beautiful this part of North Carolina is, as if he was not even in the capture. The sky, this day, was a beautiful blue with a few white clouds. I took this photograph sitting down to apply a more natural horizon line as if I was taking it at Nitro’s eye level. This also allowed me to divide the frame better than if I was standing. I could show more of the sky which added more character and contrast than if it was mostly the dark, brackish water of the Sound.

Usually when I take a photograph of Nitro, I have a hard time getting him to look at me straight on. However, this is one of the qualities of this photograph that I wanted to incorporate. The ripples in the water were an unplanned bonus. They appear to circle the subject and show his intended motion. The look on his face is intriguing. What is he looking at? This introduces the framing element of Offstage. Another element of framing I used was Exact. To do this, I included the dilapidated dock in the background. It added a slim margin on the right of the sky and water which helped frame entire photograph while allowing me to keep Nitro a bit to the left of the exact center. The disposition of the two, I feel, adds to the quality giving it more substance. If I were to do anything different with this photograph, I would have tried to take a wider photo showing less water and sky with a broader horizon and more of the dock on the left. I am happy with the way this one turned out, but I’m sure I would have been pleased with the wider photograph, too.