They say that a picture is never as good as the real thing. By framing the world, I learned how there can be truth to that sentiment. I went to a park near my house, which for me, I care deeply about because of the many memories I have created there over the span of my life. There were times walking the trail along the creek, when I stopped because it felt as though the foliage grew to ‘frame’ the trail just for me, as if it were expecting me to notice it, as if it had a personality. When you see something beautiful or awe-some, it can feel natural to want to share that with other people (as natural as it can be, in this case, to love having the experience to oneself). Regardless, I thought this would make a great image, and if others were to see this in a still it might evoke the same idea, being that the trail is welcoming. It looked as if the trees were bending in to literally frame the trail and encourage me to venture on, keeping me intrigued by what could be around the next turn. This same feeling occurs to me each time I’ve been there which perhaps contributes to why I love it so much. Holding up my frame, that emotion didn’t seem to register. Instead, I would have to move the frame, or my physical self, backward to capture more of the image, which turned out to limit the detail I could see with my naked eye. Perhaps if I were using an actual camera, I could keep what I wanted in focus or add a vignette or deepen the color in some way to better convey what I see and what I feel.
In class we talked about making sure that when we are framing, we think about the edges in relation to the subject of the shot. That helped me in doing the assignment because I noticed I felt inclined to center the subject and focus only on that at first. But what about the subject in relation to the rest of the frame? How do we create an appealing composition? There must be more to it than the rule of thirds. I noticed I was neglecting the the edges, but after learning to be attentive to the entirety of the image, I found a more aesthetically pleasing outcome.
To think that snapping a photo haphazardly will elicit what you want from an audience isn’t enough. I also realized that sometimes there won’t be a way to get the audience to feel precisely what I feel. However, being creative and tedious in the approach could get me pretty close I suspect. Essentially, to document (in terms of documentary film making) is to recreate experience for others from which they draw their own conclusions, a truly Socratic method in its own right. It is within the “re-creation” process that artistic capabilities (such as setting up the shot) will prove vital.
This assignment helped me understand that framing something well is necessary in order to convey to your audience what is important. You can manipulate their emotions depending on how well you use your camera.