This week Anne has us focusing on “filling the frame.” Why? As Anne reminds us “when you fill the frame with your subject, you eliminate various background distractions. The viewer’s eyes have nowhere to wander. Their attention is where you want it.” She provides many wonderful examples of “filling the frame” so be sure to read her post here.

I use this technique many, many times in my photography. My archives are full of examples, and it was hard to pick a few, but here it goes.

Oftentimes, I’m intentional with “filling the frame,” especially when it comes to wildlife and nature photography. In the photos below, I included portions of the background to better highlight the subject. This may go against the thought of removing distractions, but as Anne reminds us photography is subjective.

“When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” ~When Harry Met Sally

Filling the frame can also come in handy when shooting weddings. It’s a perfect way to capture the little details from the day.

In this photo, I purposely pulled together the elements in order to capture the memory of the invitation, shoes, earrings and bouquet. The invitation may get tucked away in a scrapbook, her shoes will probably never be worn again, and the flowers will fade away, but the photo gives her one single lasting memory of all that went into planning her wedding.

When I photograph weddings or other portraits I will start with the full subject and crop the images in editing to fill the frame with the appropriate details. I’m always looking for the “picture within the picture.”

Take the photo on the left I love the sweet moment of the groom taking the bride’s hand as she overlooks the Blue Ridge Mountain Range. But what was even more special was when I cropped in on their hands. You capture the feeling of the groom’s strong hand delicately holding his bride’s hand.

The next photo was a special prayer moment between the bride and bridesmaids. I was blessed to be able to photograph my niece’s wedding and just before the ceremony began, she and her bridesmaids circled up for a prayer. It was a sweet moment, and I couldn’t resist taking a photo of them all holding hands.

In this example, there are two (2) “pictures in a picture.” In one photo, I cropped her wedding dress. Don’t you just love the detail of the delicate applique and the laced up back with satin bow? It’s something the viewer would have noticed if I hadn’t cropped the photo.

In the other photo, I cropped in on the bride’s right hand holding her matron of honor’s hand. Her matron of honor was her sister. Can’t you just “feel” the love and pride the bride’s sister has for her?

“Why am I using a new putter? Because the old one didn’t float so well.”

~Craig Stadler, Professional Golfer

I’ll end with one last example of “filling the frame” from my days of shooting golf tournaments. This was a fun one of all the golf carts lined up waiting for the tournament to start. Fore!!!!!

Thank you, Anne for inviting us to explore “filling the frame.” It was and fun and interesting way of exploring how I use this technique with my photos.

Be sure to join us next week when James of Jazzibee will guest host and present our next challenge. Be sure to look for his post.

If you would like to participate weekly in our Lens-Artists Challenge, click here for more info. 

Until next time!

~donna