Framing
“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will make its boast in the Lord; The humble will hear it and rejoice. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.” (Psalm 34:1-3, NASB)
In landscape photography one of the most important skills that a photographer can develop is the ability to properly frame a composition. Framing can take numerous forms and may be very subtle or more obviously done but the most compelling images usually incorporate some kind of framing. The photographer might do something as obvious as taking the image through an open window or possibly some kind of foliage such as the branches of trees might be used to provide this framework. Sometimes it is not as obvious and done with colors, or shadows, or lines of light and dark. The point of the creativity isn’t necessarily what is being used to create the frame but how it affects the composition for the viewer.
I think that proper framing serves several purposes in an image. There may be many more purposes as entire courses are written around these concepts but here are a few that come to mind as I think about this topic. In the end, all of these purposes serve only one thing and that is to highlight the primary subject of the composition.
Order. A frame provides a sense of order to the image and helps it to make sense. Without order the image will be chaotic and unclear in purpose.
Protection. The framing places boundaries on the image which keep the eyes from wandering out of the scene, so they continue the journey to the primary subject.
Guidance. Framing gives a starting place for the eyes to begin their journey and can help point the right direction to travel through the scene.
Focus. Ultimately it is the frame that instructs the viewer on what the creator of the image desired to be the focus of the image.
The parallel between life and photography here is obvious but instructive. How has God instructed us to frame our lives and for what purpose? 1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us to do everything to the glory of God. The Psalm above states that we should magnify the Lord and exalt His name. Psalm 111 tells us that the works of the Lord are great and that His righteousness will endure forever. John 1 makes it even more clear that it is through Jesus Christ that “all things were made” and “without Him nothing has been made.” In fact, it would take an entire day to list and study the dozens of verses in the Bible in the Old and New Testaments that point the way to the primary subject of the entire Bible and that is Jesus Christ.
Returning to the original metaphor of photography, it is the purposeful act of framing and ordering our lives toward the very creator of all things, Jesus Christ, that brings true beauty to our life picture. By doing this we will gain order in our lives, protection from wandering, guidance to look toward Him and proper focus on the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. (Rev. 1:8, 21:6, 22:13)
Take some time today to inventory your own life and check your framing. Is it pointing the way to the Alpha and Omega of all creation, the very author of all life? He is ultimately all that matters and everything in our lives should point toward Him alone.
It is my hope and prayer that this writing today and all that I share with you is encouraging to you and blesses your life greatly each day. Feel free to comment below if you have found any encouragement as that will certainly encourage me to know that someone is being blessed by these small efforts.
