March Storytellers Blog Circle | Framing using Layers
This post is one of several in a monthly educational blog circle made up of storytelling photographers and Offset artists. After you read how I shot my storytelling image for the month, click to the next artist at the bottom of my post and follow the circle the whole way around. Enjoy!
ISO 320, f/2, 1/8000sec
I shot this image today, on one of the first warm days of 2017! Everyone wanted to get outside and so we went over to visit Mimi and Pap we schlepped out allllll the toys. Everyone was playing with different things at the same time. (Isn't that what happens at your house when the weather breaks and all the kids and adults shed their winter bonds?)
Of course, because everyone was playing with different toys at the same time, I have a camera card full of one child flying a kit, one launching a helicopter with pap, etc... A while it's nice to have images of these memories, in the end, I like to pick one image for my 365 project (and eventually for printing). Because I know one image will be printed, I prefer to choose the one I feel will best help me hold onto the essence of the day. Today, this was the image I chose because it captured a few stories at once.
My mom was taking a picture of my youngest as he played with a bubble toy, while, in the background, my dad was showing my older son how the glider plane worked. To capture this story, I shot through the first story and focused on the second. I had to position myself quickly by moving to the left and getting down on their level, so that the subjects in the airplane story were not being covered up by my mom. The story is easier to "read" if every subject gets their own space in the frame.
Keep in mind when shooting multiple layers in an image, that it's all about distance and aperture when keeping the layers easy to read. Had I used to low an aperture or gotten too close to the first layer, the first story would've been so out of focus that the frame wouldn't have worked.
Interested in getting inside the minds of more storytelling photographers? Then keep reading! Next in our blog circle is a new and talented addition to our group, Blimie T. Photography!
