Project: Photo // Framing the Shot

Last week, I dropped my iPhone and shattered the screen (again). Since I had 2 weeks before my current contract expires and I'm able to switch to a better carrier, I was looking forward to the opportunity to "go dark" for 2 weeks, meaning no communication if I'm not at a computer (like back in the '90s)!

Fortunately and unfortunately, my lovely husband is a huge techie. Whereas some people might read before bedtime, he spends those moments watching tech reviews on YouTube. He'd probably prefer the world to end than to have to go dark for a day. But because of this, he also spoils me with technology, so we ended up getting the new iPhone 6s the day after I announced that I was going dark. So much for that...

Anyway, the iPhone 6s's new "live photos" thing is pretty neat. When turned on, it takes a picture normally, but also records the few seconds that lead up to the capture. But I'm waiting for the moment that it takes up all the room in my phone, even though Jason swears that it doesn't take up THAT much space. I don't think he realizes how many photos of Bellatrix and Lily I can take in one afternoon.

I also am very, very surprised to notice a visible difference between the pictures taken with my iPhone5 and the iPhone 6s. I understand it's 3 iterations old, but 3 years does not feel like that long of a time! I guess technology advances a lot faster than I care to admit. It's kind of like Keeping Up with the Kardashians, but with Apple products.

This week's month's project is about framing a shot. Choosing how to tell the story, by actively putting the subject in a frame within the photo, provides additional context and depth. This was a more difficult concept to wrap my head around because I had to change my initial perception of a potential shot, but it was a useful exercise in training the brain to see the bigger picture.

Thoughts:

1. Especially with light subjects inside a dark frame, it was hard for me to figure out where to set the focus, without blowing out the background or underexposing it, for that matter. I guess that previous lesson of Focus and Exposure didn't serve to explain everything.
2. I had to fix a lot of exposure issues with editing, and I'm not entirely happy with the final products. I think I need to study up on editing in a future week.
3. I'm chalking this lesson up as a work-in-progress. There are shots that I imagined in my head but couldn't find the right venue to capture. (I wanted to find a dark room with someone walking through a ray of sunlight in the middle of the room.)
4. My take-away here is that there are an infinite number of ways to frame a shot.