Tip: Find a frame

You can add interest to a photograph by framing your subject on two or more sides of the picture. Trees, rocks, fences or other natural or man-made objects can offer a number of possibilities.

For example, while photographing the Cape Hatteras lighthouse on North Carolina’s outer banks, I squeezed myself into a wooded thicket at the edge of the clearing where the lighthouse stands and used the brush to frame the lighthouse.

In the case of the lower photograph, taken at the south rim of the Grand Canyon at twilight, two trees and an old fortress provide a frame for the deepening sky, the moon and the figure standing at the edge of the canyon.

Sometimes, finding a frame is a happy accident, so be on the lookout while scouting an area in which you are taking pictures. Other times will take some ingenuity and perseverance to create a framing effect.

Photographs © 2006 James Jordan. Click on pictures to enlarge.