Beautiful Framing

7/24/2021

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Hopefully you look at the topmost meringue first!
So what composition guides can we apply to see what is happening here?
The window frame is a particularly useful tool when positioning the subject, as I could use the lines, but we don't always have a frame to use in our backgrounds!
Grids can be useful if we are unsure our composition is working - and allow the opportunity to move or adjusting things........

You may have heard of the Rule of Thirds, but there are other grids too.
Here I have applied the Phi Grid to illustrate my example, as it fits quite well.

- In this grid, the centre section is narrower than the outer sections both vertically and horizontally
- This gives us our centre area, where most of the action happens
- Notice how the side plates line up beside a vertical grid line
- And the main dish aligns with the bottom centre horizontal line.

Finally, a word about balance
without the addition of a spoon or prop to the left of the main subject, the scene would have felt unbalanced, with all the visual weight on one side
If this all seems complicated DON'T PANIC!
All we are doing is applying science to how we see composition; to explain why certain things work, and how we can use a tool like a grid to help when things don't feel right.
I hope you found this a useful insight.

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A Wedding Breakfast
It was my pleasure to photograph a wedding breakfast created by Colline Watt, owner of Colline's Kitchen recently. With a bubbly and nurturing nature, it's no suprise to me that this mother from Zimbabwe wants to feed us all with delicious, fresh and sustainable food, along with a decadent cake or two, and how typical that, on the first date that weddings were permitted in the UK after lockdown, she got the call and I found her in a pretty garden with spectacular views piling food and flowers on to a table in a high wind, and creating an edible work of art.
Colline's successful cafe business, set in the historic Town Hall in the market town of Newbury has been put on hold since Lockdown in March, but she maintains a service, delivering food as diverse as Afternoon Tea and Mongolian beef stir fry, sourcing fresh ingredients locally. Find her at www.collineskitchen.com

BUNTING
When Jo, owner of The Bunting Basket asked me to photograph her bunting, I read her bio, and discovered how the business began, and how it came to be named The Bunting Basket. After making bunting for a family christening, Jo was innundated with requests for it from her friends and aqaintances, and she soon began to sell it at craft fairs, carrying her stock in a wicker basket. When I read this, I knew a picnic basket had to feature in my photographs. I looked at the fabric designs, and thought about the premise for the business and then began to prepare my shoot. Find her at www.thebuntingbasket.co.uk

Beautiful Framing

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