Well I am not talking about man-made windows and frames today. Our interest today is on using nature to frame a scene in the distance or nature providing a window to look through. Sometimes these frames or windows can be tree branches and leaves or arches in rocks. The best time to use them is when the sky is boring. Quite often object you are photographing goes up into the sky but the sky surrounding it has nothing of interest. One way to fill the boring sky with something of interest is to look for a frame or a window to shoot that same object through.

          Here is an example:

The sky above the mountain in the distance is just plain empty and void. There is not a cloud in sight. Using the rock arch as a window to shoot through solves the problem and provides a wonderful window frame for the mountain. The rocks in the arch (bottom right) help to balance the mountain in the background and it gives depth too boot.

          Here is another example, but this time the arch is kind of the object and what you see through the arch simply adds to the scene:

This is the same arch as in the previous example but I have moved to the other side and am now shooting into the opposite direction. Without the rock arch I could not have gotten a nice image of those three bolders as the sky above them is dead and offers nothing. Shooting through the arch removes the sky and replaces it with a nice window.

          Now we don't always have rock arches around begging to be used as windows. We just need to be creative. Tree branches and leaves work equally well. When the sky is boring eliminate it. Shoot through something or frame the object with something interesting.

          Make sure to be on the lookout for windows and frames and be sure to use them creatively to turn something boring into something nice. One last tip, it is important that the background objects of interest do not touch or make contact with the edge of the window. If the bolder in the background touched the edge of the arch there would be no separation and it would be difficult to see the different elements of the image as different elements; they will want to look as part of the same structure.