Chapter Two. Within the Frame

There is only the frame. That is our craft. Painting with light, in slivers of time, within the frame of our image. It becomes art when that combination says something in a unique way. And to think, when I learned about photography it seemed like it was merely a matter of pointing the camera at something and pressing the button. If you’re reading this book, and you’ve mastered pointing and pressing, and you’re longing to see if you can’t just express something a little more than “I was here,” then it begins with the frame. And one by one you put the elements in, move them around until they please your eye—and your heart—and something inside says, “Aha!” And you want to make other people say “Aha!” as well. That’s photography: the discipline of cramming your vision into a frame and making it fit.

Jodhpur, India. I shot this at dawn, leaning on a construction scaffold I dragged into the street because “I’m sure I won’t need my tripod this morning.” The woman in red appeared like a specter and was gone as fast. A faster shutter speed would have lost the magic.

Canon 5D, 32mm, 1/5 @ f/9, ISO 800