Welcome to the very first edition of Sunday School on Shutter Sisters!

So, I have a confession. I am one of those people who do not like to read manuals. In fact, I don't like reading anything non-fiction unless it's biographical/historical. It's not that I haven't TRIED to read the numerous manuals that accompanied my cameras and lenses and speedlights and filters and software. It's all mumbo-jumbo to me and goes in one brain cell and out another. Part of it is that I am an experiential learner. Fortunately for me, photography is very much a bend-the-rules kind of medium (at least it is to me), and there's so much you can learn by trial and error if you don't have the patience or learning style to read the instructions or take a formal class.

One of my favorite aspects of photography is framing the shot in an interesting way by using objects that are already in the environment. Sometimes, though, I feel a little lazy, and I'll bend that un-rule and actually grab something to help me make the photo a bit more fun. Recently, I found just the thing to function as an easy and cheap way to frame a shot uniquely: cardboard tubes. You can play around with different kinds and lengths--toilet paper, paper towel, all those empty Christmas wrapping paper tubes you haven't recycled yet. Heck, you could probably just roll up a piece of paper and create effects by trying different colors.

And THAT, Shutter Sisters, is my very technical (not!) tip for our very first Sunday School! I do love seeing "natural frames" in photos, and you can see some cool ones I've found in our Flickr pool by hashak, mrs. vigushin and skwirler.

Feel free to share links to your favoritely framed photos or your own tips on Framing The Shot.

P.S. We are now featuring a photo from our Flickr Pool EVERYDAY on The Daily Click!  We've got so many spectacular photos being added to the pool everyday that once a week just wouldn't have been enough.