There’s a lot here. The viewing frame is, indeed, an interesting reason for “not taking the shot.”
Or I should say, for avoiding shots that wouldn’t have been satisfactory.
I think the viewing frame is the most useful field tool that receives the least discussion in this forum. (AA calls it a cut-out card in The Camera; see “Basic Image Management.”) I smile whenever someone mentions it. Or says they've used it. I've taken fewer & better shots because of it.
Yet … I may be in the minority here … some of my best shots happened because I didn’t bring it, or I put it aside. (Never would this cause me to abandon its use.) I’ll just say that the frame, on one hand, is supremely useful in isolating elements in a scene by imposing borders roughly corresponding to a particular lens’ field of view; on the other hand, its usefulness potentially blinds me to additional means of pre-visualizing. If I’m not careful, it monopolizes too much of my attention – w/o my awareness that it’s doing so. As I improve as a photographer, I’ll continue to use the frame – always trying to better integrate it with a way of “seeing” that wants to widen, broaden, grow.
The frame, I should add, is also among the least expensive & easiest to carry of useful tools.
I made mine w/ a mat cutter and leftover piece of mat board.
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