Top 6 Classic Public Spaces to Visit for Beginners to Practice Framing and Symmetry
Hey everyone, Goh Ling Yong here! Or rather, a voice from the team, ready to dive into one of my favorite topics: composition.
When you're first starting your photography journey, the world can seem like a chaotic mess of potential subjects. You see a beautiful scene, you lift your camera, and... the resulting photo feels flat, uninspired, and nothing like the moment you experienced. What’s missing? Often, the answer lies in composition—the art of arranging elements within your frame to create a compelling, balanced, and engaging image. It’s the invisible architecture that turns a simple snapshot into a stunning photograph.
Two of the most powerful and accessible compositional tools for any beginner are framing and symmetry. Symmetry brings a sense of harmony, balance, and order, pleasing the human eye's natural desire for patterns. Framing, on the other hand, adds depth and context, guiding the viewer’s attention directly to your subject. The best part? You don't need a fancy studio or exotic location to master these skills. The world around you is filled with perfect practice grounds. These public spaces are free, accessible, and overflowing with the lines, shapes, and structures you need to train your eye.
So, grab your camera (your phone works just fine!) and let's explore the top six classic public spaces where you can take your understanding of framing and symmetry from theoretical to practical.
1. Train Stations and Subway Tunnels
There's a certain magic to a train station. It’s a place of hellos and goodbyes, of quiet anticipation and bustling energy. For a photographer, it's also a geometric wonderland. The entire environment is built on lines—tracks stretching to a vanishing point, repeating pillars supporting the roof, and arched tunnels creating perfect curves. This makes stations an unbeatable location for practicing your compositional skills.
The inherent design of these spaces screams symmetry. To capture it, find the very center of a platform and look straight down the tracks. Use your camera's grid lines to ensure the parallel lines of the platform edges and the tracks are perfectly balanced on both sides of your frame. Look up! The light fixtures, clocks, and support beams are often arranged in a perfectly symmetrical pattern. A wide-angle lens can help you capture the grand scale of a station's main hall, emphasizing its balanced architecture.
For framing, the opportunities are endless. Use the curve of a subway tunnel entrance to frame the incoming train's light. Position yourself so that a window of a stationary train frames a passenger on the platform, telling a small story. The pillars that line a platform are your best friends; use the space between two of them to frame a subject, creating a sense of depth and isolating them from the surrounding chaos.
2. Bridges
Bridges are more than just a way to get from one point to another; they are masterpieces of engineering and design, and a goldmine for photographers. Whether it's a grand suspension bridge with soaring cables or a humble stone arch bridge in a park, they are fundamentally built on principles of structure, line, and often, perfect symmetry. Their strong, graphic shapes make for powerful and dynamic compositions.
Symmetry is the most obvious compositional gift a bridge offers. Walk to the exact center of the pedestrian path and shoot straight ahead. The railings, lamps, and support structures will create a powerful, symmetrical image that pulls the viewer's eye right into the scene. For an even more dramatic shot, get low to the ground to accentuate the leading lines. Don't forget to look for reflections! On a calm day, the water below a bridge can act as a perfect mirror, allowing you to create a stunning vertically symmetrical photograph.
Bridges are also phenomenal for practicing framing. The complex network of cables on a suspension bridge or the steel trusses of a railway bridge can be used to create fascinating geometric frames around the city skyline, a passing boat, or the sunset. Don't just stand in the middle. Walk to the side and use the main support towers to frame the landscape beyond. Shoot through the gaps in the railings to create a more intimate, layered view of the scene.
3. Libraries and Museums
These quiet, contemplative spaces are sanctuaries of knowledge, art, and stunning architecture. They are often designed to feel grand and awe-inspiring, which means their architects have already done half the compositional work for you! From long, echoing hallways to grand reading rooms with soaring ceilings, libraries and museums are packed with the kind of order and repetition that makes practicing symmetry a joy.
Look for the main reading room. You’ll often find long tables arranged in perfect rows, with lamps creating a repeating pattern. Find the central aisle, get low, and capture the beautiful, receding symmetry. Grand staircases are another classic subject. Position yourself at the bottom, dead center, and shoot upwards to capture the elegance of its symmetrical design. Many museum galleries are simply a series of rooms connected by large doorways or archways—perfect for symmetrical shots.
These same archways and doorways are your tools for framing. Stand in one gallery and use a doorway to frame a specific sculpture or painting in the next room. This technique not only highlights your subject but also adds a wonderful sense of depth and discovery to your image. The towering shelves in a library are another great tool. Use the gap between two aisles of books to frame a person reading at a table, creating a private, studious mood.
4. Parks and Formal Gardens
While we often think of nature as wild and untamed, formal gardens are the complete opposite. They are meticulously designed landscapes where symmetry, patterns, and order reign supreme. Think of the grand gardens of European palaces or even your local, well-kept city park. These spaces are intentionally crafted to be visually harmonious, making them an ideal location to explore natural symmetry and framing.
The most obvious element to work with is a long, straight pathway. Center it in your frame to act as a powerful leading line that divides the scene into two symmetrical halves. Fountains, statues, and circular flower beds are often the central anchor points of these gardens. By placing them in the middle of your composition, you can build a beautifully balanced image around them. A key insight from my own work, and something Goh Ling Yong often emphasizes, is to use water. Ponds and lakes in parks on a windless day are nature’s mirrors, creating breathtakingly perfect symmetrical reflections of trees and skies.
Nature also provides its own, more organic framing elements. Look for the low-hanging branch of an old tree and use it to frame a distant gazebo or a couple sitting on a bench. A trellis covered in flowers or an archway in a hedge can serve as a perfect, romantic frame for a subject. Even shooting between the trunks of two large, parallel trees can create a powerful natural frame that adds depth and focuses attention.
5. Arcades and Colonnades
If you're looking for a location that is practically a textbook on composition, find a classic arcade or colonnade. These covered walkways, lined with repeating columns and arches, are a dream for photographers who want to master lines, depth, and patterns. The interplay between the light filtering in from the side and the shadows cast by the columns creates a dramatic, high-contrast environment that is incredibly photogenic.
Symmetry is the name of the game here. Stand in the dead center of the walkway, and you have an instantly powerful composition. The repeating pillars on either side create a "hall of mirrors" effect, pulling the viewer's eye towards a vanishing point at the end of the arcade. This is a fantastic exercise in precision; even being a few inches off-center can throw off the entire effect, so take your time to line up the shot perfectly.
For framing, simply step to one side. Use the space between any two columns to frame a person walking, a captivating storefront, or a detail of the architecture across the way. This is an incredibly effective way to create a sense of voyeurism and depth. You can also get creative by using the arches themselves as a frame. Get low and angle your camera upwards to use the curve of the arch to frame the ceiling's intricate details or a dramatic light fixture.
6. City Plazas and Town Squares
The heart of any city is its central plaza or town square. These open, bustling spaces are hubs of public life, surrounded by impressive architecture, and are often designed around a central, unifying feature. This combination of wide-open space and structured, man-made elements makes them a versatile playground for practicing both framing and symmetry on a grander scale.
Look for the square's central point of interest—it could be a towering monument, an ornate fountain, or a historic statue. This is your anchor for a symmetrical shot. Position yourself so this central element is perfectly in the middle of your frame, and then look at the buildings surrounding the square. Often, the architecture will be balanced, if not perfectly symmetrical, on either side, allowing you to capture a grand, balanced cityscape. Don't forget to look down; the patterns in the paving stones can often be used to create their own symmetrical compositions.
The buildings and structures around the plaza offer a wealth of framing opportunities. Find an archway in a surrounding building and use it to frame the entire square, creating a "picture within a picture." Sit at an outdoor café and use the window as a frame for the life bustling outside. You can even use people in the foreground, like two people sitting on a bench, to frame a monument in the distance, adding a human element and a greater sense of scale to your photograph.
Your Turn to Practice
Mastering composition isn't about memorizing rules; it's about developing your photographic eye. It's about learning to see the world not just as a collection of things, but as a series of shapes, lines, and patterns. The public spaces we've explored today are your gym, your training ground for building this crucial skill. From the rigid lines of a subway tunnel to the manicured paths of a formal garden, the potential for incredible shots is everywhere.
The next step is simple: go out and shoot. Pick one of these locations near you, or find a similar one, and give yourself a specific assignment. Spend an hour just looking for symmetry. Then, spend another hour focused solely on finding natural and architectural frames. Don't worry about getting the "perfect" shot right away. The goal is practice. The more you do it, the more naturally you'll start to see these compositional elements everywhere you go.
Now it's over to you! Grab your camera, start exploring, and put these tips into practice. We would absolutely love to see what you create. Share your best framing and symmetry photos in the comments below, or tag us on Instagram. Happy shooting
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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