Tip of the Day – Think Twice About Composition, Part 2

"There is no better time to crop a bad composition than just before you press the shutter release.” —Bryan Peterson, from the book, Learning to See Creatively: Design, Color & Composition in Photography

In May 2015, I began a discussion of composition in photographs. It’s been eight years. I hope no one held their breath waiting for Part 2. One could decompose in the time it took me to gin up the next installment.

The Wonderful (and too on-point) Pearls Before Swine by Stephen Pastis (15 May 2020)

As I noted then, there is much to consider with composition because aspects like leading lines, the ‘rule of thirds’, diagonals, curves and symmetry are all important. One can easily find explanations and tutorials on the Interweb. Also, know that none of these ‘rules’ are absolute. I’ve seen too many photographs on gallery walls that break the rules because the photos still appeal (in some way to some people).

Here are a few illustrated tips on some of the considerations regarding what to include (or exclude) from a photograph. I believe where you position yourself or the direction the picture is taken can be critical.

Example 1: Background - When I was in Cheyenne, Wyoming to shoot the capitol, I saw this decorated boot. It might have been part of Cheyenne’s version of the civic art craze that was common awhile back. Chicago artists decorated cows and Baltimore had colorful crabs all over downtown.

                               

Cheyenne Boot - No (22 August 2011)
                          

              Cheyenne Boot – Yes (22 August 2011)                  

I can be hasty sometimes. This actually was a case of, “Ooh. Stop the car. I want a shot of this.” And we’re back on the road a minute later. But half the boot is shaded and the refurbished motel makes for a lousy background. Move a few feet to the right and both problems are solved. Since this was a BIG boot, including a person for scale might have helped as well.

Example 2: Background – On the waterfront in Reykjavik, Iceland is a striking sculpture. The ‘Sun Voyager’ resembles a Viking long ship but is intended to imply seeking the sun and freedom. I would hope you can see that positioning the object with the mountains and sea behind it is preferred over the oil tank farm as a background.

Sun Voyager + Oil Tanks (14 March 2016)

Sun Voyager – Oil Tanks (14 March 2016)

Example 3: Subject Position and Background - Inside the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. is a beautiful central rotunda. Immense black columns surround a fountain topped by a statue of Mercury. The floral displays around the fountain and the round fountain itself gives you a multitude of perspectives to shoot the scene.

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (5 April 2018)

While the figure atop the fountain is inviting, one should take advantage of the lighter background and not superimpose Mercury against one of the black columns.

Mercury Atop the Rotunda Fountain

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (8 November 2014)

We’ve been over backgrounds. Clearly, this view is wrong in many ways.

Mercury Atop the Rotunda Fountain

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (8 November 2014)

I would also suggest a butt-end perspective is not the best way to view the figure.

Mercury Atop the Rotunda Fountain

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (8 November 2014)

This would be the keeper. The figure is facing in an acceptable direction and is contrasted well against a lighter background.

Thanks for visiting. If there is a Part 3 to this series, I hope it appears before 2031.

Ballparks # 23 - Busch Stadium, St. Louis

Busch Stadium, St. Louis

(From Google Images)

As a kid in New York, I first became a baseball fan in the mid-50’s. At that time, the major league teams were well-established. There were eight teams in the National League and eight teams in the American League...as it had been for a half century. The geography was also pretty simple. The teams were in the northeast and midwest. The arrangement existed since before we had forty-eight states and the thought of expanding west into the frontier was fantasy. The Mississippi River and St. Louis were as far west as the game went. Now, major league baseball has grown to thirty teams with more than a third of them (11) located further west than the western-most team once was.

This summer’s drive-about included more than graves. Between VP # 35 in western Kentucky and VP # 23 in central Illinois, a Cardinal game in St. Louis was too close to miss. Plus, on this day, the visiting team was my local Washington Nationals. You might remember in past ballpark posts, I include a link to the box score of the game. There is no date above to do that. Read on.

Gate 3 Entrance, Busch Stadium, St. Louis (14 July 2023)

The ballpark entrance on the third base side has steel work

that resembles the iconic Eads Bridge. Completed in 1874,

the nearby span is the oldest bridge on the

Mississippi River downstream of the Missouri River.

St. Louis has been a part of the game’s history from its earliest days. Pro baseball was played in the city before the National League was formed in 1876. For decades in the twentieth century, baseball cities like New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and St. Louis had two major league teams.

The National League Cardinals is one of the most successful baseball franchises. With eleven championships, only the (damn) Yankees have won more World Series titles. Only the Dodgers and Giants have won more National League pennants.

Statue of Lou Brock

Busch Stadium, St. Louis (14 July 2023)

At one corner of the tight street square that encloses the stadium are action figures of Cardinal stars including Bob Gibson, Ted Simmons, Dizzy Dean and Lou Brock here. In one of the more regretted trades in baseball history, the rival Cubs gave up on young Brock and traded him for non-entities...before he went on to a Hall of Fame career with over 3000 hits and many stolen base records.

In the earliest days of the franchise, the 1880’s team that became the Cardinals often battled the team that became the Chicago Cubs for the top playoff honors in the game. The Cardinal-Cub rivalry has endured to this day. The Lou Brock story has helped keep that tension alive.

In the early twentieth century, Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby won two Triple Crowns and managed the team to its first World Series win in 1926. In the 1930’s, Dizzy Dean and the ‘Gashouse Gang’ Cardinals won a World Series. In 1937, Cardinal Joe ‘Ducky’ Medwick was the last National League player to cop a Triple Crown. In the ‘40’s and ‘50’s, Stan ‘The Man’ Musial led the team to three more World Series wins.

Plaque on Clark Street

Busch Stadium, St. Louis (14 July 2023)

As this plaque outside the stadium shows, the

ballpark overlaps the footprint of the former Busch Stadium.

As the shot below illustrates, the new stadium sits tight

against Interstate 64 right before it crosses the Mississippi.

In the Shade of Interstate 64

Busch Stadium, St. Louis (14 July 2023)

Unlike the Atlanta Braves ballpark complex that has related commerce growing out on all sides, there is no walking the full perimeter of this stadium. Its footprint is shoe-horned next to an interstate highway on one side and railroad tracks on another.

Across from Busch Stadium

St. Louis (14 July 2023)

Occupying the rest of the footprint of the former stadium are ballpark-related retail and gathering joints. I ducked in to get out of the heat, grab a beer and chat it up with some of the famously faithful and friendly Cardinal fans. A couple wearing team colors drove down from Iowa for the game. They lamented the team’s current last-place standing in the division, but were all midwest nice about it.

Statue of Stan Musial

Busch Stadium, St. Louis (14 July 2023)

The greatest Cardinal of them all has a second representation

apart from the stars preserved down the street.

The current ballpark is called Busch Stadium and is named after August Busch, the Anheuser-Busch beer magnate who purchased the team in 1953. The stadium opened in 2006 and the Cards properly christened it by winning the World Series that year, a feat that only the New York Yankees accomplished when the new/old Yankee Stadium opened in 1923.

The place is also referred to as Busch Stadium III. Since 1920, the team rented Sportsman’s Park, owned by their American League rivals, the Browns. In 1954, when the Browns moved to Baltimore to become the Orioles, they sold the stadium to the Cardinals owners who wanted to rename it ‘Budweiser Stadium.’ The commissioner of baseball wasn’t keen on naming a park after a beer so Augie named it after himself, thus we have Busch Stadium I. By the mid-60’s, Busch II came along...another sad, plastic, cookie-cutter, multi-use facility where the Cardinals and their NFL namesake team played starting in 1966.

Busch Stadium, St. Louis (14 July 2023)

Like almost all the ballparks built after Baltimore’s Camden Yards,

Busch Stadium III chose to orient the outfield view toward downtown

and its iconic structures like the Gateway Arch and the City Hall dome.

So, why no link to the ‘Baseball Reference’ web site where you can find the full box score of the contest this day? Let’s continue and learn why that won’t be possible. 

Upper Deck, Last Row

Busch Stadium, St. Louis (14 July 2023)

Since I was there to noodle around the stadium and look for images, the seat to watch the game is a secondary consideration. At the ticket window, I asked for the cheapest seat in the house. It being a stinky hot day, it was a pleasant surprise to find that the $12 seat in the last row of the upper deck came with a cooling breeze through the chain link behind me.

Top of the First

Busch Stadium, St. Louis (14 July 2023)

It was also where I was among the first to see those menacing clouds rolling in from the west. It was then the thought process went something like, “I have a room reserved forty minutes up the road in Illinois. I’m hot and sweaty. I got the shots. Maybe it would be wise to bug out before anyone else.”

Clearly, driving away in the bottom of the first inning was easy. The Nats were already down 1-0. I listened to the game on the radio until the third inning when the sky unloaded and the tarp was rolled out. The storm was bad enough that play never resumed. I didn’t miss much at all. The game didn’t last long enough to become ‘official’...but was as far as my bucket list is concerned.