Nostalgia & History > GP-30 Thurs: Which one?

Here is Santa Fe GP-30 #3267 sitting at the roundhouse in Dodge City, KS. It’s a warm summer night in 1978 and this old veteran is just sitting there minding its own business. Here comes this 23 year old kid with a tripod & camera. He sets the tripod, levels the camera, selects a pre-calculated aperture of f~5.6, focuses and presses the shutter release (in ‘bulb’ setting) also for a pre-calculated 30 seconds. CLICK… and said youngster is on his way to somewhere else. A true hit & run.

Years later this "not-so-young kid" is running his young kid photograph through Photoshop. There surfaces a problem. The level is good. The focus is good. The exposure is right on the money. Even the color is pretty fair, considering the various types of lighting within the field of view. The problem is in composition. This not-so-young kid is having a bit of difficulty deciding where & what to crop. Does he keep most of the native limestone building’s detail by cutting out the white trailer van on the right? If he does the obvious focal point of the GP-30’s nose shifts too far to the right. Or does he include the van, cut part of the limestone building which puts the nose of the 30 correctly in the right “third”. But now he has the two bright light distractions at both the extreme left & extreme right hand sides of the field of view…

The not-so-young kid is now wishing the young kid had paid more attention to what he was shooting back in 1978. The sneaky solution? Post both results and left the viewer decide.

Here are the 2 versions of AT&SF GP-30 3267 sitting in Dodge City, KS on July 30, 1978. Take your pick:
1. Frame left, or…

2. Frame right.

Thanks for choosing! (or take ‘em both; the price is right… ;^)
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/22 02:48 by santafe199.

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Lance:
I'll take No. 2! More interest w/ the Santa Fe trailer.

William Jeffers, P.E.
San Dimas, CA

I'll put my vote with #1.

Why?  Because my eye is immediately drawn to the subject of the photo, the GP30.  Only after taking in the details there am I drawn to the locomotive on the adjacent track and then to the sand tower, then, perhaps, the building.

In #2, determining that the real subject is the GP30 takes figuring out.  It's like taking a photo of 5-6 people as a group shot.  Which one is -the- important one?  The Santa Fe trailer is an important element of the picture.  However, if there are other photos of the trailer that night, then I'd definitely go with #1.  Also, the wire coming from the light pole between the Geep and the trailer seems more distracting in the second shot because there is more of it in the frame. 

If I were to put on a show, I'd go with #1 as there is 'less to take in' in the brief time an image is on the screen (2-10 seconds, typically).  On the other hand, if all future viewing will be for yours and perhaps a couple of friends pleasure, I'd keep the original picture as is and zoom in to look at any details on the computer.  Perhaps one of the biggest advantage of digital photos is that it can be altered and saved in multiple ways with different cropping, lighting, special effects, etc.

I vote for #1 for basically the same reasons as Mr. Atkinson gives, though both are good.  Version 2 may work as a vertical format with the GP30 and the trailer and leaving the other items to the left out.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/15 08:57 by MILW16.

Number 2 - Trailer is the icing on the nostalgic cake even if it is considered a distraction from the main subject.

Bob Jordan

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/15 11:09 by robj.

From a composition standpoint, No. 1 is better, but from a content standpoint, the trailer adds a lot.

Lance,

Gotta go with #1, only because the white lighting is just a little
less harsh.

Did you get Daisy's opinion ?

Lance

There is an Alternative 3 -- focus on the locomotives which were really what interested that young railfan and crop it so it obeys the rule of thirds.

Marty

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No. 1.  Shows an engine terminal at night, without a truck parking lot as a distraction.  If you were in  a photo class I'd guess No. 1 would get the highest grade.

Frame left please.

Sorry, but that truck trailer is just as essential to telling the overall story as anything else pictured. You're talking history "back in the day."

MartyBernard Wrote: > ... focus on the locomotives ... so it obeys the rule of thirds ...

Looking back from the year 2022: Yikes Marty!!! What-the-hello were you thinking???? You've cropped the crap out of my image, rendering it basically USELESS. You've erased ALL of the limestone building on the left AND the foreground detail in an attempt to get a plain ol' roster shot that draws very little interest. That white light giving the limestone building all kinds of texture, and the shadowed weeds in the foreground give my image the definite feel of a hot summer night. You can almost literally HEAR the crickets in my images #1 & #2. Your butchering offers no such information. Speaking of your so-called "rule of thirds", you left way too much sky darkness in your version, making my photo very bottom-heavy. I wish I'd seen this butcher-job back then. I would have told your to delete it immediately...

Photo Three

The inclusion of subjects left and right which have nothing to do with the central scene just adds confusion.
The light flare above the locomotive needs to be dodged to better match the other flares. 

As one interested in the historical aspect of the scene, I prefer the one with the building and the ATSF trailer. I think it is one of those scenes that no matter how you want to slice the rule of thirds and composition that there is not much there than a typical ok night roster shot by doing it. By the inclusion of all the details it gives a better overall record of what was there at the time. There are much better ATSF roster shots out there if that is what someone is looking for, and many well composed views with rules of thirds and balance and other compositional nuances overall of the Santa Fe. So to me this image with all the details and "distractions" is far more valuable and interesting as an historic record than trying to make it some balanced compositional masterpiece.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/22 12:38 by train1275.