Cut the Corner

When I spotted this shot by Walter Scriptunas (captioned version here), I was immediately reminded of a favorite Andrew Blaszczyk shot. In both shots the tracks cut off the lower right corner, running from the lower margin to the right margin. Why did this particular style of composition work for me?

Let's take a look at Walter's shot first. Shooting steam results in unique challenges. One, for me, is that having the plume come up out of the engine means that one tends to think vertically in composition, especially if the shot is nose on (or, here, tail on). If one goes horizontal, one has to use the considerable space on either side of the subject.

The best way to fill that space is with interesting environment. But Walter is in a stand of trees - what to do? First of all, he shoves the engine to the right. Since the plume hangs off the left side a bit, he is able to fill the middle of his shot, not only with the top of the plume, but with two well defined tree trunks that lead the eye upwards. And he has a nice bonus for the viewer, a water tank peeking out from near the right edge. So, while all of the hardware action, so to speak, is in the right and lower right, he uses the plume to spread things out.

Andrew's shot (captioned version here) is a beautiful town and train shot. I see a diagonal with the railroad world on the right and the town on the left. The houses face the railroad, both literally in the position of their porches and in how their horizontal lines, the rooflines, the pieces of siding, lead to the tracks. The railroad side, by contrast, is a series of near verticals - the tracks, the engines in a pleasing near-vertical diagonal. The engines are a helper set, so the train fits completely within the frame and the eye is not drawn to the edges of the frame. The snow on the ground and in the air gives a nice base for the BW treatment.

One can always quibble. In particular, I think Walter leaves too much space on his left margin, so not quite enough compositional oomph over there and a bit of imbalance. So I would have cropped more. But then, I would not have gotten this shot in the first place! But both shots are the sorts of shots I think about when I am out, or that come to mind when I am at home and realize some missed possibilities. Try putting the train in a corner and fill the frame with elements that complement it.

I really, really like Andrew's shot and so I may return to it in a different context.