A good shot, even though I would frame more tightly. However, this framing also works, in a way that is easy to just see. Explaining visual language in words doesn’t quite work. But just as importantly, a good example of your goal to make post-processing invisible. It’s as if the frame came out of the camera this way.
Lots of people go overboard and their photos end up looking DONE. It’s yucky and unnecessary. It’s true that a ‘negative’ always needs to be interpreted, but just like a translation of a text, the interpretation (post-processing) should be invisible. It should not make you think “Oh, man, someone’s gone trigger-happy on the computer.”
Have you ever read a really good translation of the Bible? It’s like the thing was written in English from the beginning. And those Asterix books? Translating language-specific humour from French to English would seem an impossible task, and yet it works.
I think this is perfect.
Thank you.
Gotta go with perfect, too. Composition, color, and angle are spot on and make me look for the pitch, too….just like the batter. These are not easy shots although your final image makes it look natural and easy.
Of particular importance to me was the space in front of the batter, for the reason you cite, and also for inclusion of the fence, which draws your eye from left (where the batter stands) to right, where the spectators stand and where the fence tapers and terminates just before the edge of the frame. The background buildings fill in the remaining space. There is harmony there, with respect to composition (and I haven’t even touched upon the effect of the trees at the edges of the frame and the treeline that traverses the image to link them).
The final reason that the space in front of the batter is necessary will be obvious when you view the follow-up image.
This is the prosophos of old…! Enough said.
It’s fun to have my tools of choice back, and the light too. Thanks Andrew.
Prosophos 
A good shot, even though I would frame more tightly. However, this framing also works, in a way that is easy to just see. Explaining visual language in words doesn’t quite work. But just as importantly, a good example of your goal to make post-processing invisible. It’s as if the frame came out of the camera this way.
Lots of people go overboard and their photos end up looking DONE. It’s yucky and unnecessary. It’s true that a ‘negative’ always needs to be interpreted, but just like a translation of a text, the interpretation (post-processing) should be invisible. It should not make you think “Oh, man, someone’s gone trigger-happy on the computer.”
Have you ever read a really good translation of the Bible? It’s like the thing was written in English from the beginning. And those Asterix books? Translating language-specific humour from French to English would seem an impossible task, and yet it works.
I think this is perfect.
Thank you.
Gotta go with perfect, too. Composition, color, and angle are spot on and make me look for the pitch, too….just like the batter. These are not easy shots although your final image makes it look natural and easy.
Of particular importance to me was the space in front of the batter, for the reason you cite, and also for inclusion of the fence, which draws your eye from left (where the batter stands) to right, where the spectators stand and where the fence tapers and terminates just before the edge of the frame. The background buildings fill in the remaining space. There is harmony there, with respect to composition (and I haven’t even touched upon the effect of the trees at the edges of the frame and the treeline that traverses the image to link them).
The final reason that the space in front of the batter is necessary will be obvious when you view the follow-up image.
This is the prosophos of old…! Enough said.
It’s fun to have my tools of choice back, and the light too. Thanks Andrew.