Adrian Schaub
July 2025 - Football Is Back In Town
Original
About the Image(s)
Switzerland will host the European Championship of Women Soccer (football in Europe). My hometown Basel is one of the host cities and they started yesterday to decorate the main bridge over the river Rhine with footballs. I liked how the tram lines are crossing the pictures and waited for suitable bypassers. My initial plan was to have a bike rider with a shadow on the white area of the ball. Luckily then a passenger passed by in the other direction looking at the ball, which gave a nice shot.
I faced tough decision when doing the crop: initially I wanted the railings of the bridge in the picture, because I like them. Furthermore I wanted to have the bike as well in the picture. However at the end I liked the stronger cropped version better because it is less distracting. Your thoughts?
Hasselblad X2D, XCD 30, ISO 400, f 6.8, 1/2000 sec
6 comments posted
Adrian, I look forward to some excellent photographs related to the football championship! I like this image, and the shadow of the woman bicycling is intriguing. I wanted to play with it a bit to see if I could make the story even more obvious. Your thoughts?
BTW, your amazing photographs have piqued my interest in acquiring a Hasselblad. Since the new version of yours is about to be released, I thought I'd wait for a final decision. Do you have any advice (especially about lenses)?
Posted: 07/05/2025 00:06:21
BTW, your amazing photographs have piqued my interest in acquiring a Hasselblad. Since the new version of yours is about to be released, I thought I'd wait for a final decision. Do you have any advice (especially about lenses)?
Posted: 07/05/2025 00:06:21
many thanks Pete for the flowers :-) The Hasselblad system has pros and cons and I read several reviews before acquiring the X2D and considered if the downsides mentionned therein (typically slow AF and lack of video) are relevant for me (they arent as I photograph M with AF assistance (pressing AFD button) and if needed can focus very precisely by the zoom function which I put on the back wheel). I love the simplistic User Interface as I used to get lost in submenus in other cameras. I use the XCD 65 (= equivalent to 50 mm in full frame) for almost all my pictures and am very happy. I have done great makros with the XCD 120. However I stopped switching lenses because I got tired of the dust accumulating on the sensor leading to spots (dont know if other brands have solved this better, but with 100 MP it is annoying). Hope this helps - drop me an email if you are interested in anything else. PS: the camera and the lenses have a considerable weight, which is another reason to not carry all of them with me Posted: 07/13/2025 09:36:31
Adrian
There was not a lot of freedom here when I came to cropping and I think you picked the right course of action. You will be able to fill your memory cards with soccer themed shots in the coming months. Keep your calendar clear
Regards
Emil Posted: 07/07/2025 20:26:56
There was not a lot of freedom here when I came to cropping and I think you picked the right course of action. You will be able to fill your memory cards with soccer themed shots in the coming months. Keep your calendar clear
Regards
Emil Posted: 07/07/2025 20:26:56
Michael Laezza
Adrian - I like both pictures for different reasons.
The original reflects the title more accurately " Football is back in town " . You can see the football image on the pavement and the main character is looking at it and there is a town in the background.
The B&W version appears less about football and about the main character looking at something/someone mysterious in the distance - The shadow of the bicycle introduces a second mystery. The impact this had on me was to try to interpret the image. A different title would help my interpretation.
It is interesting that we have to give a title to images submitted for competitions or displays and that viewers are guided by the title.
Cheers
Mike Posted: 07/13/2025 02:24:14
The original reflects the title more accurately " Football is back in town " . You can see the football image on the pavement and the main character is looking at it and there is a town in the background.
The B&W version appears less about football and about the main character looking at something/someone mysterious in the distance - The shadow of the bicycle introduces a second mystery. The impact this had on me was to try to interpret the image. A different title would help my interpretation.
It is interesting that we have to give a title to images submitted for competitions or displays and that viewers are guided by the title.
Cheers
Mike Posted: 07/13/2025 02:24:14
Hi Mike - very well observed: I initially planned to include the rail of the bridge and the skyline. i then dropped the idea, because I felt the viewer gets lost in the details. However your comment - to which I fully agree - encourages me to reconsider the cropping. BR. Posted: 07/13/2025 09:40:13
Adrian, I understand what you were trying to accomplish with the crop but I think if you added some background, it may give the viewer more context. I tried a different crop to see how it would look. I did remove the bicyclist and the person on the other side of the road. I didn't feel these added to the image. I did include some of the city so it give the person of in the image something to look to compliment the soccer ball. Posted: 07/15/2025 00:49:55