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Every so often, The American Organist, the official publication of the American Guild of Organists decides not to publish a full bleed cover photo and print a silly border around a smaller photo instead.

I cannot normally understand the rationale for this practice. The smaller photo radically alters the appearance of the cover and disrupts the continuity of the serial publication.

This month, however, the quality of the photo was so poor that I could understand a graphic designer* wanting to soften the blow.

The organ console appears to be centered in the room, but inexplicably, the photographer is not. Notice the pews on the left side of the aisle are nearly lined up from the camera's perspective; those on the right are not.

The photo's off-centeredness becomes painfully obvious when looking at Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church's large suspended cross. It should be directly in front of the center of the case. Since the photographer is standing to the left, the cross is offset to the right. I would estimate the cross obscures about 70% of the second facade pipe on sharp side, while leaving the C side completely exposed.

This kind of disparity should be painfully obvious to the photographer!

Other things that would have improved this photo:

• Clean up those books, or just get rid of them! - The hymnals and bibles look sloppy, but I would argue but they don't even need to be there. The pews give scale, but the books are very distracting visually, especially when it looks like they were hastily returned to the pews after the closing hymn by hungry Presbyterians eager to get to lunch. They were also a dead give away for the denominational component of my TAO cover guessing game (which I guess I'm really not too upset about; my initial impression was Methodist).
• Clean up the church literature and pencils - No one reading this magazine needs to fill out a membership card or reach for an offertory envelope. If you are going to leave it there, at least make sure the material is arranged the same way in each pew.
• Get rid of the piano - Don't tell me you can't get it all the way out of the frame. Just a few more feet! The chancel looks cluttered enough as it is. Get that hunk of wood out of there.
• The console is too far back - That open floor space, while shiny, really doesn't serve the photo very well. Unless you're going to crop this photo way down, move the console out.
• Rip out those gold handrails - All you need is a power screw driver and a good 15 minutes. There's probably a good segment of the congregation that will thank you. (You could also paint them white, though this would be smelly, more expensive and would take longer.)

* I don't know if TAO has a graphic designer but they do have an Editor, Copy Editor and Editorial Assistant on staff. What they really need is a photo editor.