Photo of the Month

This month, NYI Associate Dean Jerry Rice has written the Photo of the Month Review. Jerry's keen eye can help readers decipher any type of photograph. A lifelong lover of fine photography, when Jerry talks about photographs, everyone at NYI listens. We know you'll enjoy Jerry's observations on this month's photograph.

At NYI we teach our students a simple Three-Step Method for setting up every photograph they shoot:

• Step 1. Know your subject.
• Step 2. Focus attention on your subject.
• Step 3. Simplify.

This simple Three-Step Method is the secret of every successful photograph ever taken. We teach our students to consider these three steps every time they look into the viewfinder. To consider them before they press the shutter button.

When our students mail in their photographs for analysis by their instructor, the instructor starts by commenting on what we call the three Guidelines. Of course, the instructor analyzes other elements of the picture too – focus, exposure, filters, etc. But the key to every good photo – and the essential element of every great photo – is adherence to these three Guidelines.

How do they work? How can you apply them? It's beyond the scope of this Web site to teach you every nuance, but you will get an inkling from the Photo of the Month Analysis that follows.

Photo of The Month: Boxer

Photo by NYI Graduate Jennifer L. Hird

"And in this corner, weighing in at 180 lbs, the up-and-coming contender for the Light Heavyweight Championship of the world, the Denver Devil...... Tony Malone!"

I can hear it now, hear it, not see it, because I'm talking about boxing broadcasts on radio. You remember radio, don't you? If not, ask your grandfather. I can hear the mellifluous tones of Bill Corum and Don Dunphy as they stirred my imagination with tales of derring-do, broadcasting the Fight of the Week. The Gillette Razor Company was a sponsor, "you look sharp every time you shave". And by Pabst: "What'll you have, Pabst Blue Ribbon," etc.

So, the NYI Photo of the Month, made by NYI Graduate Jennifer L. Hird of Denver, Colorado brought back so many memories. My Dad and I together. He with his glass of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, and I with a glass of Hire's Root Beer (still too young for the real stuff!). Waiting for the opening bell and Round One. Male bonding at its very best!

We heard about them all: Tippy Larkin, Gus Lesnevich, Rocky Graziano, Tony Zale, Archie Moore, and so many others. And the best of all? Joe Louis, the Heavyweight Champion of the world.

Back to Jennifer Hird's photograph.

I'll start with the first NYI Guideline, looking for strong subject matter in the photograph. I think that the very nature of the subject, boxing, indicates the strength of the picture. Strong subject matter should be applicable to all good photographs whether they are about violets, victory, violins, or valedictorians. But in the case of Jennifer's picture, it's not only the composition that is strong; it's also the very subject, the boxer.

The almost menacing look in his eyes reminds me of the great Jack Dempsey, the Manassa Mauler (and from Colorado, too). Old timers who saw him claimed he had murder in his eyes and hate in his heart.

Look at the powerful composition, the chief element in the second NYI Guideline. That massive right fist jabbing right toward the viewer's chin. It's oversized, bigger than life. Students in NYI's Complete Course in Professional Photography will remember the "dog nose" photo we show in one of the NYI lesson texts to teach this technique. That's the effect used here. The right fist is closer than usual, deliberately I presume, in order to seem as frightening as possible.

It's a right jab, of course, and the boxer is left handed. How do I know that? Because my dad told me so. If you're right handed you jab with your left and defend with your right. If you're a southpaw, you jab with right and defend with your left as the man in the photo is doing. How do I know that he's throwing a jab and not a right cross or right uppercut. Because the blow is coming straight from the shoulder at shoulder level and not in an arc nor from below. How do I know that, too? Because my dad told me that; you can learn a lot when you listen to your dad.

I want you to study carefully the position of the hands here. I always tell NYI students that after the eyes and the mouth, the hands are the next most expressive parts of the body. If the hands can be worked effectively into the composition the picture would be strengthened. And that's the case here. The hands focus attention on the composition as a whole. Focusing attention on the subject? Well, that's the second NYI Guideline, of course.

And there's another means of focusing attention on the subject -- the tight cropping of the head. Usually such tight cropping is not recommended but in this case it helps to narrow down the viewer's attention to the eyes and the fists. In boxing it's usually a good idea to focus attention on the eyes and the fists. Otherwise, you'll be focusing attention on the boxer's feet. You'll have a particularly good view of his feet when you're lying flat on your back in the ring canvas.

The third NYI Guideline, simplifying the picture, has been very well demonstrated here. Just the boxer's expression and the two fists and nothing more.

In my opinion, photographer Jennifer Hird has scored a knockout.