The Boxer'

This is 'The Boxer' from Tiger's Gym, Los Angeles, CA, fresh from a

hard workout. Notice the Rocky Balboa poster, background. Your

rating and critiques are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly or

very critically, please submit a helpful and constructive comment;

please share your superior photographic knowledge to help improve my

photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

The Rocky Balboa poster in the background is indeed a fine detail rounding up the composition. The boxing gloves are very dominant, which suits well to the subject, but they also seem to be a bit unconnected (is it really his hands?).

Thank you for the compliment.

 

Yes indeed those are his hands. Perhaps you have never seen real boxing gloves up close -- they're HUGE, and when used to frame face, and thus closer to the lens, as here, they take on their largest appearance, as would be expected.

I think you just got tricked a little by a little perspective (and perhaps lack of 'boxing gym' experience . . . .)

 

I really am thankful for your critique,as that issue would never have occurred to me, but perhaps it also occurs to others . . . . which is one way the critique process helps me learn.

 

Thanks again.

 

John (Crosley)

Hello John, I would say this is a very well shot street image and portrait. Rocky in the back ground is very good, the point is that the back ground contributes to your photograph, therefore very well composed shot at this instant. I like the expression on the boxer's face it shows fatigue, exhaustion, yet will power to fight on. I like the catch lights in the eyes of the boxer. Your image has a lot of energy and potential. The black and white tones are really very well done. Lots of credit to you and I like your images a lot....take care

I had just begun recovering from a serious -- very serious and extremely disabling sickness -- compounded by pre-existing orthopedic problems from two auto accidents (one old-one newer) which left me in more pain than most people experience when they are at death's door, and I was literally on my first photographic expedition when I took this, and barely regaining strength. (It's coming back now, however, but being in bed for two and a half months or more is severely debilitating.

 

In retrospect,after consulting with a physician today who is specialized at a facility which gives among the highest quality care in the nation (and affiliated with the sad hospital where I treated) I learned I might only have suffered 2 weeks or so, instead of 2-1/2 months or more, just from the sickness part, and as to the accident-related injuries, somebody cheated me out payment of insurance benefits that would have almost prevented any followup suffering and allowed for highest class (instead of low-class) treatment. (Obama's plan is too little, too late, but it's something and millions are getting nothing except a kick in the pants).

 

Anyway, I was driving and wandering about,and I was 'hot', even though I was thoroughly out of practice.

 

I'm awaiting a sponsor's new equipment and there'll be a brief break in output as I re-gear up., just for those interested in the 'interruption' in my output.

 

In any case, I happened to drive past the subject of my last decently rated photo -- a man arising from a crouch, cell phone in hand beneath an ape-man drawn on a wall serving a hamburger and milkshake, looking downward and askance at the rising man.

 

Just a block or so away, on the same street, was a gym run by a prize-fighter from Nigeria, "Tiger' of 'Tiger's Gym' -- a rather colorful and compact place, but well equipped.

 

I stepped in and asked 'Tiger' who was very approachable if I could just wander about and maybe take some shots, or maybe come back later for photos. 'Go ahead' he said in Nigerian-accented English. I did.

 

This is NOT a prize fighter. He is about 18 years old and never has had a fight. I don't know if he ever plans on fighting, but he is quite strong and can punch on a body bag very hard.

 

I watched him work out, took a sample of shots of him punching at various shutter speeds as he sparred with the bag, but alas, nothing wonderful for hoped-for blur effects, and all are on a hard drive, never to be seen again.

 

But for one brief moment, I asked this guy (not Tiger) to pose for me for a 'portrait' as a fighter.

 

He agreed, and with minimal direction moved his hands just so, and I I fired. I caught him in the 'magic moment' when the moon and stars were in alignment for the balance in the composition, I think is great.

 

I did give him some advice on how to hold himself, but them moved around and positioned the background 'just so' on the spur of the moment' as that 'something extra' that can help 'make' a photo.

 

I don't think you've seen my "Presentation' named 'Photographers: Watch Your Background' (or some such) which assuredly is Photo.net's largest presentation. You might search my site here and click on it.

 

It has maybe over 300 photos in which the background helps 'make' the photo, and in most cases the 'background' was carefully chosen for that purpose. Most photos have pretty good commentary about how the foreground and background 'work together'.

 

It is a tutorial, for many, in how to compose a shot taking the background into account. In effect, the presence (or absence) of a good background may make or break a shot, and I pay great attention to backgrounds whenever I can.

 

I always have, from my earliest days, but couldn't pinpoint exactly how I was doing it, until I undertook the mammoth task of putting together this largest Presentation on this site (if anybody thinks it isn't, please let me know whose is larger).

 

And it's unfinished, in keeping with the idea, that nothing in photography for me is ever finished.

 

You 'finish' publishing it when you print a book, but not 'learning' how to take photographs if you're ambitious, for each fact and technique creates new avenues to explore in photography.

 

What I was then doing naiively and instinctively, now, through creating that "Presentation' can be readily explained.

 

Just yesterday, a photographer wrote me how greatly that Presentation had influenced his style. It made the task seem very worthwhie. It also can be a book draft/it's copyrighted.

 

'Seeing' and 'including' the Rocky Balboa poster, took just a second or so, but if it had been misadjusted, misaligned, or obscured, the photo would either have been destroyed or have been that much less, wouldn't it?

 

I darkened the photo considerably and adjusted the contrast, so one could see the sweat on the young man's face -- he was sweating profusely - a hard-earned one for a young man in apparent great shape who had worked out extremely hard.

 

Maybe he'll be a fighter; maybe not.

 

I know he made a great subject for which I thank him.

 

And you for your kind remarks.

 

John (Crosley)