Photographers I look up to: Joe Mcnally

My first experience with photography was in 1989 and it didn’t go too well, so I didn’t basically touch a photographic camera until 2001. When, I did start doing photography for many years, I relied on the skills, I learnt from my video production degree, which it turned out were not great.

In 2006, I did a basic digital photography course, which seemed great at the time but in retrospect, whilst in some ways useful, also gave some terrible advise.

I then started to look elsewhere for ways of becoming a better photographer. I started to apply for jobs as an assistant, which didn’t go well. One of the replies told me, that my photography wasn’t very good and my lighting was terrible. Now, that guy wasn’t very nice, in fact, he was a complete ass. The thing was, at the time most of the people I knew, were telling me how great my photography was but I knew, that it wasn’t close to what I thought I could achieve and the guy wasn’t telling me something I didn’t know.

It soon became clear, that I wasn’t going to get in that way, unless I knew much more about photography. So I started to look around at ways I could improve my photography.

The first, photographer, who really inspired me was Joe Mcnally. Joe Mcnally is one of the greatest living photographer. He is a legend in photographic circles, he is well known for being a mast of flash, the last staff photographer for Life magazine and as a Nikon ambassador. Joe’s career started out working in newspapers, where he learnt his trade and over time, he became one of the great photographers, shooting for a variety of publications and clients. In 2001, he did the photographic project Faces of Ground Zero, Faces of heroes September 11 September 2001, New York City. Where he photographed the man and woman who gave support during the September 11th attacks on the world trade centre. Now days, whilst still working, Joe also does lots of classes around the world teaching lighting.

My first encounter with Joe Mcnally, was his book The Hot Shoe Diaries. Which was a photographic book, part teaching lighting, part autobiographical. telling about his shoots and also how he did some of his setups. It is a great book, maybe not for the purist. It doesn’t feel like a technical book and the way Joe writes, feels more personal. Soon after I bought his first book, The Moment it Clicks and later Sketching Light, which I would recommend for people who enjoy a fun read and want to learn a little about photography. He also published Life: Guide to Digital Photography by Joe Mcnally, which is very much a beginners book about photography and still pretty easy to read.

My first encounter, with Joe was at a workshop, that he did for Kelby One. The class was good and I did learn some stuff, though much of it was an extension of his book. Later though I did a second class and probably because I knew what I was getting, I enjoyed it more.

Since then, I have seen Joe a couple of times and got to talk to him. He is very genuine and a great guy. Now, at one stage, my photography followed very close to his but as I have got more experienced, my technique has changed and I would say that I shoot in a very style to him, though I still take all of what I have learnt from him into consideration when doing a shoot (it wasn’t just lighting I learnt).

I hugely admire Joe Mcnally, he is really the ultimate photographer, with the bonus being that he is a good guy.. So whilst, I am a very different photographer now to the one I was back then, I still will always look up to Joe Mcnally.

Joe Mcnally’s website: https://portfolio.joemcnally.com/index