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One of the world's finest photographers recently held a 2-day workshop here in Alberta, and I was lucky enough to attend.
Joe McNally ran his lighting workshop to a full house of just under 300 attendees. I can summarize the workshop in one word: Amazing!
Joe's informal style and straight-forward approach is like a breath of fresh air. He was absolutely open and honest, answering hundreds of questions on topics ranging from extreme technical detail to the worst shoot he'd done.
Joe has a fabulous sense of humour and is very humble. His interaction with the models (hired for the session) and with the audience was casual, friendly, and many times hilarious. Members of the audience were able to participate in several of the shooting scenarios over the two days, and those that chose not to participate enjoyed learning the techniques being demonstrated.
I was very happy to learn that Joe likes to "get it right in the camera" and not rely heavily on post-processing. This suits my personal "shooting style" perfectly.
I was most struck with Joe's "seat of the pants" approach to lighting. "Let's just throw this up and see what happens..." was a common phrase spoken by Joe when introducing a new lighting scenario. Starting with the simplest of single flash scenarios to complex multi-strobe and continuous lighting combinations, Joe took a "slow and steady" course and made certain that the audience had understood all of the technical details along the way.
The session ended with some dancers form the Alberta Ballet and some amazing dance photos. One of the most amazing photos included strapping bicycle LED lights on to the dancer and doing a BULB long exposure (of about 10 seconds) while the theatre was blacked out. A reasonably simple technique with outstanding results!
The long and the short of it: if you ever get a chance to attend a Joe McNally workshop, DO NOT MISS IT! I guarantee that you will learn something new and come away inspired.
I know I did....
Alberta Ballet Performer Melissa Boniface, Joe McNally Lighting Workshop
Nov. 14, 2010, Calgary, AB. Canon S90, ISO 400, 15 second exposure, hand-held |
