Im pretty confident that a decent hand full of you will know of this Outstanding photographer. However I continuously run into conversations with other photogs where Joe’s name gets brought up and I get the equivalent of a blank stare back across our cyber conversation.

Joe McNally has been in the game with over 30 years under his batman-esque belt. Working for big name companies like Nikon, TIME, Fortune, New York Times, Men’s Journal, Sports Illustrated, an extraordinary 23 years with National Geographic, and a list that continues miles down the road. To say Joe know’s his stuff would be grossly understated! When you peruse through Joe’s work its undeniably obvious he is an absolute master of lighting and color, and truly wrote the book on using Small Flashes like the Nikon Speedlight series. With an outstanding personality that matches his extraordinary skill, its no wonder he’s one of the top trainers on sites like KelbyTraining.com .

Joe is also known for his work on raising money (2 million dollars to be exactish) for the relief effort after the tragic happenings of 9/11. He headed up a project called Faces of Ground Zero, using the world’s ONLY LIFE-SIZE Polaroid camera (Literally the size of a 2 stall garage). The project is considered by many to be one of the most important and influential art endeavors to evolve from the 9/11 tragedy.

Joe’s Blog is one I frequent often to get my fix of pure inspiration. At times it’s difficult to not want to set your camera down and call it quits in fear you would never reach his level of talent, knowledge and sheer Bad Assnessness…ness (Thats right I said it). But to paraphrase Joe’s Humble words, 30 years in the trenches will lead to similar awesomeness. So yea.. we’ve got that to look forward too. In the mean time take a cautious look at his work. I say proceed with extreme caution as there is a good chance your mind will either melt or explode… hey Im just sayin, Im looking out for your safety! Continue reading →