Joe McNally Photography

Heading to the Islands again this year, with bud Scott Kelby. Had a blast last year, and I continue to be in love with this piece of the Caribbean I have been blessed to visit now for many years. Scott came last year, and was so blown away, he’s joining us earlier this time, shooting with us, and then doing Lightroom post-production magic at the end of the week.

Years ago, I shot this cover for Travel Holiday, a magazine that is long gone, and the ever gracious owners of the Anse Chastenet and Jade Mountain, Nick and Karolin Troubetzkoy, have invited me back time and again to do pictures for the hotel, and put my toes in the sand. The rooms have, well,  nice  views.

Hit this link for info. And check out Scott’s blog today.

More tk….

We’ve been having a blast at the workshops so far, and have been blessed with a wide range of amazing talent in front of the lens.  A big thank you goes out to Emmanuel Models in New York for sending them up from the city each day.

And now, a word from our sponsors:

Mr. Jeff Snyder of Adorama Camera.

And the one and only Mark Astmann, of Manfrotto Distribution.

We of course are waiting to be graced with the presence of Mike Corrado of the Nikon Corp. Then we’d have complete sponsor mayhem!

As you can see, we’re a very serious bunch here.

A huge thanks once again goes out to our workshop partners: Nikon, Adorama and Manfrotto.

All shots below are basically right out of camera. We’re mixing around lighting systems and styles, moving fast, and experimenting.

Nikon D3x with a 200 f/2. Elinchrom Ranger Quadra into a 39″ Deep Octa for the main light, and  two SB-900’s on SU-4, bounced into a Lastolite Trigrip for fill. 

Nikon D3x, 14-24. One SB-900 into a Lastolite shoot through Umbrella, camera left.  Tungsten white balance, and two full cuts of CTO on the flash.

Nikon D3x, 24-70 lens.  One SB-900, on-camera into a Ray Flash ring flash, on manual.

Back to Yellow Border dispatches tomorrow. This was just too much fun. We did our first advanced lighting workshops yesterday, and had a hoot. We have a rotating staff everyday of 7, which for a class of 15 folks, is a lot. All are, uh, talented in their own way. They tend to be in and out of my house a great deal, working there, sleeping over, sometimes to the point Annie just looks at me in the morning and says, “Okay, who’s here?”

I told her we’re basically running a home for wayward, visually talented boys. Andrew, Cali, and Grippi below….

Yesterday…both of these right outta camera. Small flash lighting with V-flats.

Big flash lighting, with Elinchroms outside the building, and a new grid system for a small strip right next to the amazingly lovely Brittany.

Same light from outside, but a deep Octa for Kayla to leap towards….

And, Taylor was fun to work with as well.

All in a day at Dobbs…..more tk….

Typical scene in Dobbs Ferry. Phil, one of our regular subjects, in the studio, lit with one SB900, an Ezybox Hotshoe Softbox, a Lastolite Tri-grip reflector, Manfrotto supports, Kata bag for Phil to lean on, and Mike, acting as a VAL. Actually, he’s holding a reflector, so maybe in this instance, he’s a VAR.

We have people to thank for helping us do this one more time this summer, which will be the last go round up in Dobbs for quite a while. The building is always in flux, and we were lucky to snag our high ceilings and 8000 square feet one more time. Hit this link for a workshop description.

First off, Nikon.  They will be there in full force, SB 900 units, giveaways, tech expertise, you name it. Bill Pekala and Mike Corrado at NPS got behind the workshops full force, and it is thanks to them we were able to launch.

Adorama and Jeff Snyder stepped up, as they always do. Can’t say enough about the folks at Adorama. No printouts, contracts, or back and forth. Just a handshake, and they are there for you, be it a workshop, or their ongoing support for Faces of Ground Zero, the 911 Giant Polaroid collection. Jeff Snyder will be there, offering field wisdom and advice. Adorama also chipped in with $25 discount coupons for the store.

Kriss Brungrabber and Mark Astmann of Manfrotto chipped in with all manner of light shapers, big flash, supports and the like. Mark will be there off and on, with his wealth of knowledge about the Quadra and all things flash. Lastolite light shapers, backgrounds, panels and diffusers will abound. We’ll also have two members of our staff who shoot Canon, and one has been to the Syl Arena school of Canon small flash, so we’ll be up to speed for those who use the, uh, other system:-)

Once again, as has been popular in the past, we have a whole series of Faces of Ground Zero and Nikon posters as giveaways.

All in all, a light fest.

Anybody out there who might have noticed the blog’s been a little, ahem, light lately, and my email and correspondence rate has fallen off the table is, well, right. Mostly about a deadline. Just churned 270 or so pages for my colleagues at LIFE for a new book. I am the last staff photog in the magazine’s history, so it has been an honor to participate, but boy, just about every key stroke over the last couple of months has gone to the book…..more on that, and more in general, tk…..