Joe McNally Photography

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…..

Been shooting like mad lately, experimenting, pushing a bit. Had a great session with Baakari Wilder recently, one of the world’s premier tap dancers. He danced the lead in Broadway’s Bring in Da Noise Bring in Da Funk, and it was simply an honor to photograph him. The above was done with LED’s attached to his fingers and his tap shoes. One exposure with two pops of flash. It is in the realm we’ll experiment with during the coming lighting workshops in Dobbs Ferry in late July. We have altered the sked a bit, due to demand for the limited number of advanced lighting workshops we originally posted. The advanced techniques classes zoomed straight through to wait list status, so hit the link above to see the revised workshop calendar, as we have changed things up a bit.

June is always a busy month, so much so I’ve not been able to get down to teach the lighting class at DINFOS (the Dept. of Defense Information School, otherwise known as The Schoolhouse, at Ft. Meade). The lighting class has been left in the enormously capable hands of Tom Sperduto, recently of the Coast Guard, who is a non-stop force of nature with a camera in his hands. Check out his blog. Tom basically geared up as a dedicated shooter not all that long ago, and the amount of ground he has covered and reach he has now as both a shooter and a teacher is more than a bit amazing. He led this year’s DINFOS military phojo lighting class, and they made a movie of their week together. Check it out here.

They, uh, obviously responded to Tom’s teaching style. I’ve got a long history teaching young photojournalists in the military, and at our lighting workshops this year we’ve come up with an option that will make it easier for them to attend. Good bunch, who take risk a lot to make images in all manner of dicey situations.

The Dobbs space we have is very cool, and this year we have access to the Hudson River, which we have never had before. Working in the studio, and the roof, and on location this past week, experimenting, which is the deal when it comes to lighting.

Shot the lovely Britney Jean Hying on the rooftop at Dobbs last week, doing her best Jean Harlow, in a vintage gown.

And the ever fluid Baakari on stage, with smoke and theater lights. Very simple flash….two SB 900 units up front, off to the sides. Raw light. Minimal gear and approach. It was just wonderful watching him create his own rhythm in response to the music. As he said, for a tapper, “The floor is the instrument.”

Hope to see you up in Dobbs. It’s already been a lot of fun…..more tk…..

Once again, we’re going down to the Hudson, to that old, ramshackle building, filled with photo possibilities. Back to an 8000 square foot room, with high ceilings, western light, white walls, decrepit hallways, and the Harlem-Hudson line running by, on a sort of semi-regular basis. We’ll be running them again in mid-July. This year, we’re trying something new, in that we do a series of “regular” lighting workshops, soup to nuts, small flash, big flash, but then at the end, we do 3 straight days of advanced one-day lighting workshops. Hi speed flash, double exposure, flash and blur, and the like.

To find out more info, or to register, CLICK HERE.

Lots of lights, all day long. More tk….

Had a great time in Philly yesterday. Nice folks, packed house. They even put up with me while a camera exploded in the first hour. Seems it was the one from the sandstorm last week, and it just gave up the ghost right there on stage. Always an interesting moment when you have 600 people in the room with you and your exposures are 3 stops hot. Oops! But here’s the thing. It’s nothing new. It’s camera work on location. Stuff goes wrong. Folks were interested and patient with me while I worked it out and pulled things back on the rails. I also got some offers from audience members to borrow a Canon camera:-)

Did this in about 3 or 4 minutes with Isidor. Two flashes two tri-grips.

And we did a quick “commercial” looking shot with Kate, who is a dancer with the Philadelphia 76ers. (I’m a Knick fan, but we got past it. Honestly, there hasn’t been much to argue about in the last few years about either team.) Bright white background, Ezy Box Hot Shoe softbox up front, with some low fill. All TTL.

Move pretty quick on these Kelby days. Got a couple on more on tap, Denver and Sacramento. I talk fast all day, and try to get as much done and as much info out there as I can in the 5 hours we have together. Yesterday was a hoot, good bunch of folks in the audience, though Drew, Lynda and I were pretty zapped at the end of the day, which made for an interesting drive back up the Jersey Pike….more tk….