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Archive 2015 · Joe McNally Ottawa July 13th Event

  
 
FrancisK7
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Joe McNally Ottawa July 13th Event


I'm driving to Ottawa next Monday for the Joe McNally event. It's a one day portrait seminar.

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-moment-it-clicks-seminar-tour-with-joe-mcnally-ottawa-on-tickets-16340808799

If you are going, let me know I'll try to find you and say hi.

I will probably be the only 6'1" French Canadian with a beard, a cappuccino in his hand and 20 lbs to lose there, so don't be shy



Jul 09, 2015 at 08:19 AM
Flugelbinder
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Joe McNally Ottawa July 13th Event


I'm sure it'll be a great day! Enjoy!
Wish I could make it.



Jul 09, 2015 at 09:41 AM
FrancisK7
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Joe McNally Ottawa July 13th Event


Would I pass for a lunatic or a groupie if I brought my McNally books for him to sign?

I don't know what the proper etiquette for these things is. I really am a fan.



Jul 09, 2015 at 10:48 AM
Jason Ferber
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Joe McNally Ottawa July 13th Event


FrancisK7 wrote:
Would I pass for a lunatic or a groupie if I brought my McNally books for him to sign?

I don't know what the proper etiquette for these things is. I really am a fan.


Totally acceptable, I went to his workshop in Toronto a few years ago and tons of people had stuff for him to sign. During the breaks there was typically a line to talk to him/get his signature, so be prepared to miss breaks or lunch/wait a long time.

And most importantly, have fun!



Jul 09, 2015 at 01:21 PM
joelconner
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Joe McNally Ottawa July 13th Event


met him some years ago when he and David Hobby did their Flash Bus tour. Nice guy...even though I was there more to listen to Hobby heh


Jul 09, 2015 at 01:22 PM
DigMeTX
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Joe McNally Ottawa July 13th Event


joelconner wrote:
met him some years ago when he and David Hobby did their Flash Bus tour. Nice guy...even though I was there more to listen to Hobby heh


Both of those guys were influential on my early flash learning. The flash bus was pretty fun.



Jul 09, 2015 at 01:51 PM
FrancisK7
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Joe McNally Ottawa July 13th Event


David Hobby is a Half-God as far as I am concerned, because his contribution to photography with strobist is extremely significant. All that free content was a gold mine when I started.




Jul 09, 2015 at 01:57 PM
LeeSimms
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Joe McNally Ottawa July 13th Event


I'd love to shoot like McNally — big crew and everything


Jul 09, 2015 at 02:13 PM
Flugelbinder
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Joe McNally Ottawa July 13th Event


FrancisK7 wrote:
...All that free content was a gold mine when I started.



So very true!



Jul 09, 2015 at 02:14 PM
FrancisK7
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Joe McNally Ottawa July 13th Event


LeeSimms wrote:
I'd love to shoot like McNally — big crew and everything


I don't know if I would enjoy big crews, but I certainly enjoyed his books.

I figured the 99USD price tag was a small price to pay to check out whether the hype will live out to the expectations in person



Jul 09, 2015 at 02:31 PM
dsouzl
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Joe McNally Ottawa July 13th Event


I've heard good things about this workshop....coming in August...to Kitchener...

https://www.samhurdphotography.com/shop/epic-workshops/the-epic-workshop-kitchener/

I've already signed up.



Jul 10, 2015 at 12:28 PM
DougVaughn
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Joe McNally Ottawa July 13th Event


I went to his Nashville workshop last month and came away with mixed feelings. In one way, $99 isn't a big price to pay, so I wasn't expecting the world, but I don't think I gained any more than reading one of his books.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Joe's photography and have enjoyed some of his instructional videos on KelbyOne. He's very funny and interacts well with the audience. However, I was expecting more of a "how to" seminar, maybe focusing on why he would choose certain lighting for this person and another type of lighting for the next.

He did spend a couple hours of the day shooting and talking through changes he was making as he made them, but it never got to what ratios work well for what faces or when you would choose to light someone a specific way. Granted, I might have been expecting too much from 5-6 hours.



Jul 10, 2015 at 01:09 PM
Mark_L
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Joe McNally Ottawa July 13th Event


I'm not a huge fan of his work but I remember seeing one of his videos where the whole shoot fell to bits. Raining, concept didn't work etc. - he kept plugging away to pull something out of it. Major kudos for him making it public and not cutting that out.


Jul 11, 2015 at 04:27 AM
FrancisK7
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Joe McNally Ottawa July 13th Event


So, here's what I think. The TLDR is that for a hundred bucks, I got my money's worth.

The day started at 10:00PM with an awful cheesy Kelby One video promoting their stuff. Then Joe got on the scene. Very charismatic, very funny. There were about 100 photogs in the room. I'd venture a wild guess and say less than 10% were pros. In spite of this, Joe kept his usual stream of consciousness style of explaining his thought process much like he did in his books. It was obvious from all the puzzled faces around me that many did not follow what he said all the time, but I loved it. It was plain, raw computing data at times, but it's how I like it.

First part of the day consisted of a slideshow of his previous work. He explained how he lit them and why, intertwined with funny anecdotes and stories. He didn't go very deep in his explanations, but it was enough to get a grip on his vision and how he sees things.

One shot in particular stood out. It was a boxing studio, and he showed how he built the final shot flash to flash, from the first to the sixth. With a new shot taken after each flash was added, we could see the scene build up, the effects gels had, etc. It was great for anyone who is visual.

Speaking of gels, I really need to start using them more. I will order the magmod packs and start experimenting because holy shit they're awesome.

The next section of the day involved 1 hour of building a portrait in room. He shot his D4S tethered to two giant screens, so each time he took a shot it would show. Convention center lighting is always awful of course, so he started from shit soup and ended up with what could pass for a very good CEO/corporate type of portrait.

Lunch break.

Followed by another portrait creation. He demonstrated HSS by putting three speedlites on a tripod diffused with a 5 feet shoot-through so he could kill the ambient behind the lady, then added a blue gel'd flash to replace the back light.

However, at that point, there was me and his assistant each holding a reflector, a back light, a main light and a key hair light. Velcro'd flags to control the spill on the back light (which was zoomed to 200mm and still wasn't enough... it's too bad Joe hasn't heard about mag grids. Spencer, ship him as box!), an umbrella, a 1x3 strip box for the hair light, and two giant reflectors.

I couldn't help but think how ridiculous this would look in a wedding setting. I actually laughed to myself. Two giant reflectors, the giant umbrella, the strip box, the flimsy barn doors... holy hell. By the time I am all set up, the moment I want to capture is gone.

When I told him I didn't even use fill flash anymore because the DR on my D810 was so good I could just bump the shadow slider in Lightroom he mimed bitchslapping me Seriously, why bother buying a 500$ speedlite, a 200$ pocketwizard, another tripod and modifier just so you can fill the face on a portrait when you can use the radial filter in LR and bump shadows a bit?

I also asked him if he used TTL in the field, because I had trust issues with it and felt I was trusting my work to Skynet's interpretation. He laughed and somehow it became the running gag of the day whenever TTL came up. He said he uses TTL 90% of the time (he uses IR for that, or manual PW when IR doesn't work) and that while it may crap on me at times, it's very useful and powerful and I should embrace it more. I will be ordering an AC3 to pair with my TT1 and try this at a wedding soon. If the guy who shot for National Geographics for 25y says I can trust TLL I gotta try

He made an excellent point about how he has been harassing Nikon for two decades for them to design a flash that would provide relative power usage when in TTL so that when you switch to manual you have an idea where you are at. So if your group A is dialed at -2.0 and reports 25% power, you have an idea where to start at when switching to manual. As he adequately put it, currently when going from TTL to manual it's a bit like putting your finger in the air to detect wind direction.

This was followed by another slideshow demonstration of his past work (more recent as well).

Finally he critiqued 5 photos of everyone who had emailed them in as per instructions. He said it was the most submissions they ever had in this entire tour's history, so good job Ottawa, lot's of enthusiastic photographers. We had about 20 submissions (100 photos approx). It was also then that I realized the disparity of the different talent levels was huge in the room. And Joe was very honest about the less successful shots. He was never rude about it, but direct. "This is more a snapshot than a photograph" or "this isn't very successful" but he'd try to highlight a positive each time. To be honest it must be awful to do this for him.

Had fun and met a few nice people. Overall an enjoyable experience, but there's nothing immediately useful if you already dabble in OCF. My guess is practice and 1-on-1/smaller workshops is what is required to evolve and improve here. Superficial 5h workshops cannot possibly fulfill that role and I didn't expect it to.



Jul 14, 2015 at 09:45 AM





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