Podcast Episode Details

Master of Light

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I feel like I have been studying Joe McNally’s work since I first picked up a camera, so this should be the easiest show post I have ever done. He is an absolute master of light, and I own his “The Language of Light” Volume One, I need to get Volume Two. I have watched classes through KelbyOne and CreativeLive, and twice I have sat at the end of his PhotoshopWorld Keynotes wishing it wasn’t over. Yeah, this should be easy. But no, this is a tough one.

Joe McNally is a legend, and most anyone you ask would agree that he’s one of the top photographers working today, perhaps ever. He is in that very elite group of photographers know as Nikon Ambassadors, along with the likes of Moose Peterson (who has been on the show twice – for Wildlife & Wild Places & Aviation Photography), Deborah Sandidge (who was on the show for the episode on Better Travel Photography), Todd Owyoung and others. Joe is also a Capture One Ambassador, a Gitzo Ambassador, and is affiliated with Printique (an Adorama company), Synology, Lastolite, Tether Tools, and Powerex. Writing about someone I respect as much as Joe creates a flood of thoughts, and putting them in the right order matters. Let me start here…

Joe McNally won the first Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Journalistic Impact for a LIFE coverage titled, “The Panorama of War”. He has been honored numerous times by Communication Arts, PDN, Graphis, American Photo, POY, and The World Press Photo Foundation. His career has led to international acclaim, more awards than I could list here, and assignments that have taken him to 70 countries. With all of that said, we have only just begun to scratch the surface of Joe’s career.

Joe has shot numerous cover stories, and highly complex features, for legendary publications such as LIFE, National Geographic, and Sports Illustrated, along with cover stories for TIME, Newsweek, Fortune, New York, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, and Men’s Journal. He has also managed to do something few people can… bridge the worlds of photojournalism and advertising.

His client list includes FedEx, Sony, Nikon, Land’s End, General Electric, MetLife, Adidas, American Ballet Theater, Epson, the Wildlife Conservation Society, ESPN, MAC Cosmetics, USAA, the New York Stock Exchange, and Lehman Brothers, and that’s a short version.

American Photo listed Joe as one of the 100 Most Important People in Photography, and described by the magazine as “perhaps the most versatile photojournalist working today”, and in 2010 he was voted as one of the 30 most influential photographers of the decade in an industry wide Photo District News survey.

As an educator, McNally is unequaled. He is an author, teacher, and highly sought after speaker. His newest book, “The Real Deal: Field Notes from the Life of a Working Photographer” – available through Published on 2 years, 11 months ago