[apologies to joe mcnally]

Hey tog-heads & blog-heads! Just a quick Wednesday postie with some thoughts on the day (post by TR).

This morning I got up early, got dressed, and went on a little breakfast date with Wonder (thanks to Einstein Bagels for free baigs & shmear’s!). After starting the day off right with breakfast & some QT, Laura and I parted ways and I then went and picked up my good friend Ben, who also happens to be a tog-head, but of a slightly different breed. We then skipped on down to Denver for a day-long learning session with none other than the Joe McNally.

Joe is a living legend in the photography world, and it was really, really cool to get to see him in action today and learn some new things in the process. I definitely feel like I’ve made my photographic tool belt a little heavier and that I came away with some really good lessons learned. I think the biggest take-away from the day was, honestly, seeing Joe mess up while shooting, and take horrible shots. And not just once, but fairly often. He’s obviously amazing at what he does, and to see him live-shooting and coming out with horrible shots in the process of creating something great was…somehow very comforting. So often I take a bad shot (or a loong series of consecutive bad shots) and feel, well, like I deserve to be shooting elementary school-day pictures with laser backgrounds for the rest of my life. But, if I do, then so does Joe McNally, and at least I’d be in good company. Yeah?

I think a lot of togs think they need to keep up this certain…facade that they ooze beautiful photographs out of every pore. I’m just going to say it here: I don’t. And I don’t think Laura does either (sorry hon ;). In the process of creation, we mess up often. And, after today, I understand that the best of them do. And, if it takes 15, 20, 30 shots for me to nail the one that goes on the wall, then I’m OK with that (and am going to stop telling myself that I belong in laser-land when I take a photo that looks like p**p.)

Oh, you’re probably wondering why this post is titled [apologies to joe mcnally]. I got to shake his hand right before he went back on stage for more of his teachery, and unbeknownst to him I sucked away all his photographic powers in the process (his shutter-finger touched mine in the handshake, and that’s all it takes). So, sorry Joe, and to the rest of you, start looking out for some shots like those in his portfolio, here.

OK, well, that’s all for today. Comments, thoughts, questions? Hit up the comments section below!

Here’s a snap I took of Joe while creeping around the audience. I think he’s conjuring his photographic powers here:

And here’s a finished photo of Laura from the other day. It took me at least 30 shots before I came out with this masterpiece.

I’m just going to say what you’re all thinking: “Lasers are SOOO awesome!!!!”