JOE McNALLY: The LIFE Guide to Digital Photography

Time Home Entertainment Inc. recently announced the publication of The LIFE Guide to Digital Photography: Everything You Need to Shoot like the Pros by Joe McNally. Just in time for the holidays, Joe McNally, one of LIFE's master shooters and the most recent in a long line of distinguished LIFE staff photographers, has prepared a fool-proof guide that covers tips of the trade; step-by-step instruction on focusing, lighting and composition; and features photos from his personal portfolio.


In The LIFE Guide to Digital Photography (256 pages; $29.95), McNally walks readers carefully through the dos and don'ts of shooting digital and concentrates on five fundamentals: light, the lens, design elements, color, and composition. He offers his expert advice on everything from shooting fireworks and family portraits, to telling a story with texture to choosing color or not — framing all discussions with his own personal experiences as a photographer.

Joe says: “The LIFE Guide is just that–a guide. It can take a newbie right from opening the box containing the new digital picture machine right through composition, light, lenses, and color.

I wrote this book for my alma mater, LIFE magazine. What a long strange trip photography is. I shot my first job for the magazine in 1984, and managed somehow to survive editor changes, shifts in format, style, and even the change of the physical size of the magazine to keep shooting for them right through the nineties. Just about 1995 they asked me to become their first staffer in 23 years, which also meant I became the last staff photographer in the history of the magazine, as it is no longer publishing. As I always point out, being the last in a series of 90 staff shooters at this illustrious picture magazine probably means that someone writing the history of this field will probably associate my name with the death of photojournalism:-)" --Joe McNally

Please join us Friday, December 17 for a holiday book signing with Joe McNally, along with a very special exhibit of his photography, during a reception from 5 - 7 PM. Or contact the gallery now to reserve a signed copy.

MONROE GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

112 Don Gaspar
Santa Fe, NM 87501
505.992.0800


Related: Joe McNally: Faces of Ground Zero

Guardian Newspaper Series: Photographer Steve Schapiro's Best Shot

My Best Shot

Andrew Pulver

©The Guardian, Thursday 4 November 2010

STEVE SCHAPIRO

In 1964, I went to the Museum of Modern Art in New York to shoot René Magritte. There he was inside, sitting on a bench. His wife and dog were with him, and they were surrounded by his pictures. I was doing Magritte, one of my favourite artists, for Life magazine and I only had an hour and half; but for each photograph, Magritte decided to become part of, or connected to, one of his works.

There was a painting of a big rock with a castle, so Magritte lay down on a bench in front of it, with his head on his hat; my photograph then looked like he was dreaming the picture. The one above works because Magritte actually resembles the protagonists in many of his pictures, especially the ones wearing that trademark hat. The challenge – always – is how to make a picture special. If you're working with someone imaginative, an artist operating at Magritte's level, it can turn into a collaboration. In this case, it definitely did. We were all in high spirits. We didn't talk much: our relationship was basically based on smiling. We did another shot of Magritte and this painting, with a hand coming in from the side holding Magritte's bowler hat over his head. It added our own surreal touch.

This was all done with natural light. I prefer that: when you don't have long, some of the energy between you and the subject can be lost if you start fiddling with lights.

At the time, most of Life was in black and white. I do feel it conveys emotion more strongly than colour. When you work for magazines, you often experience this kind of collaborative energy on a shoot. You become very close, but you may never see that person again. I didn't have any contact with Magritte after this, but I was extremely happy to have taken his picture.


Born: New York, 1934.

Studied: With Eugene Smith.
Influences: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bill Brandt, Eugene Smith, Walker Evans.
High point: "Working with charis-matic individuals: Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Laurence Olivier, Samuel Beckett."
Top tip: "Look at the picture you're going to take, then see how you can make it better."

More of Steve Schapiro's photography here.

More of The Guardian's "Best Shots" here.

Related:  REVIEW: "For anyone interested in the history of this mixed bag of a nation, "American Edge" the museum-quality Steve Schapiro photography exhibition at Monroe Gallery is not to be missed."