Saturday, July 31st – Sunday, August 1st 2010
Come learn from one of the world’s best photographers, Joe McNally, in a two day intensive workshop in amazing Portland, Oregon. This workshop will focus on learning to light well including how to light while on location. The workshop will focus on hands-on instruction from Joe while working with your own camera and provided models.
Some lighting gear will be available to borrow, however, you should plan to bring your own lights. 
Hands-on instruction and practice will be done by combining classroom instruction and two amazing on-location shoots. Models will be provided through the workshop and photographers will be broken into 5 groups of 3 with a model dedicated to each group. Lunch will also be provided each day so that the class can stay focused and get to know each other and feel more relaxed.
Class size is limited to just 15 photographers! This is to create an environment that facilitates intensive hands-on learning and practice. Spaces will be sold on a first come first serve basis and are expected to sell out quickly. Don’t miss a chance of a lifetime to get to work personally with Joe in two real life on-location shoots.
For those traveling in from out of town places such as Seattle, San Francisco, etc, discounted hotel rooms will be available soon for works
hop attendees. It is likely that after class each day students (and hopefully Joe) will got to a bar to socialize and swap stories.
Workshop Details
Day One: Starts with a very brief introduction slide show, and the basics of light. Using light well is the mandate for the program, so instruction will not be camera specific. Joe uses Nikon gear, but emphasizes the importance of managing light, not managing buttons and dials. Instruction will then start with using one light well and starts with straight flash, and strategies for producing a good light from a single hot shoe flash. We will then quickly progress into getting the light off the camera, and again, working simply, producing better and better light. Discussion and practice will center on the levers of control available such as -f-stops and shutter speed, volume and closeness of light source, reflectors, hard light, soft light. Demonstration and practice will be done with multiple models as we explore the nature of different light for different people. Examples of how one light works for a type of face, but not another will also be demonstrated. We also take a look at extremely mobile solutions for on-location photography. The day will end with discussion and practice on working a crowd, using depth of field to your advantage, and crafting light with things you can carry easily.
Day Two: Will start with a small “wake-up program” and extremely short review from previous day. The day’s focus will be on advanced techniques and start by dipping our toe into the murky waters known as multiple off camera wireless flash. Multiple flash, used well with direction, color and quality of light as key concepts. Multiple flashes are not a ticket to over lighting, but a way of ramping up the sophistication of one’s lighting grid, with beneficial results. Work will then progress into examples of big light from small flashes–i.e, using a number of speed lights through one big source moving on to even more advanced work such as high speed sync, gels and the power of color, and the look and feel of light. Discussion on when to use different types of like will be covered such as using hard, edgy light to produce a tough looking, moody portrait, and and softer, more forgiving light strikes a different mood, and speaks a different language. Again, work will be done in group and explored with multiple models.
Two Day Lighting Intensive by Joe McNally
Date: Saturday, July 31st (9am–5pm)
Sunday, August 1st 2010 (9am–5pm)
Location: Portland, OR (details sent on reservation)
Cost: $1050
Registration: Register online or contact workshops@nxtfoto.com for assistance.
About Joe
Joe McNally is an internationally acclaimed photographer whose career has spanned 30 years and included assignments in over 50 countries. He has shot cover stories for TIME, Newsweek, Fortune, New York, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, and Men’s Journal. He has been at various times in his career a contract photographer for Sports Illustrated, a staff photographer at LIFE, and, currently, an ongoing 23 year contributor to the National Geographic, shooting numerous cover stories for those publications. Joe was listed by American Photo as one of the 100 Most Important People in Photography and described by the magazine as “perhaps the most versatile photojournalist working today”. He has been honored as a member of Kodak-PDN Legends Online, as well as being a Nikon Legend Behind the Lens. In 2010, he was voted as one of the 30 most influential photographers of the decade in an industry wide Photo District News survey.
McNally won the first Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Journalist Impact for a LIFE coverage titled “The Panorama of War.” He has also been honored numerous times by Communication Arts, PDN, Graphis, American Photo, POY, and The World Press Photo Foundation. In the aftermath of 911, McNally, using the world’s only life size Polaroid camera, created a project called “Faces of Ground Zero,” which traveled through 2002, became a book, and helped generate approximately $2 million dollars for the relief effort. It is considered by many museum and art professionals to be one of the most important artistic endeavors to evolve from the 911 tragedy. His fine art work is represented by the Monroe Gallery of Santa Fe, and his prints are in numerous collections, most significantly the National Portrait Gallery of the United States.
He shot the first all digital coverage in the history of the National Geographic, called “The Future of Flying,” a 32-page cover story commemorating the the centennial observance of the Wright Brothers’ flight. The coverage was deemed noteworthy enough that it has been incorporated into the archives of the Library of Congress.
In the last two years, McNally has written two books, The Moment It Clicks, and The Hot Shoe Diaries, both of which cracked Amazon’s top ten list of best sellers. His advertising and commercial clients include FedEx, Sony, Nikon, Land’s End, General Electric, MetLife, Adidas, American Ballet Theater, and the Wildlife Conservation Society.
