Category: personal

Rituals – Cleaning your Gear

Jason3 Comments

Checklist

Rituals are an important part of many cultures and belief systems. Yet rituals can also be patterns of behavior. We drive the same way to work every day, we tend to eat similar meals from one week to the next, and we do certain things each and every day, like brushing our teeth, taking a shower (hopefully anyway!), and a host of others. Well, just like other rituals, many of us become very fastidious about our work flow. We color manage things, we duplicate images, back them up, and save in multiple locations. Yet I’ve not seen anyone really talk about establishing rituals over cleaning their gear. In that area, I feel that I am something of a loner, because I do clean my gear in a very ritualistic pattern. It may be overkill to some, while to others it may not be enough. Nevertheless, cleaning our gear is something we should all consider making a part of our recurring activities.

Tomorrow is the second Friday of the month, and since I’ve set that date (just an arbitrary date, no specific logic behind the date other than I didn’t have anything else “scheduled” for that date at the time I came up with this) as my monthly camera cleaning date. I clean every piece of equipment I own. It takes a few hours, but that way I do maintain a regular schedule of maintenance for all this gear. So, today I am sharing my cleaning schedule with you.

My Gear Cleaning Ritual

  1. Part One – Wipe Down This can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours depending on amount of crap in my bag! I first take the battery out of camera and insert in charger. While camera battery is charging to full capacity I use lint free lens clothes (you can get a 12-pack from WalMart for $1) to wipe down the camera body, the lens casings, my CF cards, my flash cards, everything! Then I take out all the velcro dividers from my camera bag. With the bag empty I use canned air and spray out my camera bag. Then I wipe everything down with a only slightly damp paper towel. I’ll also pick any fuzzies I can see off my velcro tabs.
  2. Part 2 – Glass cleaning This takes about 20 minutes, depending on whether certain lenses need multiple swipes. I Use the Eclipse/PecPad/Sensor Swab kit for all my detailed cleaning. First I remove the lens caps (front and rear, and dust them off with my canned air. Setting these aside I take a PecPad out and dab a few drops of the Eclipse solution on it. In a light circular motion I wipe from the center of the lens to the edge and swoop it away in a fluid motion. I then return the caps to the glass.
  3. Part 3 – Card clearing and formatting I lightly tap the CF cards with the holes facing down and stack them label side up by my card reader. After each is tapped, I run them through my computer, copying any images off into a folder titled “Unsorted”. Once the content is safely moved, I then format the cards from the OS command prompt (for me it,s format E: /FAT32)
  4. Part 4 – Air cleaner I take my Giottos Rocket Blower and with battery compartment open I pump twice into chamber, and then close. I then turn the camera sensor side down, uncap and repeat in that chamber with the blower. I recap the body then and lay it sensor side down on a pre-placed static bag.
  5. Part 5 – Sensor Cleaning I prep the sensor swab according to instructions with firm tight folds. I take the now fully charged batter, insert in the chamber, turn the camera on and move the menu to sensor cleaning mode, flip the camera over and lay it down on the bag. Then I dab two drops of Eclipse onto the edge, uncap the body and angle the wand to 45 degrees, placing the edge against the sensor. and in one motion move it from the first edge to the far edge. Without lifting the wand, I then shift the wand to the opposite 45 degree angle, slide it up and align the top edge of the PecPad to the top edge of the lens and in a single light motion, slide it back across the top of the sensor mirror. Using the same fluid motion I then lift the swab off the sensor, replace the body cap with my other hand and set the swab down on the static bag. I then turn the camera back over, and power down.
  6. Part 6 – Accessories check I take the now mostly de-charged camera/battery combo and insert my CF cards back into the camera. All cards are formatted in camera. Once the formats are complete, I then insert back into computer one last time and copy the low res contact info image back onto all CF cards. The battery is then taken back out and recharged again. (I do have spares too that get charged, and I take this opportunity to also charge all AA’s and stuff back in my camera bag. I’ll check my notebook for enough paper, my pen for ink, flashlight for batteries, business cards in front pocket of bag, ensure I have at least 5 model release forms, and I’ll wipe down my Krages card and cheat sheet (two laminated sheets of info I keep in my bag).
  7. Part 7 – Repack Reassemble Velcro dividers and insert everything back into my bag
  8. Part 8 – Tripod Maintenance Take legs off tripod and wipe everything down there. Remove all quick release plates and do the same. I then re-assemble the tripod and tighten down all the legs again.
  9. Part 9 – Inventory List Print out checklist inventory and insert in camera bag (when travelling).
  10. Part 10 – Relax Drink an ice cold beverage!

So, which of these rituals do you include in your gear maintenance schedule? Did I miss anything? Does anything I am doing sound weird or wrong? What do you think? Share your cleaning schedule in the comments or via email: jason <AT> canonblogger <DOT> com In the meantime:

  • Happy Friday 13th
  • Happy Fathers Day Weekend
  • and Happy Shooting (watch those apertures!)

Magical Moments

JasonLeave a comment

wand

Does anyone remember from earlier this week why this post is so momentous? This is magical post # 200 for Canon Blogger. A few days off here and there, but since inception back on August 21st, 2007, I have made sometimes silly, sometimes serious, and sometimes useful posts to Canon Blogger. It’s been a fun ride thus far, and rather than take the kind reader on a blathering journey through some deep, thoughtful, meaningful, and insightful post laden with pearls of wisdom, trinkets of tips, tricks and techniques, I would rather just take a moment to say: Thank you!

Thank you to all the readers who have let me rant on occasion, wax philosophic on others, and bide their time for something useful, informative, or at the very least… entertaining. It truly has been quite the learning experience thus far. I would like to think I have matured a little, learned a lot, and improved the quality of the content that I’ve been putting out into the blogosphere. That judgement though, will reside with the readership. As of today, Canon Blogger (which I now affectionately call CB), is showing some pretty amazing numbers between Google Analytics and PodPress:

  • 55008 site visits
  • 78175 page views
  • 55775 feeds

Yeah, okay, that’s small potatoes when you look at the more serious bloggers, photographers, and other industry pros, but for a small time amateur blogger/photographer guy like me, I am just shattered that my little page has been picked up and read that much. So…THANK YOU! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed it thus far. Hopefully over the next 200 posts the quality of the content will continue to improve, and we’ll be able to look back on this day with a chuckle. Right now, I can’t imagine it – but, as the old saying goes “You never know…”

Today is also especially magical for me because I contributed an article to a free magazine called PhotographyBB which was published just the other day. This is my first published article, so it’s especially meaningful. I would like to thank Dave Seeram over at the PhotographyBB Magazine, and the folks in their forums who have accepted me into their community so graciously and with such open arms. I look forward to sharing many years to come with all of you. Do stop over to their site and feel free to join the community yourself. It’s a great group of people. The magazine, in it’s 5th issue, has many excellent articles (one by my) and an extra treat was to be able to contribute as the photographer “In the Spotlight”. Thne one that had planned to do it had something come up and could not, so I stepped in to help fill the content out for this issue. Very cool to be able to contribute to this work, and it really is a great read, so either stop over to their site and check out all they have to offer, or at least download the article linked below for a fun read when you have half an hour to spare.

So, it’s definitely some magical moments for me, and I just wanted to take today to say Thank You to everyone who has made this such a special day for me. You all rock!

Week 2: What’s This?

Jason5 Comments

307

For Week 2 of “What’s This?” – the image is another typical household object, so, take a gander at the image above, then take a guess in the comments or via email…This is a _____(fill in the blank)!

After a week of various responses both via email and in the comments, there was one correct guess via email, and the answer is – wait for it – a microphone! That’s right, my Sampson CO2 Condensor Mic that I record the podcast with almost every week. I zoomed in real close and didn’t even crop to produce the photo – so congrats to Thomas for guessing the right answer!

Week 1 WInner - Thomas w/ Microphone

Things are picking up for me for the remainder of the week, so a shorter post today. One thing I will suggest as a Wednesday Web Gem is to stop over at the new CB Flickr Group! I’m posting the full size pics from what’s this (the following week) and sharing photos in there as I get a chance. Stop in, register with the FLickr foolks, and share images of your own, discuss things from the blog, offer ideas, other tips and tricks, or whatever the theme for the day is! The link to the CB Flickr Group is here: CB on Flickr

Until tomorrow, happy shooting and watch those apertures!

Usual becomes unusual

Jason3 Comments

Lighting Objects

The tutorial for this Tuesday, you may notice is not your typical Photoshop tip, trick, or tutorial. I took things outside of the desktop and into the real world to show you examples of thinking outside the box when it comes to lighting. By now we are all familiar with Strobist, and the methods he uses to encourage people to think about lighting and how to do things in an economically friendly way.

Today, I wanted to take a moment to share with you a few lighting ideas I’ve had and some of the effects they’ve produced. None of these home-made products cost me more than 15 cents! Anyway, I’ll let the tutorial stand alone, but did want to include the show notes:

Tune in to Strobist for anything and everything lighting you ever wanted to read – David Hobby is the lighting guru of the blog world!

David was interviewed recently on Studio Lighting, so now I’ve listened to their podcast, and it’s definitely one to return to. These guys just sound like they’re a lot of fun.

And the shots… you saw the montage up top, but here’s the individual shots from my diffused snoot:

Horizontal View

Vertical View

Angled View

So, there’s just a few examples of how to generate creative lighting by looking at usual objects in unusual ways. Tune in to the podcast to see what other stuff I’ve come up with. Because it was recorded outside of the computer though, I only have the Quicktime version. I am still looking into a decent Flash converter so I can put that together with the “intro” and “out-tro” clips, so if anyone has suggestions for that, I am all ears there too. Anyway, to close out, I’d like to pose another question: What have you come up with in the way of uses? Any everyday objects become part of your photo gear? Share ’em in the comments section!

Maintenance Monday (and a book review…kind of)

Jason3 Comments

Wrench and Book

Hey all, it’s been a busy couple of days for the blog. I’ve been doing some research and maintenance on the blog to try and keep things interesting and to hopefully let more people know about the articles, essays, tips, tricks, techniques, and such that I’ve been sharing now for the past 9 months. I realized that I was in dire need of this when I saw my post count was up near 200 (hint: Thursday will be significant…) and I had not really taken any measures to get the blog registered in any directories.

So, after some research and study, I took some time Friday and Saturday to look at a number of directories and the types of blogs that are typical of those various venues. A couple that caught my eye include:

Of these, Alltop is definitely one of the coolest ones as they have a Photography category. On looking at the category, pretty much every blog that I’ve ever been to was on there along with a few that I’d not heard of. So, I sent them an email to inquire, and as you can probably tell from the new Directory listings on the side panel, they seemed willing to at least give me a try. So, thanks and shout outs to Alltop for the quick addition. Fair warning though – for those of you that may stop in there, you will likely find new must reads to add to your daily surf list. The one that caught my eye is a blog called Hyperphocal, with Chris Bergman. While still fairly new, the approach he seems to be taking with the blog is very similar to the one here at CB – sharing information, helping other photographers, Plus, his own blogroll reminded me of Digital Camera Resource, which I’d known about but forgotten for some time. So, thanks to Chris for putting that back on my radar.

Back on the directory subject though, the listings have been moved in the side panel to the bottom, as has the Google search box and the Feedburner subscription box. I think putting all that material in the same area gives a cleaner and smoother look to the blog. An iTunes one should be up shortly, I’ve just not had a chance to get the graphic I am looking for. If anyone has other subscription services they use, or that they can recommend, I am open to suggestions here as well. Feel free to stop in to any of these directories and share your thoughts of the blog, I’ve provided direct links to those directories where CB is already live.

The last bit about podcast directories though – even though I’ve been blogging and podcasting for a little over 9 months now, the idea of promoting the blog/podcast is somewhat foreign to me. Adding CB to a few directories seems like a good idea, but I would like to hear what others might suggest for venues or approaches to take. Should I promote the blog? If so, where? How? Are the ones I picked popular? I am in uncharted waters here, so would appreciate any suggestions or comments from the readership. if you’re reading directly, feel free to post in the comments. If you are reading from a feed, or would prefer to to comment publicly, please feel free to drop me an email. The address (as always) is jason <AT> canonblogger <DOT> com.

Other maintenance I did on the blog:

I removed the Dig button that was on each post. With a grand total of perhaps 20 digs over the last nine months, it was just another graphic that was taking up space and slowing down the blog more than it needed to. So, unless I start hearing screams for it back (which I doubt), the Dig button is toast!

A few pictures were added to the header rotation. I manually rotate that periodically to change out the look and feel, depending on the post of the day, so you may start seeing a little more variety there. If I can get to it on my “To Do” list, I’ll try to add full-size versions of the header images to the Flickr photo stream.

In photo news today, I got my copies of two reprints I ordered through reading The Online Photographer. The titles are “The New West: Landscapes Along the Colorado Front Range” by Robert Adams, and “The Photographer’s Eye“, by John Szarkowski. Being a Coloradan at heart, I tore the shrink wrap off Mr. Adams book first. I’m about a third of the way through it, and the black-and-white approach he takes to address both the man-made and natural landscapes (especially along the corridor of I-25) are pretty interesting. I would definitely recommend at least seeing if your local library has a copy of this book. I know spending $20 on a book of pictures can be off-putting to some, especially when we are trying to create our own works and possibly our own books. Nevertheless, I am quite happy with the purchase as viewing the works of others helps me to refine and hone my own vision that much more. Thanks to Mike J. from TOP for the heads up on these reprints – hopefully the few pennies he got from the referral purchase will pay for at least a few minutes worth of hosting!

Last, but not least, you may have noticed from the casual reference above, CB has joined the Flickr frenzy. That’s right, there is now a Flickr group for the blog. As I mentioned, I will start uploading full-size versions of pics that are rotated through the blog header, as well as some other shots that may be fun to view that weren’t really “croppable” to header size (is croppable a word?). Anyway, on the Flickr group, anyone is welcome to share images, tips, tricks, ideas, suggestions, feedback, or just share photos with one another. Here’s the link for anyone who’s interested: Canon Blogger on Flickr Fair warning though – if I see pics in the photo stream there I will likely be giving shout outs and links to your stream on the site. (Just keep the images PG-rated is all I ask…)

Well, that should be enough news for Monday. Until tomorrow, keep on shooting and watch those apertures!

Smell the Roses

JasonLeave a comment

Rose

Yes, we love this craft of photography, and we could spend every waking hour studying nuances of esoteric subjects related to the field, and peeping at the pixels of countless photos, analyzing techniques, and all that stuff. That wouldn’t be a very balanced existence though, and through having some balance, we can actually probably better focus on our craft when we do delve into it.

So, for this Friday, I’d like to suggest taking a break from photos every once and a while. Consider taking time to “step back and smell the roses”, and stop just taking pictures of them! Rather than thinking about your depth of field, whether to use a ring flash or a fill flash, what ISO to set, and what lens to use – take some time to just step back and enjoy the moment. The same holds true for any photography field. If you’re a landscape photographer, take some time to just enjoy that sunset, or that mountain range. If you’re a portrait photographer, let go of the camera and interact with your models and subjects.

It’s the interaction between the photographer and their subject that actually forms the connection. If you sped all your time taking the pictures, and never interacting with the subjects, your reason for taking the pictures can lose meaning beyond the dollars and cents. Remember, photography is a means of sharing your vision with the world. Losing sight of the vision, and the reason why it’s your vision can diminish both the message and its impact on your viewers. Through connecting with your surroundings, you can actually inspire creativity, and take your own visions to the next level.

I was reading through John Paul Caponigro’s new blog he rolled out recently, and found some audio clips on there – one of these spoke specifically to expanding your creativity, and he suggests closing your eyes to heighten the awareness of your other senses. This same philosophy can be applied to the concept above. By setting the camera down every once and a while (and stepping away from Photoshop and the computer), you can become more aware of the rest of the world around you. Heightened awareness is ultimately what will expand your vision, and in turn, expand your creativity. Enough esoteric mumbo jumbo though, just some food for thought as we move into the weekend. Here’s the weekly installment from What the Duck. Happy shooting everyone and watch your apertures!

What the Duck

More coffee Monday

Jason2 Comments

Judging from my soreness even today after a weekend of home improvement projects, I would imagine that tomorrow morning will be even more of the same – I will definitely be partaking of more than a few cups of joe to get me on my feet and functional.

I did take some time to do some cleanup work of the weekend on the photo gallery side of things for my website and the project side of things for the blog too though. The lucky readers (lucky possibly being a subjective term in this case) will get a sneak preview of my latest gallery addition as I ran out of time and do not have a link on the site to this yet (or the thumbnail for that matter).

On the blog maintenance, I’ve changed the notice for comments – apparently the spam flag was set a little too severely as people were making comments and it was taking up to a month in some cases before those got discovered and re-tagged. So, your comments should become visible much more quickly now. With that in mind, I thought I’d also share the latest photo gallery that I am putting up on my website with those of you who are tuning in, so now you can comment more easily! Last but not least, I had mentioned an article that was forthcoming both in the video tutorial last week, and in another one of the posts. Well, after going through several re-writes and different takes on it, I’ve decided not to publish that, as it’s just to dense of a topic for a short listen or read. If anyone is interested in it though, the subject is creative development.

I looked at an essay that came out in the most recent issue of Shutterbug Magazine, where Jack Hollingsworth looks at how photographers develop their in the essay The Ladder: In Defense of Imitation . He defines 3 stages or phases of development: imaginative, adaptive, and innovative. While both interesting and logical, it raises more questions than it answers. I found myself in similar shoes when trying to address just a few of those questions ir raised in my mind – more questions, practically all of which were subjective in nature. So, the article will likely not see the light of day here at CB. If anyone is interested in a heavy read, let me know via email and I’ll be happy to forward a copy of that article to whomever requests it directly.

That said, the blog was not a good place for it, so I discarded the idea for CB and went with the photo montage. A sneak peak was done a few weeks ago, and it’s now complete. Visit my photo site for the full gallery here

Hope everyone’s weekends were good ones. Here’s to a new week – happy shooting, and watch that ISO!

Better luck next time

Jason3 Comments

Heh – I had been so good lately about planning ahead and recording my video podcasts ahead of schedule and just setting a publish time in WordPress, I got on an automatic pilot routine. When that routine got disrupted from some dental and sleep deprivation issues the other day, I didn’t realize until just a short time ago that the post for Friday had not been scheduled. Not only had it not been scheduled – it didn’t even get written yet!

So, a thousand pardons as I rush to get a somewhat photo-related post out before the end of the day. Since it is on short notice, I will simply relay a funny story that happened to me the other day as I was out walking the dog. I had taken the camera and flash with diffuser attached as the day was actually perfect for photography: late afternon, cloudy skies, and evenly light all around. So, I am bouncing along, trying different settings here and there with various subjects – a flower, a reflection in some water, and I have the bright idea to do a macro shot super close on a flower. But, instead of going wide open to get available light, I figured let’s try the flash here – so I pop the flash on, attach the diffuser and set it to ETTL. Then I dial the aperture down as far as I think it can go on the fill flash setting – f22! I pre-focused on the lower third of the frame, then set the focus to manual. Finally, I shifted the camera up just a smidge, knowing that the lower portion would be in focus and because of the f-stop, I would have a pretty solid dof throughout.

Well…there’s always something you forget, and in this instance, it was the ISO setting. You guessed it – 1600! ARGH! Well, I cleaned it up a little with NN after the fact, and yeah, it’s okay, but imagine how this shot would have been without the noise and tack sharp?

Floral Macro

So, it seems another one that got away from me! I think I am going to tape a label to the back of my LCD and write on it in big fat letters ISO! Long story short – always double check your settings, and always take a few shots. I only took the one, so it’s all I had to work from. Oh well…better luck next time! Hee’s your traditional WTD episode for Friday:

What the Duck

Hope everyone has a good weekend. Happy shooting and watch those apertures!

Quality versus quantity

Jason2 Comments

“Okay, I’m done.”

“That’s it? You’ve only been shooting for ten minutes!”

“Yep, got about 50 shots, I should have 4-6 proofs for you from that bunch.”

“So we’re done?”

“Pretty much…I mean I can keep shooting, but there’s really no point, it’ll just be duplicates of the same stuff.”

This was the dialog I had with a co-worker a short time ago when I went to take pictures of her son for her. It is indicative of a mentality that exists in society…not only is size king, but so is quantity. If you were to take two photographers and set them side by side, who would you think is a better photographer: the one who took 40 shots or the one who took 400? Many of the general public would probably respond by saying the latter, without giving it much thought. Yeah, I took 50 instead of 40, because I have not been a pro shooter for 20 years, so I gave myself a little bit more of a margin for error. Having checked ISO, white balance and histogram settings though, I was pretty confidant that all that was left was composition – so I went with my instinct for what would make a good composition, took 3 or 4 different angles and was done.

Even photographers fall victim to this mentality of delivering a massive quantity of images. I know of several studios that just inundate their clients with hundreds of shots to choose from. They can’t understand why these clients never get any prints or very few prints from the studio. They think that people like to have a choice, and that the more choices you give them, the better. While the idea is not without merit, (because choice is a good thing) it can go to an extreme… and I think that’s where it’s going. The reason why they’re not getting prints done is because too many choices can also be paralyzing. If presented with 4 options, it is very easy to pick out which one you like best, whether it’s cars, cameras, televisions or photos. Presented with 400 cars, cameras, televisions or photos, the choice becomes more difficult and time consuming, primarily because you become concerned over picking the “wrong one”.

My perspective, in contrast, is to deliver just a select few shots. It makes the choices easier for the client. In a world where time is an increasingly valuable commodity, getting bogged down in sorting through hundreds of images trying to find one or two to print and hang can be more frustrating and lead to inaction. In essence it’s like you are transferring the process of elimination part of the work flow from your hands to the client. This has several downsides with minimal upsides. The one upside is that “Hey, the client chose this, not me.” can absolve you of responsibility for getting a bad shot framed. I would venture to ask though: why was a bad shot among the choices?

As I told a friend via email recently, it also comes to one of work flow management. Which would you rather deal with as a photographer – a work flow where you process 50 images or 500 images? The argument that “it’s digital, so what’s the big deal?” always seems to get under my skin a little bit. For me, the big deal is that some are going out there and not putting much time or thought into capturing the essence of a scene. They just lift the camera, point in the general direction of what they want and just fire away. I’ve actually heard the term “spray and pray” used for such shooters. The idea of slowing down and taking your time to both enjoy the moment and to really take into consideration all the nuances of things like lighting, shadows, and minimizing distractions has benefits. For me, the benefits far outweigh the downsides. Firstly, it is a much more enjoyable situation to be in. Not only do you have fewer images to process, but you can really take your time, pay attention to the detail, and get every nuance of the image pegged!

Secondly, you will probably find that you are less stressed yourself. You’re not worried about missing the shot because you didn’t have time to consider all the aspects – primarily because you are considering the nuances. Third, and most importantly, when you relax and aren’t stressed, your clients aren’t stressed either…a photographer and their subject often feed off each other. I have so much fun when taking pictures of subjects, I often forget that I am there for a specific reason – we’re enjoying the moment.

That’s right…we are enjoying the moment – client and photographer! We’re laughing, and having fun, and I just happen to have a camera in hand recording it. Yeah, the first shots are often always a little awkward for them, but once they see my mug grinning over the camera at them and laughing and joking around, the stress level decreases by a factor of ten! When your client is less stressed, they photograph better! They are more willing to strike goofy (in their eyes) poses! You can capture the shot!

So, that’s pretty much it: taking fewer shots will do three things for you:

  1. Cut down on post processing (both for quantity and quality)
  2. You stress less, and thus, your client stresses less.
  3. You increase your keeper percentage!

Having said this, I realize that there are some situations where you have to mass produce images. Another friend of mine talked about a basketball or softball tournament where they had to take pics of every person on every team over the course of a weekend. With 50 players per team and upwards of 30-40 teams, that is 2000 shots to process – and that’s a small regional event even if it’s only one shot per person. Take it on to a national event, and it just ratchets up another notch. While the quantity is there, it’s also a different shot every frame. This is also not a fine art or a studio environment. This is a very fast-moving, fast-paced environment and is not applicable to the type of photography I am talking about here.

I would venture to guess though that most of us do not fall in that category…we’re shooting far less than this on average, so the quality versus quantity rule does apply in most scenarios. Now, if only I could take that principle and apply it to the writing here on the blog!

Happy shooting all, and watch those apertures! (I’ll be back tomorrow with a video tutorial – had some plumbing issues today that hastened pulling from the archive for a daily post.)

Monday “McNallyisms”

Jason1 Comment

Thanks to David Hobby over at Strobist for posting this on Saturday – apparently I have been missing the boat on videos lately as Google has a pretty extensive video archive of well-known people that they get to come out to the campus in CA and speak for a short while. David posted the YouTube video of Joe McNally (which was posted last Wednesday on YouTube). Normally I guess people speak for about ten minutes or so. Joe McNally’s talk – 1 hour! He naturally talks about The Moment it Clicks, but I walk away amazed every time I hear or read a little more about it. I have to get this book! Some key snippets came out of his conversation there that I took the time to write down and thought I would share these with the blogosphere. Call these “McNallyisms”:

On the big picture:

  1. “My philosophy about photography is that it’s a very open-ended profession.”
  2. “Human gesture trumps everything”
  3. “You have to have fun. If you’re not having fun, your pictures will reflect that.”

On motivation

  1. “At the end of the day, you’ve created something that didn’t exist that morning.”
  2. “I’m not driven by a particular type of photography…[but] by the love [of photography]”
  3. “I have to make a picture that conveys the emotional and visual experience I am having, and if the photograph doesn’t do that, then I’ve failed.”

On technique:

  1. “There are no secrets, no mysteries, no dark kind of ‘Keys to the Castle’ or anything…”
  2. “It only takes one ‘Awww, shit!” moment to wipe out three ‘atta boys’…”
  3. “The migration period [apertures, f-stops, shutter speeds, ISO’s, etc.]…taking all the sundry stuff and migrating it from the front of your head to the back of your head…you need to learn that stuff”
  4. “Technique is important – mechanical inputs have enormous aesthetic implications. You need to learn them and be fluid with them and it enables you to be able to speak with a louder voice.”

Yeah, it’s over an hour long, but it’s worth the listen…it can remind you of what’s really important about photography, and what doesn’t matter as much as you think it does:

And speaking of remembering what’s important, and what really matters versus what doesn’t matter so much, today you simply must stop over at Scott Eccleston’s blog for Weekly Photography Tips. That, my friends, is what really matters! Anyway, hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. Hope the coming week is just as good and keep those cameras clicking – happy shooting!