Steve Cherrier

If you’re not into photography, and I said that I met Joe McNally, you might say, “Joe who?” But if you were into photography, you’d probably fall off your chair or proclaim how fortunate I was!

But even if you are not into photography, you’ve probably seen some of his work. He’s produced many covers and feature layouts in National Geographic. He’s also shot for  Sports Illustrated and many other magazines and clients.

Joe specializes in making big light out of small flashes. To us strobists and wannabe photographers, he’s a god. So when 20 photographers got together for a meetup in Vancouver to share lighting ideas and setups and Joe McNally shows up for a couple of hours to say hello, share some of his work and actually do a setup and shoot one of our models — we were in heaven!

I actually had the opportunity to “assist” him during his setup and it was a pleasure to see how he works and thinks. He really likes to work with light that makes the image look natural — like it came from a light source such as the sun, a lamp, etc. His subject was my good friend and model, Cindy Fay. She was stoked to shoot with him, and he was very kind and gracious to her.  He’s a very down-to-earth, easy-going, humble man who has accomplished so much in his career. He started off his talk saying how he loved that the photography community is so good about sharing ideas, and he is living proof that it’s not just us underlings that subscribe to that theory. Thank you, Joe, for sharing your valuable time with us!

I’m going to see Joe lecture on Tuesday night at the HR MacMillan Planetarium in Vancouver. Going to get my book (The Moment it Clicks) signed as well.

Thanks to indigoWestPhoto for the shot of me with Joe outside Pacifica Studios.