Beyond the obvious

Joe McNally shares his photography story and offers insights into the challenges an editorial photographer faces. I hope you enjoy this video featuring one of my favourite photographers.   "Joe McNally is a 25-year contributor to National Geographic and a former staff photographer at LIFE. Working in 54 countries and all 50 states, he has photographed cover stories for virtually every significant magazine of our times. One of his best-known series of photographs is the Giant Polaroid Collection, known as “Faces of Ground Zero,” shot immediately after 9/11. He also photographed the first all-digital story in the history of National Geographic. This is Joe’s 11th year teaching at the Workshops. His web site is joemcnally.com ; his blog is joemcnally.com/blog ." I'll be back with more inspiration soon. Comments welcome. Paul www.indigo2photography.com

Jay Maisel has inspired and mentored many photographers. In this video he shares his story, how he started and more about how some of his famous images were created. He punctuates excellent advice and insight with dry humour. Like most great photographers, he follows a quest to find beauty in the world around us. If you want to feel good and feel inspired watch this... "Jay Maisel is known for color photography that uses light and gesture to create images for advertising, editorial, and corporate communications. His work also appears in books and in private and corporate collections. His honors include the American Society of Media Photographers’ Lifetime Achievement and Photographer of the Year awards, the International Center for Photography’s Infinity Award, and induction into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame. A graduate of Cooper Union and Yale University, Jay continues his education by teaching. This is his 16th year teaching at the Workshops. His web site is jayma...

As photographers we are always looking. Then something catches our eye. Our brain tells us that there's something interesting. This is the moment the photographer needs to pause and figure out what exactly it is that caught their attention. Here it was obvious. The hair, the lipstick, the colours and their personalities. So I asked these young ladies and they kindly agreed to pose for a portrait. Often photographers will take a picture without thinking about what the exact element is that got their attention. The result is a photo that's not close enough. As Robert Capa said, “If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough.” He meant that the reason for taking the picture has to fill the frame. In this case it was colourful makeup, hair and style. I cropped in tight to emphasise these elements. Their expressions convey their different personalities. We have a moment here, in Jay Maisel's words, where "light, colour and gesture" ...