Blog 4 Photographer Joe Mcnally

I really love this photographer's kind of work, his kind of photography is truly outstanding. I love the clarity and colourfulnes of his images, I love the locations that he chooses to produce his photography and the lighting that he uses to light his locations and subjects. I would aspire to emulate some of this kind of photography.

He produces some really great motion motion blur images which are truly exceptional, shown below are just a few for example purposes

Photographer Joe Macnally

I love this particular image below showing motion blur which I assume was taken in a darkened studio or possibly live at some kind of stage show. On analyses I would assume the former.

I have tried to study the technique behind this photograph and have concluded that the image was recorded like this:


I would assume that this a long exposure possibly in the region 5 seconds or longer, enough to give the dancer time to do her turns and to produce the motion blur as she danced across the stage


Both left and right images of the dancer at the left and right ends in the photo would have been lit with a controlled amount of flash light from tungsten studio flash heads at the start and end of the 5 second exposure This technique would freeze the motion of the dancer at both ends of the exposure resulting in crisp clean images at both ends.


The centre part of the image which shows the flowing motion would have been recorded as the model danced through the 5 second period with possibly lit  from a less intense light source directed from the front of the shot

Shown here are a selection of the photographer's images along with some of my comments followed by a Biography of the photographer

Even though this shot was probably taken in a desert or some sand dunes the photographer has used his own lighting as well as natural sunlight to light his subject from the side and at different angles

The model could have been super imposed on top of the background but studying the rest of this photographers work I would assume this is one image that would be lit with studio lighting on location, a trade mark of this photographers work

Joe Mcnally Biography

Joe McNally is an internationally acclaimed American photographer and long-time photojournalist. From 1994 until 1998, he was LIFE magazine's staff photographer, the first one in 23 years.

His most well known series is the "Faces of Ground Zero - Portraits of the Heroes of September 11th", a collection of 246 Giant Polaroid portraits shot in the Moby c Studio near Ground Zero in a three-week period shortly after 9/11.

A large group of these historic, compelling life-size (9' x 4') photos were exhibited in seven cities in 2002, seen by almost a million people. The sale of 55,000 copies of the exhibit book, printed by LIFE, raised over $2 million for the 9/11-relief effort. This collection is considered by many museum and art professionals to be the most significant artistic endeavor to evolve to date from the 9/11 tragedy.

Some of McNally's other renowned photographic series include: "The Future of Flying", cover & 32-page story, National Geographic Magazine, December 2003. The story, on the future of aviation and the first all digital shoot for the magazine, commemorated the centennial observance of the Wright Brothers' flight. This issue was a National Magazine Award Finalist and the magazine's best-selling issue ever.

"The Bolshoi Ballet" - This LIFE series of Bolshoi Ballet images resulted in the creation of one of McNally's most well known images, "Ballerina on the Rooftop."

"Olympic Nude Series" - A highly touted series of black & white and color photos depicting the United States 1996 Olympic team as a series of nude figure studies, published in LIFE. The only time in the history of LIFE the magazine ran 4 separate covers in one month.

As a commemorative, McNally did a photo diary of New York City Opera's historic first tour to Japan as part of the World Expo 2005. An exhibit of this collection was featured at Lincoln Center.

McNally is known worldwide for his ability to produce technically and logistically complex assignments with expert use of color and light. He conducts numerous workshops around the world as part of his teaching activities, and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious Alfred Eisenstadt Award for outstanding magazine photography, as well as Pictures of the Year, and World Press Photo Foundation Award (awarded first place in Portraits in 1997), and numerous awards from Communication Arts. McNally has been selected as one of ten photographers worldwide to work on promotion of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.