Taking a journey that has no destination with Joe McNally

 

 

"Win, lose, or draw, right or wrong, the decision belongs to you…at the shutter, when I click that shutter…there's finality there. If I'm one second late or five seconds late, that's on me," says Joe McNally in an excellent talk he gave at PIX2015 sponsored by Nikon.

During the talk, the professional photographer of over 35 years talks about his photographic history and process while also taking a look at different portraits in which McNally utilized different kinds of light. While McNally employs many different kinds of lighting equipment in his different portraits, the universal theme is that he captures the life of his subject in an image.

At the mercy of natural lighting conditions, McNally says that photographers have chosen an anxiety-inducing profession. Much of the talk is more inspiring, however, as McNally discusses what makes photography such a powerful tool. We get to immortalize a single moment in time and share it with others. While most of the images he has captured he considers failures (I know exactly how you feel, Joe), it's the images that work out that make the struggle worthwhile. Check out the video below to hear his insightful thoughts on photography and light.

"I'm here to tell you, the road ahead is unknowable. Being a photographer is taking a journey that has no destination."

You can see additional PIX2015 videos at DPReview's YouTube channel here.