"The Moment It Clicks"

So a few years ago, one of my photography mentors gave me the book, "The Moment It Clicks". It took me awhile, but I finally read it cover to cover. It took me about 2 days to finish and I loved every minute. This book is not your stereotypical photography book showing pretty pictures with a bunch of technical talk throughout every page. The book is about the legendary magazine photographer, Joe McNally. He has photographed pretty much everywhere and everything. His images are amazing and you can tell in each one he went the extra mile to produce a breath taking image. 

His book really stood out to me because every page was a totally different photograph and he explained the story of how he got each image. From happy accidents to meticulously planned out photographs, McNally explains it all. He also does tell the reader his settings on his camera and flash and how he set up. On top of explaining the shot, each page he gives a lesson / tip that can be applied to any job you do in photography.

McNally's book really inspired me to try out different lighting techniques and experiment with his tips. The images featured in this blog are a couple of self portraits. I used one flash with a warm gel on it to accentuate the pre-existing light in the images. I have not used gels that much and I thought it would be fun to experiment with. I did not really have a concept for these photos but I thought they turned out pretty cool and a little quirky!