39 of 52 in my 2011 book blogging challenge.
Joe McNally’s The Moment It Clicks is a wonderful book about all of the lessons learned in the life of a top dollar photographer. It’s full of one-liners with advice on everything from being pushy in order to make the contact and make the shot to using the floor as a source of light. Put a white sheet on the floor. Aim the light at it. The light will bounce and perfectly illuminate your subject’s face. That’s a trick worth knowing.
This is more than an advice book, though. It strikes me as a story about how photography becomes larger than life. McNally has put truckloads of money into and sometimes truckloads of dirt too. He’s literally built his own elaborate settings for some of his high end shots that have ended up in Life or Time or whatnot. Once he paid a $7500 bribe to position himself for the shot. Once he tried to flirt with a nun.
Every tale of how he got the shot takes on epic proportions. This is not something you could try at home. I read this book thinking that no matter how long I live, and no matter how hard I work, and no matter how much photo gear I invest in, I will never take the kind of shots he takes. I would never, for example, manage to dangle an actress from a helicopter in order to take a picture of her in front of the Hollywood sign from just the right perspective. I could never manage that kind of production.
The book pointed out to me in no uncertain terms the difference between me and professional photographers. It made it clear I’ll never be a true pro. That’s actually the main point I got from it.
That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, though, or even that I didn’t find it inspiring. There will always be something to work toward no matter how long I cultivate my interest in cameras. That’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned.
I plan to read this again when I’ve gotten over the shock factor of just how much money has been tossed around to stage some of the big magazine cover shots. It’s full of nuggets of wisdom that are very worthwhile even if you haven’t just spent upwards of $50,000 setting up your location.
For instance, he reminds us not to be so caught up in getting the big shot that we forget to capture the simple and telling moments all around us. That’s the advice I plan to take because I’m not paid for this hobby of mine. Catching the simple and telling moments around me is really what I care about most.
McNally says this as part of the story of the cost of photography to him personally, not in dollars but in lost moments. He was away from his children a great deal when they were growing up. He took so many pictures of celebrities that he doesn’t have many of his kids. That was fairly heartbreaking to read.
This book is not for beginners. You have to already know something about cameras and about lighting in particular in order to follow the tips. At the same time, however, you read this without ever having taken a picture in your life and still enjoy the story of it. It’s a story about what it’s like to live a life that is larger than life while many of the simple of telling moments of your real life pass you by.
It’s witty and wise and well worth reading. It’s also full of great pictures. You can’t go wrong there.
