When it comes to photography, it's all about the light. After spending more than thirty years behind the lens--working for National Geographic, Time, Life, andSports Illustrated--Joe McNally knows about light. He knows how to talk about it, shape it, color it, control it, and direct it. Most importantly, he knows how to create it...using small hot shoe flashes. In The Hot Shoe Diaries, Joe brings you behind the scenes to candidly share his lighting solutions for a ton of great images. Using Nikon Speedlights, Joe lets you in on his uncensored thought process--often funny, sometimes serious, always fascinating--to demonstrate how he makes his pictures with these small fl ashes. Whether he's photographing a gymnast on the Great Wall, an alligator in a swamp, or a fire truck careening through Times Square, Joe uses these flashes to create great light that makes his pictures sing.

Table of Contents

Part I Nuts 'n' Bolts What I Use!and Why and When I Use It A Little Bit of Dis and a Little Bit of Dat Da Grip Part II One Light! A Place to Put the Light Up to Your Ass in Alligators Good Bad Light A Light in the Doorway The Swamp, Revisited Tune in to Station "i-TT L" Up on the Roof How to Light a Fence Cheap Arena Lighting Make the Sunrise Light as a Feather Father Pre-Flash The "Killer Flick of Light" How to Light an Elf Make the Available Light Unavailable Put Stuff in Front of Your Lights Dad! 80 Plus 20 Equals Good Light Lacey Light Strobe Strategy Smoke and Windows Hakeem the Dream FP Means Good DOF Flash in Real Life Light 'Em Dano! It Don't Gotta Be Human to Light It The Lady with the Light in the Lake One Light in the Parking Lot One Light in the Window One Light in the Garden Part III Two or More Show the Tattoo! Or, The Remarkable Rehabilitation of the Notorious Bubbles Gellin' Quick Rigs for 30-Second Portraiture Do You Have a Bedsheet? Window Light Is a Beautiful Thing Smooth Light When in Venice Dancer in the Ruins It's Right There on Paper Shadow Man Faces in the Forest Dynamic Dancing Gettin' Fancy This One Goes to Eleven Some Light Conversation Groups! Lighting Kit for the Creepy-Guy-in-the-Alley Shot Let There Be Light! Part IV Lotsa Lights How to Give Birth to a Speedlight A Great Wall of Light Northern Light The Tree of Woe How to Build a Backyard Studio Don't Light It, Light Around It Goin' Glam and Throwin' Sparks And Now for Something Completely Different Beach Light Plane, But Not Simple Rollin' with Pride of Midtown Appendix: What's This Button Do? Index

Author Biography

JOE McNALLY is an internationally acclaimed American photographer and longtime photojournalist. His most notable series is "Faces of Ground Zero--Portraits of the Heroes of September 11th," a collection of giant Polaroid portraits. He also photographed "The Future of Flying," the first all-digital story for National Geographic. His award-winning work has appeared in numerous magazines and, in 2008, Joe wrote the critically acclaimed and bestselling book The Moment It Clicks.