Photography has been the business and
the passion of LIFE since the original weekly magazine''s inception
in 1936, and it continues to be the business and passion of LIFE
Books and LIFE.com in the new millennium. But photography has
surely changed during these many decades. The rigs and gear of old
have given way-first slowly, then all at once-to sleek miracle
machines that process pixels and have made the darkroom obsolete.
The casual photog puts eye to lens, sets everything on auto and
captures a photograph that is . . . perfectly fine.
One of LIFE''s master shooters-in
fact, the final in the long line of distinguished LIFE staff
photographers-was Joe McNally, and he has always believed that with
a little preparation and care, with a dash of enthusiasm and daring
added to the equation, anyone can make a better photo-anyone can
turn a "keeper" into a treasure. This was true in days of yore, and
it''s true in the digital age. Your marvelous new camera, fresh from
its box, can indeed perform splendid feats. Joe explains in this
book how to take best advantage of what it was designed to do, and
also when it is wise to outthink your camera or push your camera-to
go for the gold, to create that indelible family memory that you
will have blown up as large as the technology will allow, and that
will hang on the wall forevermore.
As the storied LIFE photographer and
photo editor John Loengard points out in his eloquent foreword to
this volume, there are cameras and there are cameras, and they''ve
always been able to do tricks. And then there is photography. Other
guides may give you the one, two, three of producing a reasonably
well exposed shot, but Joe McNally and the editors of LIFE can give
you that, and then can show you how to make a picture. In a
detailed, friendly, conversational, anecdotal, sometimes rollicking
way, that''s what they do in these pages.
Prepare to click.
關於作者:
Joe
McNally is an internationally acclaimed photographer, whose career
has spanned 30 years and included assignments in over 50 countries.
In the mid-1990s Joe served as Life magazine''s staff photographer,
the first one in 23 years. He is a recipient of the Alfred
Eisenstaedt Award and has been honored by Pictures of the Year
International, World Press Photo, The Art Directors Club, American
Photo, Communication Arts, and Graphis. He conducts numerous
workshops around the world as part of his teaching activities. One
of Joe''s most notable projects, Faces of Ground Zero - Giant
Polaroid Collection which he later published with the editors of
LIFE, has become known as one of the most significant artistic
responses to the tragedy at the World Trade Center.