P#25 Q7: What Are One or Two Exercises That Can Improve One's Photographs of Flight?

Practice Makes Perfect

Joe McNally: Photography can be very, very physical. I kind of touched on that a little bit during the course of this interview. One of the things you can do is to practice panning. You can go out and photograph any situation where there's going to be a panning motion in front of you.

Go by the side of a highway or a bridge or something like that. Of course be careful nowadays because if somebody sees you out there on a highway or near a bridge with a camera and a telephoto lens, you could get arrested and people could complain that you're a terrorist. Start to look at things that are fast moving objects and start to practice tracking them.

One of the other things you can do is vary your f-stop. Vary your f-stop from f2.8 to f4, f5.6, f8, f11, f16, and that will also affect your shutter speed. Your shutter speed will change in relationship to that f-stop, so you'll get a variety of shutter speeds as well.

Then after you do this exercise, go back to your computer and watch the imagery. You've got your Meta data right there. You can compare and contrast what the different feels are that you are getting.

For instance, if I go to f16 and am using a very slow shutter speed, say 1/30th of a second or something like that, I can't hold that. It's not effective and my pictures are too blurry. That's good information.

You have to practice at doing this stuff. Practice keeping your subject in your eye, practice tracking with the focus. Then start to understand the relationships between f-stops and shutter speeds and how they will directly affect your level of success.

If you're going to photograph an air show, you want to do well because chances are that air show won't come back for at least a year then you have to wait, so want to get out there and do well.

Audri Lanford: As always, we've talked about a lot of different things today. Is there one thing that you want our listeners to remember from today's interview?

Joe McNally: I think it would relate to what we were just talking about with the young ballerina in terms of shooting what you love. Remain passionate and understand that photography will not always cooperate, people will not always cooperate, light will not always cooperate.

Sometimes you'll have to face a daunting array of challenges from simple to complex that will blunt your edge and deter you and as I always tell my workshop students, it will crush your spirit and dash your hopes.

If you really love this, what you have to do is remain passionate about it and always worry or think about the next photograph. Don't dwell on photographs that have gone by. Be passionate and think about what you're going to do next. It will keep you hungry.

Audri Lanford: Thanks so much, Joe. If people want to learn more about all of the many things that you have to offer, what is the best way for them to do that?

Joe McNally: I'm on the web at www.JoeMcNally.com. The other outlet I have is a book I did called The Moment it Clicks. Then I have a new book that's really dedicated towards the idea of using small flash, which is always kind of a mystery. That book is going to be called The Hot Shoe Diaries.

In Closing

What's the one thing you need to remember about taking photographs of flight? First of all, practice, practice, practice. It's really the only way to perfect your skill. Then, once you have all of that practice out of the way, remember to stay tenacious and shoot what you love. It's the best way to keep your photographs of flight at their best.