Thought Piece 2

            After reading more into “The Hot Shoe Diaries” I think that it’s really kind of crazy how many places and ways you can use different flashes. The way that McNally used flash in a canoe and in the water on multiple occasions is astonishing to me. I can’t imagine having my camera and equipment that close to water, like risking ruining all your equipment for that? I get it, it is a very cool photo in all scenarios but risking thousands of dollars of equipment for it is kind of insane to me. It is very impressive how much you can accomplish when using flash, I’ve never messed around with flash as I haven’t really had any situations where flash would’ve really been necessary, however I think it could definitely have elevated some of my photos. Does this mean I will get into using flash regularly? No, it doesn’t. Does it mean that I might try it out on my own time? Also, probably not. But if the opportunity presented itself and I had the equipment with me, maybe I would do it.

            At one point in the book, McNally talks about not even needing a lot of light, just a flick of light. He explains how light stops the action once the flash hits the subject. He has many photos in stadiums of both the players and the crowd, in both scenarios he used flash to stop the movement and action. While he didn’t use a lot of light and didn’t have it directly with him, the flash made a noticeable difference in his photos. He explains that he had some of his flashes far up and away in with the lighting of the stadium as well as explaining that while stadium lighting is very bright, it’s not necessarily good for photos. That it creates harsh shadows which inevitably causes issues for photos a large majority of the time. This was honestly shocking to me, I guess I had assumed that since stadiums are so well lit that they would be a good source of light for photography, guess I was wrong.

            McNally tells about many different experiences he has had in this “diary”, and I aspire to be able to have as many opportunities as he does in the future. I don’t think I would want to photograph the same or similar things to him. However, having as many gigs and experiences and opportunities as he does would be so amazing. Reading thus far in here, I have thought more about the fact that I need to put myself out there more if I want to have these kinds of opportunities and this number of opportunities. I have definitely been afraid of putting myself out there in regard to anything really. I will say that I am 100% more of an introverted person and will wait for people to talk to me first a lot of the time, but this technique and behavior doesn’t work when doing photography. This book is inspiring me to reach out more, step out of my comfort zone, and get my name out there a lot more.