San Miguel Day Two

Got up early, glad to see most of the swelling was gone. Showered and off to breakfast. Really nice buffet, but I didn't expect to be serenaded. The guy playing the guitar had a really great voice too.
After breakfast we had our first class session. This began with a presentation of some of Joe McNally's work, both from magazine assignments and his own personal projects. He's been a professional photographer for over 30 years and has photographed all over the world, taking on some of the most complex and dangerous assignments. Below is one of his photos. Those are his feet atop the world's tallest man made structure, the Burj Khalifa, in Abu Dhabi. Believe me, as much as I admire his work, I have absolutely no interest in attempting anything like that.


We are here to learn about lighting in photography and how to craft a lighting situation using relatively small flash units, and a variety of light shaping tools to create a lighting environment that will present a subject in a profound way.
The presentation was followed by demonstrations of some of the techniques Joe uses to produce those exciting, high impact photos.

Following lunch, we split into groups of three and took turns photographing each other. One would do the photographing, one would act as the model and the other would be the "grip", setting up the lighting as directed by the "photographer". Then we would rotate positions, photographing just within the confines of the hotel property. My team started out using a tunnel on property as a location.

My thought was to make this kind of an ominous shot, but I really had no idea how to do that as you can see in the following photo of Luly.

I did a little better with the shot of Will.




After our photo shoot, we had some time to relax before marching up to a local theatre where we were treated to a multimedia show put on by the two instructors. The local inhabitants were invited as well and the place was packed. Seeing a compilation of the work of Art Meyerson and Joe McNally would be a great opportunity for anyone interested in photographic art.

After the show a small group of us gathered for dinner in a restaurant across the street from the theatre.






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