Hi I'm Tamara Lackey on this episode of
ReDefine show for AdoramaTV, I continue
my discussion with internationally
acclaimed photojournalist Joe McNally.
We talk about why putting structure and
focus around his marketing really paid
off for him and why you, yes you should
never ever wait for a job. Check it out.
It's funny because you are
obviously, extremely well known as a
photographer but you clearly are a very
strong writer and communicator.
Have you, has writing been
part of your career?
I went to school to be a writer.
I originally wanted to be a journalist
and possibly in the initial go,
I was thinking maybe I could be a sports
writer because I love sports. When I was
a kid, I didn't,
I wasn't a good player or anything
you know, I wasn't pro material, you
know, I always just enjoyed sports and so
I thought well that's a way I could stay
in touch with that world but then I
started studying camera work and I
immediately made a right hand turn, so
the idea now of the digital age,
communicating via social media and blogs.
Right. It is kind of fun for me,
It's brilliant for you. I re-tapped into the
idea of actually sitting down and
writing something, which if I can actually
screw myself into a seat and be
disciplined about it, I do finally enjoy.
Yeah. You know. And I've seen
that, like in your blog post. They're just
very well written and like they are,
you showcase your imagination, you talk about
it then you usually tend to tie your
images into something that's a little
bit of a deeper thought, than I think
most people are expecting when they're
looking at a photography blog, you know,
I think is very interesting.
It's kind of fun to do. It keeps you
sharp actually and it also keeps you
little bit on point because once you
start a blog you have to stay with it,
if you expect your readers to stay with you.
So it's a regular, it's like a metronome
I do a blog a week, sometimes a little
more, sometimes every once in a while I will pop
out two, but a blog a week and it's a
discipline that you get yourself into.
Sometimes you feel like, looking at the
computer like you're going to the
dentist. Oh my god. Stop staring.
What am I going to write about?
I can't think of anything, oh my god,
help!
And then Anne comes in
baby. You know. Calm down. Yeah she's
like she's like, yeah I hear you
I'm very sympathetic, but write the blog.
Just get it done. Get over it.
And you have a huge social media
following too. Well you know to the degree
we communicate, I mean again, that's Anne
is our director of social media
marketing and I kind of was very
slipshot about it like I'll do an
Instagram today, I'll do it,
look at that, that's a fall landscape,
look at that, that's a portrait and she's
like "focus".
Let's do series, lets actually put
things out there that have a certain
measure of coherence and it's a really
smart thing to do. Yeah. Because people have
responded to that.
Yeah. We do stories on Instagram and I find
that's actually really cool to do
because, I grew up in my career waiting
for Time magazine to call. Interesting.
News week to call, you know, and they
called and that was great, but guess what
News week are not around anymore.
Yeah. Life is gone. Yeah, yeah. As a photographer
you have to be very proactive now about
the creation of your own future.
Yeah. And so I find that these are just
tools that we can use to put things out
there, that otherwise if we were waiting
on that job. Right.
Nobody is going to see it anyway. Yeah.
I mean when was last time you read Time
magazine? Exactly. You know. Yes. But when
was the last time you were online
searching through websites?
About 20 minutes ago.
Exactly, exactly so it's a different world.
Thank you so much for taking the time to
have extremely serious interview.
I really appreciate it. I really appreciate
you being less than serious and being
the wonderful person that you are and we
are able to laugh together a lot, which
is one of the beauties and benefits of
being a photographer. You have to be able to
laugh at yourself.
Yes and if you're not having fun with this
job, why are you putting so much work and
effort into it? Oh my god, it would be so
tiresome, you know. Agreed.
If you didn't really
love this and enjoy the fun things that
it just drops unexpectedly on your plate
Thank you so much Joe, really appreciate
your time and extraordinary advice, check
us out here next time everybody on
AdoramaTV and don't forget there's like
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