Gotta McNally? Then Pimp It.
If you think of a photographer’s career as a roller coaster, then Joe McNally’s car has been around the track a bunch of times. To get a sense of his persona, mix equal parts of photojournalist, theatrical lighting director and New Yorker. Then infuse that mix with the cool intensity of an ER physician and add the spontaneity of a court jester. The cocktail makes for a great photographer with a long list of colorful stories to share. Or is it a colorful photographer with a long list of great stories? Either way, you’ll find these tales and the photos that inspired them in Joe’s recently published book, The Moment It Clicks.
If you missed the circus last February, the release of The Moment It Clicks
I’ve had the good fortune to take Joe’s week-long Santa Fe workshop. I’ve had the greater fortune to work with him as a location assistant on the pre-launch Nikon D3 marketing shoot last summer (think beautiful babe and elephant in the middle of nowhere or acrobat hanging from a red silk banner against a mysterious sunset). I’ve sat through his presentations at Photoshop World in Vegas and at PhotoPlus in New York. You’d think I’d have had my fill of this guy, right? Not so. My copy of The Moment It Clicks
So how do you customize your McNally? You gotta pimp it. I’m talking a big coil binding, laminated covers and graffiti on nearly every page. The bennies are huge. Your McNally will take up more room on the bookshelf. It will be easier to get back to that nugget of wisdom you’re thinking of. You’ll stop fighting with the gutter when admiring the extra wide pix. Feeling envious? Read on.
How To Pimp Your McNally In Five Easy Steps.
Step 1 – Sand Off The Original Binding
Seriously, use a disk sander to remove the spine and all of the glue that holds the pages together. There will be no question about your enthusiasm for your McNally at this point.
You’ll end up with a pile of loose pages:
Step 2 – Laminate The Covers In Heavy Plastic
Head to the nearest office superstore and tell the clerk that you need the covers encapsulated in 10-mil plastic. I had my edges trimmed to an eighth of an inch.
Perhaps the greatest advantage of laminating the covers is that you can now use this masterwork of McNallyisms as a coaster for your morning cup of java.
Step 3 – Bind Her Up With A Nice Coil
Trust me on this. An inch-and-a-half plastic coil is the Cadillac you need for this project. Don’t skimp by using a skinny comb binding. The big, fat coil lets the pages flow smoothly. Your McNally will now lay perfectly flat on the table. Or, you can fold the cover back completely for a more comfortable read in bed. {If you’re totally OCD about pimping your McNally, check out the extra credit section at the end.}
Step 4 – Boldly Break Out An Assortment of Sharpie Markers and Neon Highlighters
One of the great joys of Joe’s book is that he does not spell it all out. You have to want to learn. You have to work at honing your craft. So round up the Sharpies and draw the lighting diagrams. Grab a highlighter and mark up the text you find most relevant. When you’re done, there should be graffiti on nearly every page. Now you have the McNally those whiner critics on Amazon wanted – but this way feels better because you earned it.
Step 5 – Use Adhesive Flags With Impunity
Joe in a tie? Those who know Joe know how unique a moment that is. Apparently, even the Metropolitan wanted to sit down next to Joe and get his picture taken. I’ve flagged a number of pages with these cutesy adhesive strips so that I can quickly return to moments like this.
Extra Credit Section – Print Out the Online Section As Double-Sided Spreads
There’s an extra chapter available online at Peachpit Press. You can download it as a PDF for free. {Hint: Look for the “Register Your Book” link.} Now those with OCD, like me, can proceed to the extra credit section. Use Photoshop to chop the PDF spreads into single page bites for printing. Then lay them out in InDesign and print them on two-sided paper. You can insert the entire chapter right at the end of the book {the pages will be just a bit smaller}. Hey… I said this was the extra credit section. It’s not meant to be easy.
Congratulations – You’ve Pimped Your McNally
When you’re done, you’ll have a McNally that’s about twice a thick as when you started. You’ll also have a McNally that’s a heck of a lot easier to refer back to on the fly when you need a quick reminder. Are you smiling now? I thought you would be. If not, we know who you are.
Need more McNally to feed your obsession?
Subscribe to Joe’s blog and you’ll get installments direct from the horse’s mouth.
Okay for us girls out here.. How do you Pimp your McNally if you don’t own a sander? Do you offer a McNally pimping service that we can send the book to. Please advise. haha
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There is a easier way to do this — just take it to Kinko’s or Office Depot (actually any big office products store) they will cut the spine, drill the holes and put the comb in for you plus add a cover — it is a lot easier!
Good idea, I don’ think I will carve up my autographed first printing copy, but my second copy is starting to get nervous. Now if i can just find my sander…….
[...] He had an interesting post of why photographers should blog. In addition, he had a post entitled “Gotta McNally? Then Pimp It”. Wow. Syl takes his photo book reading seriously. I’m not sure I’m ready to rip them [...]
Awesome idea. I may not go full out and rebind it (I hate how coil binding sit on shelves), but I like the annotation idea.
Took Kathyt’s suggestion and got mine totally done at Staples. They did the binding and laminating all for five bucks. No need for the sanding.
Great idea. Makes the book even more fun to use.
$5 bucks for a turn-key deal to Pimp A McNally? Sounds about right. But… there’s a certain pride of ownership that comes from hearing the whir of the disk sander.
I downloaded the extra content after registering my book and the pdf i got is missing some of the pictures, e.g. the one with the canadian athlete (seen in this post) or the vietnam wedding. i get the text only. does anybody have the same problem?
Brilliant! (said like the Guinness guy)
I’ve been thinking about cutting mine apart and laminate it so I could throw it in my bag without jacking it up – I’m so happy that I’m not the only OCD person out there who would do it!!!!
[...] Check out the full post over at the PixSylated blog. [...]
[...] Source and Read More: pixsylated.com [...]
Hey, anyone out there want to share with me the ‘free’ PDF last chapter WITHOUT paying for the ‘free’ ($22.99 per month) Safari Book program from Peachpit?
Even though mine is not an autograph copy, I think I would pimp a second copy. I like the idea. It sort of turns it into a workbook. I can have clean copy for my coffee table and the other I can take with me. Looks like I’ll be getting a second copy.
Where did you get that cool annotation flag with the flower on it? I would love to have flags like that…
Register your book at Peachpit and gain access to the bonus chapter http://www.peachpit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0321544080
Thanks for this idea. I took the lazy way out and went to Staples. They cut off 1/4″ of the spine, laminated the front and back cover, then added the spiral binding for only $7. Saves me some sweat and work.
Looks like the bonus chapter PDF is no longer available online, so I wasn’t able to do the extra credit. Maybe next time.
strobane, Your link worked very well – THANK YOU!
[...] blog and a fun post about mod’ing your copy of McNally’s Moment It Clicks. Link HERE. There’s also a good article on colour management called “Why Your Photos Look Lousy… [...]
Strobane – Many thanks for helping sort this out.
I’ve patched the text link for the PDF download at Peachpit. The correct link is http://www.peachpit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0321544080
The trick is to click on the Register Your Book link and follow the steps.
Cecelia – Santa told me that she bought them either at Staples or Target… here’s the product page on the web
http://bobsyouruncle.com/product8.html
That is pretty awesome! I’ve had the good fortune to attend a few of Joe’s classes at Photoshop World and speak with him at the event. A truly amazing photographer and one heck of a character!
Hey Syl,
Thanks for the idea.
I pimped my “Light, Science and Magic”.
Now it’s much easier to read.
You helped me dispose of my reservations of marking up a nice tidy book.
I now read it with my Highliter, Sharpie and pen in hand.
Love the blog.
Lyle
[...] blog) but not that it was in pre-order. One other interesting thing that I found on pixSylated is this post on pimping your McNally. He takes Joe’s book and puts a spiral binding on it. What makes this [...]
This has been quite a day for me. First finding your blog – linked from Joe McNally’s – and thoroughly enjoying some excellent articles. This included probably the best description of extended range e-TTL I’ve come across, and while it was for Radio Poppers, it would be of real interest to people looking at the new Pocket Wizards. And lastly for this extraordinary article, and a reminder to register my copy of TMiC.
This is where things started to go wrong, because I unfortunately fell off a ladder and broke my back and several ribs just after Christmas, and after downloading the extra chapter, and reading Joe’s account of the Jenny Gutierrez pool shot, I was reduced to levels of laughter ill advised for folk in my condition. No pain, no gain, as they say, and I’m glad I found your blog.
[...] be remarkable, be memorable. If you know of PixSylated, it’s probably because I… Pimped My McNally, Shot Ben Willmore In Broad Daylight, and then Smashed Pumpkins With High-Speed Sync. Is there [...]
My dog once took a liking to one of my wife’s text books. He licked the glue on the binding, which turned out to be soluble in Brittany Spaniel saliva.
So if you have a dog, maybe a horse, or know Gene Simmons personally…
NaturaLight.us
Love it. If I didn’t have so many other books on my must buy list, I’d go out and get a 2nd copy and pimp Joe.