Man, I thought to myself as I decided whether to click or not on the “add to shopping cart” button at Amazon. They want $34.64 for a paperback photobook without even a free CD of stuff you could have downloaded for free anyway.

“The Moment it Clicks”, Joe’s book, had just come out and I really didn’t know much about it besides what the publisher claimed (always dubious).

What’s Joe McNally thinking charging so much for yet another photobook that might barely get read once then sit on my shelf gathering dust. The list-price is $54.99 for Christ-sake and I’m unemployed self-employed…what is Joe thinking??….

Joe McNally is a great photographer. Having done work for all of the biggest publications and being one of the last-chosen full-time staff photographers for LIFE magazine, I didn’t doubt his credentials. I also greatly enjoy his work on the fabulous Nikon “Speed of Light” video where he does some great things with Nikon’s awesome Speedlights and Creative Lighting System.

Well, I clicked on the “Add to Shopping Cart” button and waited to see if the book was any good, the decision mainly based on Joe’s work on the Nikon video. I was lucky enough to get one before the first-printing ran out and I started browsing through it from back-to-front as I am wont to do.

I read one page, then another, then started at the front and read all the way through. This book is awesome.

It not only takes you through the technical issues with each assignment, but also the human-issues. Dealing with people, dealing with problems, what decisions (good and bad) were made with each picture.

Each 2-page spread deals with another photograph and another story, giving you a feel of what it’s like to be a Pro-photographer, making each turn of the page an adventure and a learning experience.

Quick, you have 10-minutes to photograph James Brown (the Godfather of Soul) in a Hotel lobby and when that 10-minutes is over, James is gone, like it or not.

What’s it like to photograph (for National Geographic) the man who puts the light-bulb on the top of the antenna on the Empire State Building? How do you get above this guy on one of the tallest buildings to take a picture looking down on him with all of Manhattan receding in the background?

(By the way, you gotta watch Joe’s video of the event on You-Tube. I get dizzy just watching the video…)

How to light, how to think, how to get your subjects to relax and respond in a way that’ll make a great photo (pull their ears), it’s all here. No secrets are held back and it’s presented in a very Joe McNally type of down-to-earth.

So, in conclusion, I’m very happy I bought this book and I’m getting ready to read it again (for the 3rd time), it’ll be a while before it’s on the shelf.

So, what was Joe thinking when he priced this book? I’m thinking he knew he had a very good book (great?) and, between you and me, I would have paid full list price for it, if not more, it’s so full of good useful information.

Just don’t tell Joe I said that.