McNally sa decisamente di cosa parla, quando parla di luce. E il libro è pieno di soluzioni ingegnose e di molti utili consigli. È anche, senza dubbio, una marchetta per vari marchi, Nikon in primis, ma il tutto è fatto con tanta onestà e trasparenza da non risultare per nulla fastidioso. ( )

I one sense, I didn't learn squat from Joe McNally's book .... other than how profoundly lazy and unimaginative I am. Anyone who is technically competent with their equipment can do what Joe does -- technically. But what sets McNally apart from me and from most photographers that I know (spanning 40 years in photography) is the lengths that he goes to in realizing his artistic vision. As a photographer I have always worked with the light, really concentrating on being perceptive to light. But Joe turns things completely around. He exerts control; he makes the light follow his imagination and vision. For me this was a revolutionary way of approaching lighting. I don't need to look at a scene and think, "what can I do with it." Rather, I can look at a scene and think "what do i want it to look like." It's like when the Beatles first heard Jimi Hendrix. OK, so I exaggerate (I caught that affliction from McNally).

The writing is clear, concise, and his self-depreciating humor is entertaining. He's a master of the metaphor. ( )

Great read for people who are getting into flash photography, got time, and no money for $1000 workshops. ( )

I've been reading McNally's blog for a while, and the writing style in this book is just the same. This isn't a guide, or a howto, or a tutorial book of any type. This is, as the title hints, a diary of many photo shoots McNally has done. The book is littered with tips and hints that he picked up whilst being on the shoots, as well as diagrams showing how some of the shoots were setup. A good book, but don't expect it to be a guide any further than some of the tips and diagrams. ( )

I picked up my first external flash unit recently, and quickly realized that I was going to have to relearn a lot of things about exposure to employ the flash creatively. This book, though, assumes a sophistication with flash that I don't yet have. Among other things, it champions the use of multiple and off-camera flash units, while I have not yet gotten comfortable using the one flash on the camera. McNally writes in a lively, conversational, self-deprecating voice, and the book is full of remarkable photos. But his approach is also Nikon-centric, which is slightly off-putting to those of us using other brands. The Hot Shoe Diaries wasn't the right read for me as a photographer just now, but I suspect I'll come back to it in a few years and get more out of it. ( )