Today’s Post by Joe Farace
A muse is a woman or a force that’s personified as a woman and who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist, or in my case a portrait and glamour photographer.
For many years my muse was Tia Stoneman, an actress and model who inspired me with her style, talent and imagination. You’ve seen her photographs on this and my former blog and in many of my magazine articles and books but she retired from modeling to focus on raising her children. In searching for a new muse I found Erin Valakari, who you’ve seen on this blog in recent months and has moved on to other aspects of her life and career.
When testing cameras, lenses and lighting equipment, I need models to pose for the photographs you see on this blog and Shutterbug‘s website. With repairs to my home studio well behind me, I’ll be doing more studio shoots and am looking for models and I’m especially interested in finding a new muse.
I prefer working with women ages 25-50 of all sizes and ethnicities. No experience is necessary. I’ll be making photographs similar to what you see on this blog to illustrate how-to stories as well as cameras and lens reviews.
Shoots will be on a TFP basis, but for any (few) assignments for print media I’ll pay the model an hourly rate based on the her experience. Actual shooting sessions typically run approximately two hours and are scheduled during the day Monday through Friday in my home studio located near Parker, Colorado.
If you have a friend (or maybe yourself) who would like to be my new muse, please contact me through the Contact page or send me an e-mail at joefarace at gmail dot com. We can schedule a test shoot or interview whichever is more convenient.
Some words about the featured photograph: Pam Simpson was one of first real muses after Tia Stoneman. Today’s image is from our ninth portrait session and I decided to photograph Pam with an accent on her legs. The shot had a behind-the-scenes theme and was photographed against Savage’s Photo Gray Infinity vinyl background. It was shot using a pair of inexpensive monolights that I don’t even own anymore, proving one again that light is light. The camera used was a Canon EOS 60D with an EF-S15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens with an exposure of 1/200 sec at f/4.5 and ISO 800. Image was processed using the Vivenza and Color Efex Pro Photoshop-compatible plug-ins.
In case you wondered: I received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in December and received the second dose on January 25. We have had our home and home studio professionally cleaned and sanitized nine different times since the pandemic started so we’re be ready to photograph you when you’re ready to be photographed.