Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”― Voltaire
I always enjoy hearing from readers, especially those with questions about photography, this blog, my car blog or anything else that may be on their minds. I try to answer them right away but some questions have a more general theme so I thought I would compile a few of those questions along with my answers for today’s post. If you have any questions or a request for me to address a specific topic, look at a certain piece of equipment or even explain or explore a technique, click on CONTACT above and let me know. So let’s get started..
Q: Are you doing any model shoots these day? I enjoy learning about lighting tools and techniques and seeing them explained with your portraits of models such as Pam Simpson, Marie Cedar and Erin Valakari. But I would like to see some new images of new models or at last some new shoots from some of these models.—R.B., Toledo, OH
A: To be honest, I would like to as well. The change in the number of models and model shoots started with the pandemic which affected lots of my other shooting, even photographing cars for my car photography website. This past summer—finally—many car shows started opening up but all of them are not back and some of the larger ones seem located in Northern Colorado making it a tough slog for me, especially those with early-in-the-day start times, when the light is best.
The pandemic also affected sessions with my existing as well as some new models I’m hoping to work with. As I write this, only a few models have expressed an interest in working with me on new shoots; Many of them are out-of-state and since I can’t afford to fly them in for a shoot, I have to wait for them to be here for other business. A former, now returned, client has said he is working on bring the model who posed for my Favorite Portrait here and is hopeful of setting up a studio session for me. I have my fingers crossed for than one. He recently booked me for a multiple model shoot in Texas scheduled for June.
Also, some of my favorite local models such as Erin and Scarlet have said they want to work with me this month and I am excited at the prospect. But as I said last week a change is coming to this blog, And I won’t be featuring many glamour and even portrait lighting post in the future. The good news is that I am working on creating a new how-to glamour site that will feature uncensored images from these and many of my other shoots. To keep the nanny software under control, I’ll not have any links to the site but when the site goes on line will email the link to anyone who asks via the Contact tab above.
Q: What happened to your PhotoWalks?—J.G., Parker, CO
A: You’re right, there have been no PhotoWalks during 2023. In fact all of my workshops and seminars have been put on hold for the rest of the year. I hope that 2024 will be a better one for many hundreds of reasons, the number one being that life may final setting into what (I think) will become a New Normal. It won’t be anything like the Old Normal but I hope and trust that we’ll be OK with what it evolves into. I recently did a post about this, in case you missed it here’s a link. Also look for updates for 2024 PhotoWalks on my Instagram channel (@joefarace.)
Q: Why haven’t you made any new videos lately. The last one was more than two months ago.—C.W., Detroit, MI
A. I am sorry about that. Making new videos is a challenge for me. Some people, like this guy attacked the YouTube system by having all of the right equipment he needed to make video in place, then he launched the channels and it’s fabulous both technically and content wise (and you should subscribe.) Me, on the other hand, does not have the proper gear and is using make-do stuff that I have laying around and trying to make it work, Most times it doesn’t but I still keep trying but I’ve run into one too many brick walls and have been frustrated by the process.
In the past, I would shoot videos when my wife was out of town because it was less disruptive to her and myself. But she may not be traveling for business anytime soon or may never again under the New Normal so I am trying to come up with a workaround, like shooting outdoors. Right now, I am looking to purchase a new microphone and as soon as I get the extra cash—there are no freebies for me—to purchase the mic I’d like to shoot a new video. That will happen real soon now, I promise.
Q: Whatever happened to your self-published book, “On Photography”?—J.L, Toronto, ON
A: Nobody but me was interested in this book, so —after I finished writing and editing it—I killed it. If I had the talent and skills to turn it into a eBook, I would do that and sell it for just a few bucks. PS. I’m going to talk to my Webmaster about this and see if he can help but right now hee working on the (uncensored) site I mentioned above and don’t want to distrait him.