Farace, Joe 1941-

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FARACE, Joe 1941-

PERSONAL: Born May 21, 1941, in Baltimore, MD; son of Joe, Sr. (a steelworker) and Delores (Watkins) Farace; married Mary Rice, July 2, 1982; children: Denise M. Farace Shrader. Ethnicity: "Italian-American." Education: Johns Hopkins University, B.S., 1971; attended Towson State University and Maryland Institute College of Art. Politics: Independent. Hobbies and other interests: Sports, classic, and import racing cars, model trains.

ADDRESSES: Home—Brighton, CO. Agent—c/o Author Mail, W. W. Norton, 500 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10110. E-mail—joefarace@earthlink.net.

CAREER: C & P Telephone, Baltimore, MD, audiovisual manager, 1964-81; Photo-Synthesis (multimedia producers), Denver, CO, staff member, 1981-82. Howard Community College, associate professor, 1978-81; presenter of photography workshops.

MEMBER: Train Collectors Association, Porsche Club of America, Independent Photographers of Colorado (honorary member).

AWARDS, HONORS: Photographic Craftsman Award, Professional Photographers of America, 1984.

WRITINGS:

(With Don Feltner and James Bathurst) How to Become Rich and Famous in Photography, Studio Press, 1986.

(Editor) Developing a Business Plan: A Studio Owner's Reference Guide, Professional Photographers of America (Atlanta, GA), 1992.

(With Leslie D. Stroebel and Jeff Wignall) The Kodak Book of Large-Format Photography, Silver Pixel Press (Rochester, NY), 1995.

The Photographer's Digital Studio: Transferring Your Photos into Pixels, Peachpit Press (Indianapolis, IN), 1996.

PhotoWorks Plus: How to Use Every Feature, Seattle FilmWorks (Seattle, WA), 1996.

The Digital Imaging Dictionary, Allworth Press (New York, NY), 1996.

The Photographer's Internet Handbook, Allworth Press (New York, NY), 1997, revised edition, 2001.

Stock Photo Smart, Rockport Publishers (Gloucester, MA), 1997.

Composer: How to Use Every Feature, Seattle Film-Works (Seattle, WA), 1998.

The Graphic Arts Tips and Tricks Book, Hayden (Rochelle Park, NJ), 1998.

Plug-in Smart, Rockport Publishers (Gloucester, MA), 1998.

Re-Engineering the Photo Studio: Bringing Your Studio into the Digital Age, Allworth Press (New York, NY), 1998.

Digital Imaging: Tips, Tools, and Techniques for Photographers, Focal Press (Woburn, MA), 1998.

(With Barry Staver) Better Available-Light Photography, Focal Press (Boston, MA), 1999.

(With Barry Staver) Part-Time Glamour Photography: Full-Time Income, Silver Pixel Press (Rochester, NY), 1999.

(With Artur Landt) Magic Lantern Guide to the Canon EOS Elan 7/7E, EOS 33/30, Silver Pixel Press (Rochester, NY), 2001.

Digital Imaging Series: Capturing the Image, Roto Vision (London, England), 2001.

Digital Imaging Series: Printing the Image, Roto Vision (London, England), 2001.

(Technical editor) Rick Sammon, Photography for Generation D, W. W. Norton (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor to books, including The Book of Macintosh Software, Arrays (Los Angeles, CA), 1985; Portrait and Wedding World, Curtis and Sons, 1985; Instant Print Design, Hayden (Rochelle Park, NJ), 1998; and Shutterbug. Author of "Computer Tutor," a monthly column in Press; "Graphics," a monthly column in ComputerUser; and "Pixography," a monthly column in Professional Photographer. Contributor of numerous articles to magazines, including Antique Roadshow Insider, Desktop Publishers Journal, Digital Imager, Video, Photo Marketing, International Design, Rangefinder, Mac Home Journal, Photo-Electronic Imaging, and PhotoStockNotes. Past editor, eDigital Photo.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A book on pinhole photography; research on crime during World War II for a series of novels.

SIDELIGHTS: Joe Farace once told CA: "My primary motivation for writing is communication. I am driven to share my experiences with others, but part of my motivation is the actual writing—placing words on paper that have a certain sound and phrasing to entertain and hopefully amuse. I enjoy the art and craft of the writing process, but it's also a means of making a living. I am one of those lucky people who enjoy what they do for a living, but it wasn't always that way. That's why, these days, I like the amount of freedom I have in the writing process. The projects that get the most attention and the books that are my best are the ones that are the most fun for me to write. This aspect of fun, I hope, is transferred to the people who read my books and magazine stories. The most fun I have is actually hearing from readers—even those who don't always agree with me.

"My early work was influenced by the nonfiction writing of Jean Shepherd, automotive writer David E. Davis, and the late Peter Nicastro. Some of the nicest compliments I receive from readers are those that compare my work with Mr. Nicastro's. One of the problems I have had in recent years is that few magazines want stories that are as critical of established ideas as some of my early muckraking-style stories (stories like 'Clients from Hell' and 'Whatever Happened to Loyalty?'). I miss those days and the forum that the former Photomethods magazine and visionary editors like the late Lief Ericksenn provided me. In recent years I have been influenced more by novelists such as Kurt Vonnegut, although there is not always the opportunity to use some of his techniques when writing about technical subjects such as computers, photography, or digital imaging.

"Vonnegut says there are two kinds of writers: plodders, who make each sentence perfect before moving on to the next, and swoopers, who dump masses of text on paper or computer screens and finish their work during the editing process. I'm a swooper. I work best in the early morning, and often finish a thousand or more words in the first hour of the day, which for me starts around seven o'clock. I like to work on several projects at once. Currently I am working on several magazine stories and four book projects, so I swoop in the morning and edit later in the day. I never work on the same project for more than an hour or two. I get bored and get ideas about other projects, and so I quickly move on to them. I take a three-mile walk each afternoon and, more often than not, get so many ideas that I can't wait to get back to the computer to turn those thoughts into text.

"My writing has always been about what I was currently doing in my life. I am constantly experimenting with photography and imaging technology. If I was putting together the smallest portable lighting kit that the average photographer could assemble, I wrote about the process to share this information with others. If I was using computer software to create 'digital watercolor' images, I wrote about that, too. I think nonfiction writing is less about inspiration and more about reality. That's why I don't believe in writer's block. A writer writes; that what he or she does."