Warning: Another Non-cover Post with Lots of Pics
I wanted to do a post that had nothing to do with book covers. Remember, this blog was created WAY before I started making book covers and was used for shameless self promotion. Not that I’m posting this to shamelessly self promote, ok, maybe a little, but not much. It’s actually another photography post.
I recently finished my second Critique Your Photography Class with Will Fields Photography Workshops, (who happens to be running a Living Social Deal) and thought I’d share some of the works that came from that time frame. Some were taken for the assignments, some just taken because I was in the groove. Warning! There’s a lot of pics again! The class was 4wks, but spaced over every other week. So I have 8 weeks worth 
The first assignment was to take a picture of the same spot/thing using the same camera settings at least two different times of the day trying to hit the magic hours to compare the lighting. Like Morning/Noon, Noon/Evening or throw a cloudy day in there. One thing that was really brought to my attention during this assignment, was the direction you were facing vs time of day. Such a silly thing, but I don’t think I ever gave it thought before.
These are all unedited, with the exception that I took the time to place them side by side and label the time of day. They were also all taken at Maplewood Lake in Jenison, Mi I think I had more fun trying to find the exact spot again than anything else. LOL
And of course I had to take a couple and edit them just a tiny bit, if not just an auto contrast!!!
This next set wasn’t taken for an assignment. We had a Gale Wind Warning in Grand Haven, so a couple of us ran out to the pier one night.
Some of these I was playing with long exposure.
I’ve decided I really like taking night shots!
The next assignment was colors. How color makes the picture. Good thing we were at peak fall colors!
These were taken at Hagar Park, Jenison, Mi.
I like this one (above) because there’s naturally a rainbow. See how it goes from the red leaves to orange, yellow, green, and then finally the shadows on the bench are blue.
This one (above) I shot in HDR.
These next few were also shot for the color assignment, plus it was just before Halloween, and I just wanted to shoot pumpkins! They’re also in HDR.
Do YOU see the skull in the pumpkin? That was just how the smashed in part looked, not added!
And the last assignment was Backgrounds and Pos/Neg Space.
This one really didn’t have to do with the assignment, I just liked it!
And of course I had to do some of my kids.
Whew! That’s a lot of pics! I’m done now!
Don’t forget to check out Will Fields Photography Workshops and if you are in the Grand Rapids, Mi area, he’s running a Living Social Deal on select classes right now!
And, head over to his facebook page for a chance to win a free photography class or photo walk of your choice!
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A Little help?
This isn’t something I would normally do, but I’m trying to help a friend out. They’ve entered the Pure Michigan’s “Pure Michigan Moment Photo Contest” taking place on facebook, so I’m spamming for votes!
If you have a facebook page, are willing to take a moment, and well of course you must actually like the picture, go vote for it! It’s a stunning night shot of Michigan’s Mackinac Bridge.
If the link doesn’t take you directly to the picture, go to View Entries, then select Sort by Votes. It is listed under Brian from Ada. Right now they are sitting at 95 votes (7th place), with a goal of breaching that 100 line.
If you want to see more work from Nature’s Angle, visit their website at www.naturesangle.com
Local Events!
I will be attending a couple Art Fairs/Events over the next couple months. I will be sharing a booth with Nature’s Angle Photography. If you haven’t check out their fine art photography prints, then you are missing out on some amazing Nature and Local Photography! We will both have a variety of prints available for purchase.
So if you are in the West Michigan area, come check us out!
Saturday August 25, 2012
Art Jam in Downtown Fennville, Mi
10am-6pm
Saturday September 8, 2012
Art in the Park in Rockford, Mi
9am-5pm
The annual Rockford Art in the Park exhibition takes place the Saturday after Labor Day in the Garden Club Park between the Rogue River Dam and the White Pines Trail in downtown Rockford. With the Rogue River as a backdrop, Garden Club Park is an idyllic spot for a fine arts celebration.
Artists from across the state of Michigan compete in this juried art exhibition, featuring works in pottery, stoneware, sculpture, jewelry. glassworks, painting, photography, fiber arts and more. Artists are on hand to showcase and sell their works. A “Best of Show” award as well as six “Best of Category” awards (Jewelry, Pottery/Stoneware/Sculpture, Glassworks, Painting, Photography, & Fiber Arts) is presented each year.
Dieseltec
Another thing that’s been keeping me busy lately is my husbands new shop Dieseltec. Not art related? pffft…who do you think had to create the logo, business cards and any related graphics?? Not to mention advertising, office work, and well pretty much anything you can think of related to setting up a new shop.
[NOTE: This is a blatant advertising plug, because it's my blog and I can!]
My husband Brian, has been working on Diesel trucks for years. For fun, as a profession, on the side, etc. So obviously the next step was to move into a new shop. And thus, Dieseltec was created!
There aren’t many places in Grand Rapids or West Michigan that specialize, or even work on Diesel Pick-up Trucks. At Dieseltec we cater to the big three: Cummins, Duramax, and Powerstroke. And we don’t do just repair, or just performance, we do it all!
Can’t find a place that does a Diesel engine oil change? Or does it right? Stop on in! Truck running a bit rough and your not sure what’s wrong with it? We do computer diagnostics! Got an injector out? No problem! Rough start on a cold morning? Got exhaust problems? How about you just want MORE POWER! Make my husband giddy, he LOVES tuning trucks and showing people what they are really capable of! (I swear…boys and their toys!)
Check out Dieseltec’s Services Page.
If you own a Diesel Truck, or if you just love Diesels, and live in the Grand Rapids, Mi Metro area, stop on in!
3545 Viaduct St SW, Grandville Mi 49418
And don’t forget to join us and become a fan of Dieseltec on Facebook!
Exhibit at the Radix Tavern Opening
I was invited to to share some of my abstract work in the Radix Restaurant Gallery for their opening exhibit, located in Eastown (Grand Rapids, Mi) So if your in the mood, swing on in, enjoy the exhibit, have a nice meal, or have a few drinks.
The Radix Tavern is located at 1420 Lake Dr, Grand Rapids, Mi (Where the Queen’s Pub used to reside)
The pieces being shown are:
A Framed 24×12 print of Desire
A Framed 24×12 Print of A Pinch of Blue
A Framed 12×24 Print of Pale Perception
And a Framed 12×24 Print of Preconceived Illusions
All four prints will be on display over the next couple months, and are available for purchase at $200 a piece after the exhibit is over.
Photography (another non-cover post) WARNING LOTS OF PICS!
I’m not sure why I feel the need to add “another non-cover post” to my title. LOL Seems like all my posts are about covers lately. Used to be, all my posts were about photography or art. So once in a while I need to throw something non-cover related out there.
Most of my time now days is spent on doing cover art, but not all of it. I felt the need to get away from Photoshop a bit, and get in touch with my camera again, so I took a local photography workshop called “Critiquing Your Photography” instructed by Will Fields. If you’re in the area, and have an interest in photography, I highly recommend taking one of his classes. Will offers a variety of photography classes/workshops both here in Grand Rapids, Mi and in St. Louis. Varying from a 1hr Private Instruction classes, to Beginning Photography, to In Studio Lighting, to Nature Photography, to Critiquing your Photography, to weekend Photography Tours.
I had a great time, learned a lot, made a few friends, shared a bit of Photoshop knowledge, and took a bunch of pictures over the 4 week course.
Now I’m gonna share some of my pics!
I did do a post previously on the first assignment, which was called “A Non-cover Post” (go figure!) Though technically I wasn’t doing those pics FOR the assignment, I had it in mind, was sort of a practice/prelude. I had planned on doing something else, but life happened and I wound up using those shots anyways. The assignment was to pick a famous photography, and try and recreate their work/style. For those of you who don’t want to go back and read that post, just want to see pics, here are a couple from that. (no PS)
And more pics taken during the time frame of the workshop:
A Photowalk we did downtown (only cropping done)
Clouds:
An old school house one of my classmates and I found, working on shutter speed.
More shutter priority work, we were to capture motion, decided to go downtown at night, overlooking the highway.
(played with the color a bit in PS on this one)
Then I got a bit preoccupied by the way the light reflected off the Grand River, and ignored the whole motion thing:
I also tried having the kids play with flashlights at night:
And since I’m sharing pics, here are a few, not connected to the class, but a couple of us joined the Grand Rapids Flickr Group on their monthly Photowalk.
In case you missed the link above, this is Will Fields Photography website, and his Photography Workshops website.
Gone
I spent Sunday afternoon driving around, exploring, looking for that perfect picture to capture with my camera. I haven’t been out since last fall, and I didn’t know where to go. So I just hopped in the car and drove. I wanted to rejuvenate my love for photographing old run down abandoned houses, or that barn up on the hill, so I headed north, out into to a more rural setting.
I drove for hours, only stopping twice to take one or two pictures! What’s wrong with me? I drove by several abandoned houses, falling down buildings, probably hundreds of barns. Have I lost my edge? Is photography not doing it for me anymore? All I could think about was how much gas I was wasting! It’s sad really.
Before I headed out, I was skimming through some of my past images. To me, I feel like I have lost something in the past couple years. Originally I blamed it on the loss of my old tablet PC. I started out with an older Toshiba Satellite Tablet laptop, with which I could just flip the screen over, and use the stylus right on the screen. I LOVED that comp. Not to mention what I saw on the screen was EXACTLY what the print looked like. This new laptop makes everything much lighter, and no matter how much I play with the display settings, it doesn’t help.
When my tablet PC kicked the bucket one last time, I stopped playing with images for quite a while. I stopped taking pictures, I stopped making abstracts, and photomanipulations? No way! But gradually I got used to using the mouse again (lefty using a right handed mouse here!), and gradually I started working my way back into my creative outlet. Looking around my blog now days, you see I’ve been doing mostly photomanipulated book covers, and recently I purchased a Wacom tablet, still trying to grasp what I had with my tablet pc. (Though I tend to go for the mouse more still lol) And with that attempted grasp, I was looking to grab onto my older style in photography/editing.
Which brings me to my original point of this post. Some days you just get sidetracked…..
After driving around for about 4hrs, I stop and get something to eat (driving makes you hungry!), sit down, pull out my map to figure out where I’m going next. Because this aimless driving, wasn’t getting me anywhere. And then I had a thought. Why don’t I go revisit some of the places I photographed before? I mean, 4-5 yrs have passed, they might be even more dilapidated! So I pack up, head an hour west, all excited that I KNOW WHERE TO GO!
To this day, my favorite image in my portfolio is “Abandoned” It just speaks to me on sooo many levels. I weave my way through all these back country roads, spitting up rocks as I fly down the dirt roads, my destination for once completely clear to me. As I start to pass the adjoining apple orchard, I slow, eyes peeled, music blaring on the radio, fingers tapping with the rhythm, sitting forward in my seat leaning over the steering wheel, so excited. The clearing approaches, I pass by an old trailer, then a massive stack of apple crates, then more orchard. Wait, more orchard? I throw it in reverse. Stop in front of that pile of apple crates. Note the shrubbery surrounding them is familure, then notice the cement foundation they are stack upon. My heart sinks. It’s gone! Gone!
I’m not sure how long I sat there staring at these stacks of apple crates, but it was a while. I reached for the camera at one point, intending to “document” the loss, but couldn’t bring myself to actually take the picture. It seems so silly to be upset about the loss. It was a falling down, abandoned house, no “historical” importance, a safety hazard! But still, I felt the loss so deeply. I can’t explain it.
I suck it up, thankful I found it when I did 4 yrs ago to take that amazing picture, then decided to revisit a few more spots in the area that are prominent in my portfolio. (There were quite a few in this area) I head down the road to where I took “Quiet Barn”. I slow as I come up to it, very familure with it’s exact location, since when I lived out there I drove by it almost daily.
Nothing! Nothing but and open field! You’d think after the house, I’d somewhat expect it. But this barn was still in use last time I drove by it! 
I keep going, now looking for places I photographed, desperately needing to know if they are still there.
GONE.
GONE.
GONE.
GONE.
I stopped looking, and just went home. It just goes to show, you never know how long something will still be there.
Arts & Craft Show – Sparta, Michigan
I will be doing my first Arts and Craft Show this Saturday, July 18 2009, in Sparta, Mi.
Sparta (a neighboring town for me) celebrates each July with the Sparta Town & Country Days, which is a week full of fun family activities and more. The Arts and Craft Show will be held at Balyeat Field (click for map of Sparta Parks) 9am – 4pm. There are lots of other great stuff going on then too, for the Saturday schedule, click here.
I’m a little nervous, with this being the first time selling my art off the internet. I don’t have the typical Art show set up, the fancy walls for hanging work, but I will have to make do with my tables and easles. Everyone has to start with something, right? I will have with me about 30-40 pieces, ranging from 5×10 framed prints to 20×20 canvas print to 20×30 framed prints. Some of my more popular peices like, Echinacea Dark Dreams, Ephemeral Partings, A Pinch of Blue and Lil Red Riding Hood will be there, along with some new prints.
So come on out, stop by, and show me some love 
Sad day for me.
I got my postcard from Festival of the Arts today. All four of my entries were not accepted. I thought for sure, at least one would get accepted. Oh well, life goes on right? I guess my submissions just weren’t what the judges were looking for. These are the four I entered.
Echinacea Dark Dreams – 20×30 print matted to a 24×36 frame
Ephemeral Partings – 20×20 canvas print
Pale Perception L – 12×24 print, gatorboard mounted, framed, no mat
Death of a Light Bulb – 12×20 print, framed, no mat
I know, when I dropped off the work, there was some confusion about where to place these pieces. What media to claim them as. I had written Photography for all but Pale Perception L, I just listed that as digital. One person wanted to put them all in with the photography. I know they placed the 3 as photography, but I never found out where Pale Perception went. I did tell them there was no form of photography involved in that image. I didn’t see any of the other entries, so I don’t know if there is a lot of photomanipulation, or if my images are too edited for this competition. This thought process got me thinking, there really aren’t a lot of art competitions that favor digital art. My abstracts are all digital, and I know they aren’t bad because I have sold quite a few, but where do they fit in in today’s art world? I need to find someplace, or a competition for strictly digital works. Maybe I should start my own
Getting my rejection letter today really depressed me, but then I reminded myself of the sales of my work. If I wasn’t a very good artist, then I would not have sold anything. This being the first time I have actually put myself out there, in the ‘real world’ as an artist, just made it that much worse. But, I have to remind myself, I just didn’t suite these particular judges tastes. Maybe next time, if I decide to try again.
New Store, New Products, New Designs!
If you haven’t noticed (and if you’re reading this, that’s not possible) I opened up a Zazzle store. It started just for my new Christmas images, then I brought in my older existing photography and digital abstracts, and now I’ve spread out to Scuba Diving designs! Why? Well, I was looking through Zazzle’s Scuba lines and noticed NOTHING for Michigan Great Lakes Diving. Can you believe it? I found state diver’s down flags for almost any other states but our glorious state! I just couldn’t have that! So I spent some time and created a Great Lakes/Michigan Diver’s Line.
So far I have the 4 basic designs made that I have spread out and tweaked on different products. I actually got to design some t-shirts! I was so excited! T-shirt designs don’t really usually turn out for me because I’m more apt at photography and photoshop manipulation, not so great with the whole vector image scene. These guys were fairly simple vectors though.
Now onto the Michigan Great Lakes Designs!
Mugs
Shirts
Of course there are slight variations, and different colors available.
Other Michigan Diver Stuff
To view all products visit the Art by Karri Store
Since I’m on the scuba diving subject, here are some other neat shirts I came across by other artists.
TTV: Through the Viewfinder
What is TTV: Through the Viewfinder?
Well, it’s pretty much what it says. It’s a technique using two cameras, an old box camera and the camera you actually take pictures with, in which you take a picture of what you see through the other camera’s viewfinder. Make sense?
What is the point you ask?
For me, I love the aged retro look you get with TTV. Yeah, you can make an image look aged or antiqued using textures and filter in Photoshop, but it’s just not the same. Most of the old box cameras are dirty, covered in dust, maybe some scratches, all of which add to the character of the image. (The dirtier the better I say!) Not to mention the challenge of balancing 2 cameras, and the whole flip flop issue. Most box camera’s used have a top viewfinder, that uses mirrors, so you have to keep your good camera at a 90 degree angle to what you want to photograph. Oh, and everything is reversed. Do you know how confusing that can get, you keep turning the direction you need to to center the image, yet in the viewfinder it’s going the other way?!?
So what do you need to get started?
First off, you need a camera to actually take the picture. I’ll assume if you are reading this, you already have one of those And to get a nice close-up shot of the viewfinder, you will need a macro lens, or zoom filters. You will need to be able to take a picture a few inches away from the object. If your camera has a macro setting that you are happy with, then by all means, just use that! Besides that, you will need some sort of old camera with a large viewfinder, and then something to block out the light between the 2 cameras.
After you have what you need, honestly, all you do is take a picture of the viewfinder.
Obviously the image above doesn’t have the light blocked out between the two cameras. I just wanted to show you the viewfinder.
My set up:
I have my Canon Rebel XTi for my primary camera (we’ll call this camera #1 from now on), an old box Argus 75 for my secondary camera (camera #2), my stackable zoom filters (I don’t have a macro lens), and my Tube of Darkness. Put together it looks like this:
You can pick up an old box camera fairly cheap at flea markets, antique stores, or ebay. Cameras like the Argus 75 were so overly mass produced in the 40′s, 50′s, and 60′s, you can find them all over the place. I picked mine up on ebay for $4.99 plus shipping!
Here it is pulled apart:
The Tube of Darkness:
To block out the light between cameras, I used a 3 inch cardboard tube that I cut down to 6 inches long, and a black (fuzzy) sock (lost the match) of which I cut the toe off. I slipped the black sock over the cardboard tube, so that there is equal excess material at the top and bottom of the tube. Then I slipped the tube over the open viewfinder on camera #2, and used saftey pins to secure it around camera #2′s straps, making sure it’s pulled tight, yet not to cover camera #2′s lens. And viola! a Tube of Darkness!
And since I use an SLR camera, I just dip my lens into the tube, and pull the top excess sock material over camera #1′s lens. The sock works great because of the elasticity, it keeps a snug fit over the camera’s, keeping out the light. Sorry, I can’t show you a picture of the SLR in the Tube of Darkness because I only have one camera!
I took the picture, now what?
Honestly, that’s up to you and your taste! First off, crop off all that excess around the image. Most people leave a small border around though. After that, editing is all up to you! I have heard that a lot of people like to used the Urban Acid Photoshop Action. I have tried it, but usually end up just playing with the tones and colors on my own, so I can’t give you an example of it. Then why not upload it to Flickr? There are a ton of TTV Flickr groups! Not to mention the ton of information you can find in those groups! The largest one, Through the Viewfinder, has a blog with a ton of information, including a list of a variety of different secondary (base) cameras that can be used. Check that out here.
I hope you enjoyed my lil tutorial/informative blog! Now I’m gonna shamelessly self-promote
More of my TTV images
This is the very first TTV I took. This is my daughter. What I love about this image, is that it looks like a picture that fell out of my baby book!
This picture was actually chosen as the picture of the day on Absolute Michigan’s Michigan in Pictures Blog!
“Museum of Newaygo”
All of my work can be puchased as premium art cards, and most are available as matted prints, laminated prints, mounted prints, canvas prints, framed prints, and posters. All in varying sizes. To see more work and/or purchase click here. (or click on a particular image)
Example Card:
Calendars!
Redbubble now offers calendars! So of course I had to make some! Currently I have 3 themed calendars, but am also willing to put together personal choice calendars. i.e. you pick 12 of my images and let me know, and I’ll create the calendar for your purchase!
So on to the calendars!
Digital Abstracts by Karri Klawiter
A collection of my 12 most popular digital abstracts.
A collection of 12 of my most popular old barn/dilapidated buildings.
Once Upon a Time: A Photographic Series by Karri Klawiter
12 images from an abandoned house in Allegan County, Mi. Most of which are done in HDR.
Almost all of my images in these calendars can be puchased as premium art cards, matted prints, laminated prints, mounted prints, canvas prints, framed prints, and posters. All in varying sizes. To see more work and/or purchase click here.
Once Upon a Time, A Photographic Series
Recently I had the privelage to explore an abandoned house I came upon. The house looks to me to be turn of the century, and was obviously at one time a gorgeous home. Once upon a time this house was a home, now it is just remnents of the past. Images are in HDR.
All of my work can be puchased as premium art cards, and most are available as matted prints, laminated prints, mounted prints, canvas prints, framed prints, and posters. All in varying sizes. To see more work and/or purchase click here. (or click on a particular image)
Example Card:
Don’t forget to visit The Gift of Art, where all proceeds go to the National Cancer Institue, to help fund cancer research.
New Digital Abstracts
Ok, so I’ll admit it, I’ve been lazy, haven’t done any new digital abstracts in a while. I finally got a little bit of time on my hands to play a bit. (Not to mention I cleared out 60 images from my redbubble site and have room for new!) FYI, all of the following images were created using Apophysis 3D hack and Photoshop
So here we go!
First up we have: Shattered Conception, which was created to be simular to Product of Conception, yet different. They both have a jewel look going on.
Next we have Underlined Elegance, which with this small preview kinda has a stars and stripes look doesn’t it? Like it should be red white and blue? Full size view does not look like that though 
Followed by Apparition of Complicated Expresso. I know, I know, what a name!?! Hey, it’s abstract, I can name it what ever I want! Besides, doesn’t the colors remind you of coffee and cream?
And then the Eye of the Dragon. I love it when a fractal turns out looking like something! Behold my dragon’s eye!
There was also the Ghostly Sphere, but it didn’t make the cut. (it might later though) I’ll share it anyways.
All of my work can be puchased as premium art cards, and most are available as matted prints, laminated prints, mounted prints, canvas prints, framed prints, and posters. All in varying sizes. To see more work and/or purchase click here. (or click on a particular image)
Example Card:
Don’t forget to visit The Gift of Art, where all proceeds go to the National Cancer Institue, to help fund cancer research.
My Latest Photography Series – Nautical
I spent a day out on a boat in Grand Traverse Bay, Traverse City, Mi, intending on scuba diving. Of course I brought my camera. This is not my typical work, but I have been pretty desperate for something to photograph!
Enjoy the veiw of the bay through my eyes….
All of my work can be puchased as premium art cards, and most are available as matted prints, laminated prints, mounted prints, canvas prints, framed prints, and posters. All in varying sizes. To see more work and/or purchase click here. (or click on a particular image)
Example Card:
Don’t forget to visit The Gift of Art, where all proceeds go to the National Cancer Institue, to help fund cancer research.
