Lowell Riverwalk Festival Arts & Crafts Show

I'm pleased to announce I will have my work featured at the Lowell Riverwalk Arts & Crafts Show. Stop by for a variety of matted prints, quality greeting cards and boxed gift sets, along with a few other surprises!

For more information about the two-day event, visit www.discoverlowell.org. And here's a PDF map of downtown Lowell for parking and event location!

Riverwalk Festival
2nd weekend in July
July 13 & 14, 2007

This two-day event includes many activities where you and your family will enjoy Friday and Saturday night concerts, arts and crafts, parade, pet parade, Brian Mead Memorial Riverwalk Cruise-in, Rumble the Riverwalk, children’s area, historic riding tours and river tours, pontoon rides, kayak and canoe race, kayak fun, food booths, downtown merchants sidewalk sales and open house, health & fitness fair, street musicians, $1500 duck race, fireworks and much more.

Lowell is located on State Highway M-21, just 18 miles east of Grand Rapids - or 20 miles west of Ionia. You may access Lowell at exits 39 (M-21) and 52 (M-50) from Interstate 96.

Photo of the Month: Seeing the Forest Through The Trees

Some of you might enjoying seeing an image that was recently chosen as Photo of the Month in its category (Plant Life) at MyParkPhotos.com.

The photo was taken at Townsend Park in Cannonsburg on a 1o-degree day after a rather large amount of snowfall. Brrrr!

MyParkPhotos.com Photo of the Month: Plant Life

More Grand Haven

I thought I'd post another view of the sunset. The only thing slightly different with this image from the one previously posted (aside from the camera angle) is the white balance of the camera was set to "cloudy" rather than "auto" on the camera. This resulted in a much more subtle tone of purples, blues and pink in the sunset colors.

A Lesson in Patience...

Click on image above to see full screen...

On Thursday evening, I decided I'd had ENOUGH of being in front of the computer all week. Plus - with school now out - the boys are getting on each others' nerves a bit already, and that meant they were getting on "Mom's nerves" by the time supper rolled around!

So I told Russ I had to head out for a bit to catch a few moments of peace and quiet. The winds were VERY strong that day, so I thought I'd go see what Lake Michigan was looking like. I figured there might be a few great big waves out on the lake.

I headed to Grand Haven and strolled down the pier. When I left Rockford, it was quite sunny. When I arrived, it felt about 20 degrees cooler, and it was completely overcast. I was fairly disappointed - there didn't appear to be chance whatsoever at a sunset. I walked out to the end lighthouse and back - making sure to stay on the channel side due to the large waves coming up over the pier. But it was too dark and gray for any photo ops.

On the return trip, I got to the beach and all of a sudden - the sun slipped down for about 10 minutes from the cloud cover, and turned the sky an amazing color of which I can't even describe. A photo doesn't quite even do it justice. I did not use any filters or anything special for the photo - no polarizer, nothing. Just a tripod, and I metered the camera on the sky adjacent to the setting sun. The pool of water collected on the beach was a perfect reflector to repeat the fantastic hue of the sky.

I learned something here - don't give up! Be patient until you are CERTAIN there's no chance of a change in the weather conditions. If I had went back to the car, this image would have been lost.

Glen Arbor 2007 Artists in Residence Program

Here's a bit more about the each of the artists (including myself) who will be part of the 2007 Glen Arbor Art Association's Artists in Residence program:
http://www.glenarborart.org/artists_in_residence.asp

I'm already studying many materials about the Sleeping Bear region - including geology, history, trail maps and types of flora and fauna to be discovered during my stay. I've taken out as many books as I can carry out of the library over the past few weeks.

My stay is still four months away, but I'm already dreaming about the great opportunities this sponsorship will provide!

Oh - and I'm already wondering how a house full of guys will survive in my absence. My guess? They'll be just fine. I'm suspecting the bachelor life has a lot in common with the lives of a toddler and a young boy. Pizza or pasta most nights, clothing worn a few more times before making it into the wash, lots of movies, etc.

Yes - I'm sure they will be just FINE, but a gal can't help but wonder what she'll come home to!

It Starts TODAY - Festival of the Arts 2007

Look for me (and a slew of wonderful friends who are helping out in the tent!) at Booth #14, right on Calder Plaza.

Art Tents on Calder Plaza - June 1, 2 & 3

- Friday	Noon - 9 pm
- Saturday	10 am - 9 pm
- Sunday	10 am - 5 pm

West Michigan's finest artists and craftspeople sell their wares, including pottery, jewelry, folk art, photography, handmade paper, metal sculpture, wood sculpture, fiber art, glass sculpture, watercolors, acrylics, and oils.

Festival is the largest all-volunteer arts event in the nation! A three-day arts celebration, held the first full weekend in June in downtown Grand Rapids. It encompasses almost all of downtown Grand Rapids with six performance stages; lots and lots of food booths offering ethnic delights of all kinds; singers, dancers, thespians, visual artists, and performers from all over West Michigan; more than 20,000 hard-working volunteers; and over half a million people in attendance.

Visit the Festival website for more information

Be sure to stop by and say hello - and be sure you bring an extra shish-ka-bob with you...

I want to thank the following people for helping out this busy weekend:

Mary Lou Moll
Jim & Pat Nedwick
Angela Groom
Teresa Newmarch
Sue & Erin Raines
Sarah Friedman
Rebecca Cajka
Heidi Raagcha
Deb Lubenow

and of course, my understanding and hard-working husband Russ Niedzwiecki!

Festival Art Sales Booth #14

I have been given my booth assignment in the Art Sales Tent at Festival of the Arts 2007 in downtown Grand Rapids. Look for me (and a slew of wonderful friends who are helping out in the tent!) at Booth #14, right on Calder Plaza.

Festival is the largest all-volunteer arts event in the nation! A three-day arts celebration, held the first full weekend in June in downtown Grand Rapids. It encompasses almost all of downtown Grand Rapids with six performance stages; lots and lots of food booths offering ethnic delights of all kinds; singers, dancers, thespians, visual artists, and performers from all over West Michigan; more than 20,000 hard-working volunteers; and over half a million people in attendance.

Visit the Festival website for more information

Art Tents on Calder Plaza - June 1, 2 & 3

- Friday	Noon - 9 pm
- Saturday	10 am - 9 pm
- Sunday	10 am - 5 pm

West Michigan's finest artists and craftspeople sell their wares, including pottery, jewelry, folk art, photography, handmade paper, metal sculpture, wood sculpture, fiber art, glass sculpture, watercolors, acrylics, and oils.

Be sure to stop by and say hello - and be sure you bring an extra shish-ka-bob with you...

And the Envelope Goes To...

The results are in! Two of my entries made it into the NCCA Statewide Photography Competition and Exhibition. One earned an honorable mention...(drum roll...)

Frozen Fractals!

(the one in the silver frame - it's a close-up detail of morning frost on a windowpane)

If you'd like to see the whole show (and it's a very good one!), it runs through May 26.

There are 62 photographs from Michigan artists to enjoy in the Ray & Phyllis Jansma Gallery at NCCA-Artsplace, located in downtown Fremont.

For more information about the show and Artsplace, click HERE.

NCCA Statewide Photography Competition Finalist

Two of my pieces were just accepted into the Newaygo County Council of the Arts 2007 Statewide Photography Competition!

ONE of the pieces has taken Honorable Mention, but they haven't told me WHICH one!

What do you think? Which one would you choose? Leave me a comment by clicking below and let me know which one is your favorite (please click to enlarge the thumbnail image):

Into the Realm:













Frozen Fractals:

The show runs from April 25 through May 26, 2007 with an opening Reception & Award Ceremony on Friday, May 4, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

I will be attending the Reception - so if you feel like a little road trip - come on over to Fremont! Click HERE for a map to the Artsplace.

These are a Few of My...

Favorite Things! Some of my fav photos, in no particular order. Enjoy!

ev'rything's O-K-A-L-A-M-A-Z-O

Time to prepare for another show! This time, I plan to take entries down to the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts for the West Michigan Area Show.

This will be a new one for me, as I really didn't begin to enter "art shows" until last February. I heard it's a large show with many entries. I consider it an honor to get into any of the shows I compete in, because there truly is a lot of talent around Michigan. And when you're competing against fabulous oil paintings and watercolor, drawings and other mediums...WOW!

The image you see here is one of the entries going down to K'zoo. It is titled "Frozen Fractals" and I discovered it on my garage window when the temperature was -13 degrees!

I'll leave you all with an ode to Kalamazoo...

• 3-ivegot.mp3 (take a listen!)
  

Written for: Orchestra Wives (1942)
Lyric: Mack Gordon
Music: Harry Warren
Year: 1942

Original publisher: Twentieth Century Music Corporation, rights controlled by Bregman, Vocco & Conn, Inc.

Live a little...

It's always good to challenge yourself. In my case - my challenge is going to be photographing large groups of people.

Tomorrow I will go up to Central Michigan University and photograph at least 40 high school jazz bands, who are there for an all-day competition.

Having groups of 20 to 50 students line up for a photograph on risers - when they are excited from having the whole day off from school - is the equivalent of herding cats!

It's good to push yourself beyond normal boundaries. This is really pushing it. There will be approximately a new band to photography - every 15 minutes - all day long. I did this event for the first time last year, but an ice storm kept over half of the schools from participating.

This year, I'm happy to have Michelle Wise, of Wise Photography, with me to assist in setting up the lighting. Once she helps me get set up, she'll be taking photos in another building where some of the competition is taking place. I'm confident we'll make a good team!

One "formal" and one "informal" pose is taken of each band. Of course, the "informal" ones are much more fun to take - as you can see here from this image I took last February.

Maybe I'll be happy to go back to photographing trees and birds and other critters once I'm through, but I can at least say, "I did it!"

21st West Michigan Regional Competition

Today I learned this image (Into the Realm...) was selected to be exhibited in the upcoming 21st West Michigan Regional Competition. The show is sponsored by the Lowell Area Arts Council.

If you'd like to stop by and say "Hello" - I should be at the public reception which will be held this Sunday, February 18 from 2-4 pm.

For more information and directions to the gallery, visit www.lowellartscouncil.org. Hope to see you there!

For those of you curious about this image - it was taken in August during our family summer vacation to Hocking Hills State Park in Southern Ohio. It was very, VERY hot at the time, and the rising morning sun created a mist of humidity in the cool green forest. Very interesting place for photography!

Ahhh...SMILE. Winter is here!

Can't say as I've ever had an elk POSE for a portrait before, but...

It did.

I attended a great (but VERY cold) photography workshop on February 10th at the Outdoor Discovery Center in Holland.

For those of you who haven't visited this wonderful place, I would encourage you visit soon! There is something there for everyone to enjoy - including over four miles of trails and boardwalks, an interpretive building with displays and live animals, and a birds of prey education facility.

The First Post...

And so I jump into the trend of blogging... Here's my first attempt at trying to make my photography journey available for the masses. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so they say.

Perhaps I should chronicle where and what I'm currently photographing? List the places where my work is offered for sale or exhibit? Show you all some examples of recently captured images?

What would you, dear reader, be interested in knowing more about? Drop me a line and let me know...