Portraits - Yes, I Can!

I imagine that over the past year, I've spent a great deal of time promoting myself as a nature photographer. However, I do offer outdoor portrait sessions. I have done family groups, children, special events, engagement, seniors and other types of work on location. Send an email or call to inquire about your next portrait!

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.

New Theme Pack Cards Available

Festival 2007 was a great success - and again - a heartfelt thank you to everyone! I was amazed how many people stopped by to offer their kind words of encouragement and support, and flattered by your compliments.

I want to take a moment to introduce a new product I'm offering that was created especially for the Festival event - themed photo card packs. These packs offer six popular images of a particular subject matter, and are available for $25.00 a box.

The cards are presented in a nice clear plastic box, suitable for gift-giving. Each card is individually shrink-wrapped as well, with a coordinating envelope. You might not want to give these cards away - feel free to frame them up in your own 5x7 frame!

Available gift packs include:

• Birds
• Butterflies
• Critters
• Lighthouses
  

Look for more theme packs later to come soon! Click on the images below to see what cards are include in the sets.

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!

The Experiment...

I've been experimenting with panoramic photography after attending a George Lepp seminar in December. It got my mind really going about trying some new photography techniques, and I've started trying out a few of my ideas.

Attached is an image I shot last November, but lacked the skill and knowledge to stitch together until I went to his seminar. So I pulled up these images tonight and worked them up.

This photo of Holland Harbor at Lake Michigan was created by stitching 9 images together into one large panoramic print. The final Photoshop file size is 161 MB!!! As a JPEG, it is about 15 MB, and prints as a 36" wide by 6" high print.
Any thoughts? Please click on the image to view it a bit larger, as the online version doesn't contain the amount of detail needed to appreciate it.

What to have some real fun? Click here and the photo will "play" so you can virtually move through the horizon!

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...

Where in the World?

I'm still processing many images taken during the winter months. Can you guess what this is?

At first glance, it doesn't appear as it seems...

And if you'd like to see it larger, just click on the small image at right!

An Update...

Here's an update on the BetterPhoto.com entry I mentioned yesterday - I took Second Place! This is quite an honor, as there are thousands of entries and I never made it even to to the final round before.

To see the finalists, please visit HERE. I am in the "Details and Macro" category.

I find it just wonderful that one of my favorite Michigan photographers, Dean Pennala took First Place in the very same category. I'm flattered to even be featured alongside such amazing talent.

It's All in the Details...

This evening I received the following email:

Congratulations! You have placed as a finalist in this month's BetterPhoto Contest!

Over 23900 photos were entered into the competition; it is an honor to have your image selected among the top finalist photos. During the next few days, the judges select the top winning photos. If your image is selected as a winner, you will be emailed again.

To see the photo enlarged, visit BetterPhoto.com. The image is a very detailed macro of a spider on a dew-covered web I took in the early morning back in September.

The competition at this web site is extremely challenging - there are hundreds of amazing photographers. It's an honor to have even been selected, and although I've been participating here for about a year, it's the first time I had an image make it to the finals for judging.