What a Fabulous Carnival Ride!

WATCH THIS VIDEO TO SEE SOME OF THE BEAUTIFUL WORK THE PHOTOGRAPHY ARTISANS IN MY WORKSHOP CREATED!
The How to K.I.S.S. Like Charr January Workshop concluded last night and Woo Hoo, that was fun!
We took a picture of our model Monique at the start of class and then 14 people turned it into a great work of art, each one with a unique point of view. The imagination is a beautiful thing and I'm so in awe of it. As a teacher it was a great delight to see people light up when they learned some unexpected way of using a tool, some new knowledge or insight of the seemingly commonplace that suddenly elevated it to something closer to a carnival ride!
Yes, Photoshop is, as ever, my very favorite playground.
I'm so grateful for every single one of the members of this workshop who taught me as much as I taught them. Thank you and I can't wait for the next one, I'll keep you posted.

For more information or to get on my mailing list please email me at charr@charrcrail.com.

Thanks to Chris Goslow, the composer of the gorgeous music on this video. "The March of Rustling Leaves"

The Workshop Begins, Amazing Night!

How to K.I.S.S. Like Charr is going fantastically well! Night two of three during this inaugural workshop put on through PPSV (Professional Photographers of the Sacramento Valley) was last night. In this hands-on workshop I'm sharing some of my personal secrets about how to create the lively and colorful art works I do-- I'm teaching The Art of Making Art via Photography using the digital tools and knowledge I've developed over many years of doing this work professionally.
Last night as I walked around the room and saw what the students were doing I was so impressed and delighted, just glorious work! The energy in the room was incredibly exciting, everyone so engrossed in their project they literally groaned with displeasure when I told them we were winding it up for the night. Now that's what you want as a teacher-- excited, inspired people!
Our project has been to create a Rock n' Roll Faerie. Last week I had the wonderful model Monique come in for a session on simple lighting and we captured the portrait that would be the foundation for the course. Even a few of the students took a turn with the camera and worked directly with our beautiful model.
Now they have an assignment to create their own piece using what I've taught them and using my brushes and textures off the workshop disk I gave them. I can hardly wait to see what they come up with and will be sharing here...

Charr Kissed

Photoshop Playground, my favorite place to play. And I'm constantly learning too by simple experimentation... What If. Here are two examples of What If in action. Both images are of the same girl from the same photo session-- now Charr K.I.S.S.ed. You can see the original image and then what I did with it.
I'm quite enamored with the use of typography as a graphic element and bits and pieces from other images I've shot. In these images you can find gardens from a wedding, old buildings from downtown, my own line drawings-- and as complicated as they may appear they use very few elements to create the look they have. :)

K.I.S.S.ing

KEEP IT SIMPLE SWEETIE!

I love to learn but I hate reading the manual. Most of what I know is by simple trial error-- What I call the "What If" game. For years I have been teaching myself in Photoshop how to do the fun stuff beyond the basics by playing What If. Yes, sometimes I do look up how to do something, but consider that playing my game What If can be a lot of fun too. In this blog I will be posting art projects, workshop experiences and students work. It's gonna be fun. Stay tuned...

Welcome to my new blog about the Principles of K.I.S.S.ing... and this is NOT what it seems. ;)

As a professional photographer and artist I'm creating and holding workshops where people with artistic sensibilities can learn and explore the wonderful world of digital photography and create otherworldly images with ease and panache. I call it my K.I.S.S. method.

I constantly get asked-- How did you do that? Using five or less elements to make something extraordinary, astonishing, fantastical, gorgeous... big words for something so simple.

KEEP IT SIMPLE SWEETIE. That's what I will teach you about the process of creating art, Charr style.