Charr Crail is a Northern California photographer and artist with an avid passion for creating unique digital imagery. Charr, a full-time freelance photographer, spans the divide between photojournalism and extraordinary art via photography and can trace back her evolution as an photographer/artist from three dominant sources.
Her father made his living as a newspaper photographer and as soon as he could, was taking young Charr, then four, on assignments to capture a lifetime of experiences and images. He instilled a sense of adventure and curiosity in her as they would often meander down unknown country roads of the South – just to see and capture what was out there. Soon after, Charr would develop her eye for photography and journalism as “the river that runs through everything she does”.
Charr’s mother blessed her daughter with the ability to appreciate art in its various mediums. Further, her mother was able to pass along the joy, satisfaction and excitement one can experience in actively creating something beautiful.
It’s no surprise, then, that Charr would become a photojournalist and later a photo editor spanning two decades working for Northern California publications including The Sacramento Bee. Often, her assignments would include community events with a “close to home” theme woven into every image and story she captured. Her photojournalistic experience has therefore been nuanced through everything she produces. She’s also drawn to the wonder of color and the beauty that can be found in the composure of a face and the make-up of the human bodyscape.
Charr has won countless awards for masterful pieces including; the Professional Photographers of America LOAN Collection for two consecutive years, WPPI Grand Award and her work has been featured in the Di Rosa Museum in California’s beautiful Napa Wine Region and is also part of the permanent collection.
Separately, she instructs digital photography workshops that teach students how to blow out the creativity of their photography in simple methods using programs like Adobe Photoshop and how to market using mobile devices-- Visual Content Creation using Mobile Devices..
Charr lives in Sacramento with her husband Chris and kitties Leeloo and Sadie.
Typorama is a great app for putting text on images– aka making memes.
More and more everyday I’m mesmerized by the endless possibilities of using apps on my iPhone and iPad for making art, doing business, marketing and connection in so many different ways. I’m having a blast learning and using some pretty amazing stuff! Today I am sharing the first of many tutorials I’ll be doing about apps. Today’s app is Typorama. A simple, intuitive meme making app that has loads of great features and does a great job in general– so I love it. It’s not the only one out there of course but it’s a good one and this tutorial goes over the general usage of it. Enjoy! If you like it please let me know. I’d love to hear what you think!
The Story behind Wuv Woo. Being inspired by something is perhaps the purest key to creating anything truly unique and original.
“Good artists copy. Great artists steal.” Pablo Picasso.
“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.” Mark Twain
The New Yorker Magazine: Covers
New Yorker Magazine is iconic. As a little girl I could, and would, sit for hours at the local public library where they had an entire wall of beautifully bound New Yorker volumes, some of which were only the iconic comics. I’d pull the heavy volumes off the wall one by one and read for hours at the table in that special section of the library. I loved comics— what kid doesn’t? But the comics in the New Yorker are sophisticated and wry and funny in a very different kind of way than the typical comics in the Sunday comics section of a newspaper. They introduced me to ideas and things about life in the world that as a kid I might not have had access to for many more years. I actually consider it part of my education.
And the covers! The New Yorker covers are iconic. They are relevant to the news and happenings of the day, they tell a story, they are serious art by top artists from an editorial point of view and I love that about them. A friend of mind with a fabulous house in Pebble Beach had one of their bathrooms entirely wallpapered in New Yorker covers, coolest thing ever! I still think about that from time to time with the notion of doing it too.
Wuv Woo. This is one of my favorite pieces of art I created while falling in love with the man who is now my husband. The creativity point to this story behind the image is that I get my inspiration from everywhere though you might never have a clue where from. Why? Because I am inspired creatively but never a plagiarist. Even if you saw the New Yorker cover that inspired this image you would not recognize it.
That particular cover caught my imagination. There was something about the face. It was sweet and oval with a geisha like whiteness to the skin. Almost like a porcelain china or some smoothly chiseled marble. It was a simple close up view of a beautiful face with almond shaped eyes and such lovely subtlety that just looking at it gave me a kind of pleasure.
I saved the illustrated cover of the exquisite face for many many years before I ever managed to create this Wuv Woo image. Then one day a moment arrived and I was there and ready to do something with it. Just hours later something new was born– because I acted when the inspiration struck. And it’s worth noting that one must act when inspiration strikes whenever possible! Capture the idea, save it however you can! Luckily I was ready to go, in place and could go the distance right then. So some details behind Wuv Woo…
1— It was inspired by a New Yorker cover but took years to germinate and be born.
2— Wuv Woo is something sweet and affectionate I say to my husband meaning I Love You. We have both adopted it as one of those mushy things couples say to each other.
3— Though I would more often be described as colorful this one rests in only three colors— red, black, white. It needed no more than that to manage a striking image of contrast and sweet design. The red represents love. The face represents a loving and steady gaze at the object of affection. The flowers and patterns represent the feminine and creative flair. The words and the font I chose have a weight to them, an italic expression that relates to forward motion, the white cirlcling lines represent even more action and movement. I didn’t consciously intend these things in the moments during creation. It’s only now that I can look at it and see what I did. I was in the creative trance while it was happening.
The technical– The face is a line drawing I did, which was directly inspired from the cover, the flowers and patterns are Photoshop brushes I created and use in varying sizes, layer styles and opacities. I did the whole thing in Photoshop, incuding the drawing, using a Wacom tablet.
What more is there to say about it other than this. The idea of being inspired is perhaps the purest key to creating anything original. In the end my image looks nothing like the original but that’s because I allowed my inner voice to have it’s own say, it’s own delicious flavor. I let it have it’s own expression of color, form and composition.
There’s a wonderful scene in the movie Finding Forrester, starring Sean Connery, that mentions this idea— about finding a starting place, aka an inspiration, and allowing your own voice to find the path, to take the creative journey but make it entirely your own. Isn’t that what an artist does? And I mean any kind of artist! No matter the medium. Musician, painter, cook, writer, photographer or architect or any other creative endeavor. No matter the medium— it’s invariably the seed of inspiration that takes a white piece of paper and fills it with wonder. From the Blank White to Wonderful.
“Necessity is the mother of invention.” Plato
Isn’t the need to create as much a powerful human need as the needs to eat, to sleep, to have comfort, to procreate? We are conceived, we are born, therefore we create.
Creating from inspiration– scene from Finding Forrester with Sean Connery.
Tiny Vignettes from a Tiny Town Remembered by a Tiny Little Girl
I was born in a North Carolina city so small, at the time, you could blink while driving down main street and you were already outside the city lines. OK, that’s gross exaggeration but it was pretty small. My dad, a newspaperman, worked for the local paper and a lot happened there— from bootleggers and tobacco farmers to lightening striking! So much happened there that my dads stories from the paper were picked up nationally all the time.
In fact it’s where my parents met. My mom was traveling through putting on plays from town to town and went to the newspaper office to get some publicity. My dad was smitten enough to hold her up, engaging her in a conversation that interested her enough to stand up another man she was meeting for a date. My parents were a phenomenal match and during those early days spent hours just being together walking, talking and falling in love. 29 days later they were married.
Though I was only four years old when we made the drive to the southern tip of Florida to relocate I definitely remember a few things.
Like how to count money. A man demonstrated for me by placing a pile of pennies on a tabletop and one by one slid them into his hand to show me one- two- three- four- five. I still think of him to this day when a similar opportunity arises.
People are friendly. My mom would stroll me down the main street sidewalk and people would stop and say hello, coo over how cute I was, and I liked that! In fact, seem we had a drop in, drop by route and the habit of having a route stayed with me over the years. There have been periods in my life when I developed routes and “visited” with people. Never seems to be enough time these days for that but it’s something I’ve always appreciated.
My mom cooked on a cast iron skillet, which I still have to this day. Early on in my parents marriage they didn’t have very much and my mom told me a gypsy woman she befriended gave her the frying pan. I love that it has such a colorful history.
Yep, that’s me as a wee child holding a hooch jug, standing next to a backwoods still recent raided by the police. Photograph by Ted Crail, my dad.
My dad used to take me out on news stories with him and once took me to the location of a giant backwoods still that had been raided by the police. He even photographed me holding a jug standing next to the huge thing!
One night the fireflies arrived and the town went crazy with delight! Suddenly the entire open and spacious area behind our house was filled with the neighborhood, each person young or old was holding a jar to catch the fireflies with. Each jar had a lid with holes poked through too so the fireflies had air to breath and they would fly around inside it. Running around and catching them was the fun part. It was a magical sight to see them all flitting around like tiny fairies holding a lightbulb. I’ve never witnessed such a sight again but I still hope I do someday. Everyone was so happy and alive, filled with a kind of joy that is still so beautiful in my memories of that amazing night.
Have you ever looked ahead on the road on a scorching hot day and saw what appeared to be a water mirage? I did, for the first time right there in that little town.
I was a very independent little girl and felt a sense of freedom to roam, which I did. There still a lot of that little girl left in me. The wonder, the friendly ways, the sense of history and interest in the news of the day. I often think we are born who we are but we definitely are shaped by our experiences too. Goodness I’ve had loads of those, haven’t you? #30dayblogrockstar
I’d like to Introduce myself again via this blog. I’m taking on a 30-day challenge and here we go! This is a bit of a stream of consciousness…
I’m a professional photographer and an artist with plenty of interests, which include making art and rad digital images, crafting, I have the perfect husband for me, I love raspberries and cream, whistling, Words with Friends, doodling on metal, sewing, movies and BBC anything, marbling on paper, making the kitties purr and my iPhone. Not necessarily in that order and certainly not everything but you get the idea. I’m creatively influenced on a pretty constant basis and often text myself with ideas and inspirations with words and pictures. When I say inspiration is everywhere I mean it! Just look from where you stand and it’s right there!
Self Portrait made in the car with my iPhone. Check out my earrings! Old flash bulbs from waaaaaay back in the day.
So, speaking of inspiration— I use my phone to collect it most of the time so my cell phone has become a (visual) diary of sorts and I love making movies just for the joy of it too. And I work a lot. Like A LOT! Probably because I am self-employed— photography, art, teaching— I think about business all the time and am always up to something. I occasionally joke that my profession is juggler. I work late too— I just have a lot of ideas and I guess I enjoy my work!
I’m just about to become a published author— I’ll have a chapter in a book very soon and that’s brand new info. I haven’t even told more than four people about that yet so woo hoo, you’re nearly the first to know. Of course there’s loads more to say about that be we shall save it for another post.
Lately, I have become, even more than usual, obsessed with my iPhone because not only is it fun but I love it so much I want to share with anyone who wants to learn all the crazy cool things I can do with it. It’s rarely ever two feet from me. I remember when I first got mine. I think it took me two weeks to get used to it but they were so new to the world! I’ve been an Apple enthusiast from the early days and have never switched either. I even stood arms length away from Steve Jobs while on a photo job once and even as he stood patiently looking deeply into my eyes expecting me to say something I was struck completely silent. I could not utter a single word. This was only one of two times that has ever happened to me- I’m a pretty chatty person! Email me if you want to know the story of the only other time it happened… 🙂
OK, back to the iPhone– I was the very first person I know to even have one. It was a strange thing at first but once I got the hang of it– wow. It was several generations later before I even shot photos with it though– I think at first with the iPhone 3–when I shot a Def Leppard concert in 2007 with it and those photos were not bad at all! Of course it helped that I was stageside. But luckily as the camera has progressed, the pictures have improved and so has my passion for it. So much so that I’ve created classes about using it for photos and videos happening in September! If it sounds like something you are interested in you can find out more— Click Here!
That’s all for now folks! Stay tuned for more of the All About Charr series of posts coming atcha. 🙂 #30dayblogrockstar
There’s a loud sound outside– the grass is being mowed. One of those things that happens every Tuesday at our apartment building. Today I see it as making way for the new. And another thing. I’m in the process of learning something I don’t want to learn. I can’t say I’ve been resisting because I do have good motivations for doing it, but I’m chagrined to note that it turns out to be a pretty groovy thing that I can see has real value. A humorous truth here is that I am reminded of the Star Trek series and recurring characters– The Borg. Resistance is futile. Yes, I can relate to that to a degree with this current project I’d been resisting, avoiding and generally irritable about. Look, I’m a real pro so I get it done. That said it doesn’t mean I’m always giddy about it. So what I am saying is if you find yourself in a situation where “resistance is futile” and “if you can’t beat ’em join ’em” which way are you going to go? I say grow, learn, embrace. Experience and grow. Your choice. My choice today is to embrace and learn, share the new knowledge and then make a far better and educated decision whether to continue with it or not. Free will people! It’s the best part of being humans.
Yes, definitely Google yourself from time to time because you never know what will show up and where you might find your pictures. I did it today and was delighted to discover I appear on the Getty images page along with Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Camilla and Prince Charles and Whoopi Goldberg to name a few. I’m delighted to be in such good company and right on the top of the page no less under the headline Best of Entertainment!
That’s all for today folks, I’m just sitting here smiling for awhile at such a fun discovery. Go ahead and Google yourself too and see what shows up. 🙂
My original pen and ink drawing, photographed and brought into Adobe Photoshop to do the coloring and graphic treatments.
Inspiration. Where does it come from? Who knows! But then there it is. Maybe one can pinpoint the time or the thing that sparked it but it’s still such a mystery to me. Why ask why really because you know what, it simply feels so good. I love being inspired. It’s a lifelong pleasure.
Funny, I was thinking about my dad a few days ago and how he’d say he falls in love everyday. True, I’d seen it happen time and time again. Someone would walk by and he was entranced, “in love”. It may sound kinda weird but I know that feeling too, I’ve experienced it. Maybe you have too, have you? Seeing someone or something so unimaginably exquisite that you simply want to stare and wander in a room full of dreamy imaginings that can’t even be expressed or defined in words. It always moves me to create. And it moved my dad that way too. He was a wonderful and prolific writer and photographer who taught me so much.
So as I continued to think about being “in love” I know it’s really about being inspired. A feeling that comes over you, me, whoever and we lose our breath for a fraction of a second and we ponder that thing, which has whisked us away to some invisible place where creativity and possibility lives. The dreaminess breathes and expands and if we have the time and the tenacity we can use the tools at hand to wander to a new place that never previously existed where art in some magical form is created.
Waxing on I go. 🙂
So, today I found myself on Facebook and someone had posted a one line drawing, something I adore and started doing in High School so long ago. Whiz Bang! I was off, searching my computer for one of my own drawings probably done several years ago and immediately went to work in Photoshop— cropping, colorizing, adding texture, gradients, color combinations— until I could finally stop, call it complete, and look at it as a viewer, no longer inside the thing— but now outside looking at it. It only took a few minutes. Sometimes what makes the difference is allowing yourself to be inspired and to take action. Bake a cake, put a braid in your hair, play the guitar, draw a picture, arrange flowers, write prose, allow the muse…
Just yesterday I had to go back and find some pictures from awhile back and came across this fun one I blogged many years ago, even before blogging was a household word.
At the time I was hired buy a midwest newspaper to go photograph Gary Puckett— aka Gary Puckett and the Union Gap. He was performing along with a whole bunch of fabulous “oldie” acts out at Raley Field in West Sacramento.
Though I was only there for Puckett I stuck around for the day long show and had a blast photographing them all.
In those days I had a super wide angle lens for my camera, which I took everywhere and it’s what I used do do “selfies” before it was a super trend. And I called my selfie project “101 horrible photos of myself with famous people”. 🙂
And these guys, in their day, were UBER famous!
In 1968 Gary Puckett and The Union Gap had six consecutive gold records and sold more records than any other recording act— including the Beatles!
BJ Thomas is a five time Grammy Award winner and won the Academy Award for Best Song in 1970— Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid movie soundtrack.
And then there’s Jack Ely who sang “Louie Louie” with The Kingsmen, that HUGE one-hit-wonder in 1963 that everyone believed to have racy lyrics, but it didn’t! I’m sad to say I just found out Ely passed just this past April at the age of 71.
Being a professional photographer has been so much fun and so rewarding. What a great life it has been because I’ve had the pleasure to see, do and have the most remarkable experiences. The business and the tools of photography are changing so much and so fast but I’m still managing to keep up, whew! It’s good to take a few minutes out now and then and look at where I have been as well as reflect on where I am going.
What an amazing class last night in my studio with the coolest group of students who dove in so fast and so deep my head was spinning– in a great way. This class is a never ending experience of awe– Awe of the imagination everyone has and where they go with creating their wonderful pieces of art. I could hardly sit still for a couple of hours afterwards because I was so energized by the students and the art they created! Today I am all smiles, all delight and completely inspired!
Please sign up for my email list so you can get updates about when the next one is being scheduled. Do you have a group ready to go for a class like this. Let me know and I’ll put it together just for you. 🙂
The Story behind Wuv Woo. Being inspired by something is perhaps the purest key to creating anything truly unique and original.
oogle yourself from time to time because you never know what will show up and where you might find your pictures. I did it today and was delighted to discover I appear on the Getty images page along with Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Camilla and Prince Charles and Whoopi Goldberg to name a few. I’m delighted to be in such good company and right on the top of the page no less under the headline Best of Entertainment!
