2012 Carlisle Blue Corvette Grand Sport
What an awesome car!
Back in April of 2023, I attended the 2023 Lake of the Ozarks Corvette Club Car Show in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. While I was there to showcase my light painting photography, I also had the pleasure of photographing this beautiful 2012 Carlisle Blue Corvette Grand Sport Convertible.
My images were to be published as part of a feature story about the car, and its owners, Tom & Karen, in L•O PROFILE Magazine. At the show, they, and their wonderful Corvette, were selected by L•O PROFILE to receive The Corvette Character and Commitment Cup! Tom & Karen traveled from Fort Meyers, Florida just to be at the show!
Missy Pinkel, L•O PROFILE’s owner and publisher. In Missy’s words, “The award goes to participants who are always friendly, show great commitment to the Corvette community, love the hobby of collecting and showing, and lend a helping hand to other show registrants.”
Missy asked me to photograph the car for the magazine story before Tom and Karen headed back home the morning after the show. I was pretty excited to do so, as it’s not something I get to do every day!
The wheels are just as hot as the car!
Let’s Keep This A Secret
However, I had to keep my photographs under wraps for a whole year because of the agreement I had with the magazine. You see, they were not going to publish their story until the May 2024 issue! I couldn’t even share the images with Tom & Karen! I’m sure not seeing the images for a year drove Tom and Karen crazy! I know it wasn’t easy for me either!
Now that the story is in print, and on the newsstands, I can share the images. So, I thought it would be fun to share the story from the photographer’s perspective as well. Of course, that would be me!
It says all you need to know, it’s a Corvette!
What The Heck Was Michael Doing In Missouri?
You might be asking what I, a professional photographer from the Twin Cities, was doing photographing a Corvette in Missouri. Well, here’s the backstory on how that came to be.
I was invited to visit Missouri by a guy named Brian Newlun. I met Brian via a phone call in September of 2022. He called me to ask about a photograph that I had created at Gregg’s Garage Vintage Restored Gas Station in Carver, Minnesota. Brian had Googled “Vintage Gas Stations” and my light painted photograph at Gregg’s amazing station popped up in the search. That image is below.
A stunning light painted photograph of a Candy Apple Red 1967 Ford Mustang in front of Gregg’s Vintage Gas Station.
At the time, Brian was building a 1927 Spirit T Roadster, which is a replica of a Ford Model T Roadster. He wanted to use my photograph as the backdrop for his Roadster display at car shows. He was wondering if there was any chance that I had a photo of Gregg’s station all by itself with no cars in the photo. Well, it just so happened that I did!
After working directly with the display company on Brian’s behalf, I designed the backdrop, with all of the wording that Brian wanted for his display. It turned out great! Brian, and his wife Barb, took it on the 2023-24 International Show Car Association (ISCA) Car Show Circuit. While on the ISCA Circuit, they won many awards, including “Best Display” in Kansas City, Dallas, Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago, and Indianapolis! Sweet!
Here’s Brian’s fabulous 1927 Spirit T Roadster and his “Best Display” at one of the 2024 International Show Car Association events.
Lake of the Ozarks Corvette Club Car Show
Brian was thrilled with how the whole display turned out (this was even before it started to win accolades at car shows)! In addition to the Roadster, Brian also is a Corvette owner. So he invited me to the 2023 Lake of the Ozarks Corvette Club Car Show. Brian got me all set up to have my Light Painting Photography on display at the show. It was a fabulous show with more than 100 amazing Corvettes!
Brian and Barb’s light painting of their 2017 Corvette Grand Sport at their home in Osage Beach, Missouri.
While on that trip, I ended up light painting 3 Corvettes, including Brian and Barbara’s 2017 Corvette Grand Sport as well as their 1927 Spirit T Roadster.
Brian’s finished artwork!
The second Corvette that I light painted while I was on that trip was a stunning red 2023 C8 Corvette Stingray. The car’s owner, Lee, hired me at the show to light paint his fabulous vehicle. We ended up creating Lee’s fabulous light painting at the beautiful Seven Springs Winery in nearby Lynn Creek, Missouri. More on that great location in a moment.
This is one hot car (the location isn’t too bad either)!
Corvette #3 was a 2013 60th Anniversary Corvette Grand Sport 3LT with 3 corporate jets! That stunning car was the “2023 Lake of the Ozarks Corvette Club – Best of Show!”
I had the honor of light painting that wonderful car on my return trip home to Minnesota. That cool light painting I created for Bobby & Billie at the Spirit of St Louis Airport in Chesterfield, Missouri.
Bobby and Billie’s one-of-a-kind light painted artwork!
Here are the links below for the full stories about each one:
- 2017 Corvette Grand Sport
- 1927 Spirit T Roadster
- 2023 C8 Corvette Stingray
- 2013 60th Anniversary Corvette Grand Sport 3LT
Now, Back to the 2012 Corvette Grand Sport Convertible!
Amazing!
As I mentioned earlier, the location that Lee came up with for his C8 Corvette light painting project was Seven Springs Winery. It’s a beautiful location with valleys and rolling hills. While we were setting up for his light painting, my cell phone rang. It wasn’t a number that I recognized, so I thought I’d better answer it just in case.
On the phone was Missy, from L•O PROFILE Magazine. She wondered if I could photograph Tom & Karen’s Corvette Grand Sport before they left for home the next day to Fort Myers. It sounded like a lot of fun and something out of the ordinary for me, so I said yes! We would figure out the details in the morning with Mike Funk who was the President of the Lake of the Ozarks Corvette Club in 2023.
The cockpit of the 2012 Corvette Grand Sport.
The following morning, we decided to use the beautiful grounds at Seven Springs Winery for the magazine shoot. It was a large wooded area in a pretty valley, with very little traffic to deal with. It turned out that it was perfect!
The engine compartment looks pretty cool!
We placed Tom & Karen’s wonderful 2012 Carlisle Blue Corvette Grand Sport in several different spots during the shoot. While I’ve light painted, and included many vehicles in my photographic sessions over the years, I can’t recall ever doing this kind of photography session. Just the car (and a couple of images with Tom and Karen). I enjoyed it very much!
The shoot turned out so well that Missy has asked me to do so again for the magazine’s winner this year (and I have already!)! You’ll have to wait until the spring of 2025 to see those images!
Here’s Tom & Karen with their beauty of a Corvette!
2012 Carlisle Blue Corvette Grand Sport Music Video
I’ve put together a fun little music video with the images that I created for L•O PROFILE Magazine of Tom and Karen’s beautiful 2012 Corvette Grand Sport. The link to it on our YouTube channel is below. Thank you for taking time out of your day to read our story! Take care! – M&J
More About L•O PROFILE Magazine
L•O PROFILE is the best magazine that covers living, entertainment, fashion, health, beauty, and big business at the world-renowned Lake of the Ozarks. From cover to cover, L•O PROFILE shares the current trends and tastes with its readers and informs them on the hot topics that are current today.
Published bi-monthly, it boasts phenomenal content, and great advertisers, that make it an iconic coffee table book. L•O PROFILE is the number one magazine in the central United States.
Here’s the issue’s cover image, along with the Contributing Photographer’s page, and the full feature story published in the May-June 2024 issue!
The May-June 2024 LO Profile Magazine cover.
The May-June 2024 LO Profile Magazine contributing photographers.
Here are the first two pages with a two-page spread of Tom and Karen’s Carlisle Blue Corvette.
Another two-page spread of Tom and Karen’s 2012 Corvette Grand Sport.
The final two pages feature several detailed photos of Tom & Karen’s Vette.
Thank you for taking time out of your day to read our post! – M&J