Light Painting 3 Corvettes
On my way back home from EAA’s AirVenture for 2025, I made a little “detour” south into eastern Illinois to light paint 3 Corvettes (in one image)!
The three Corvettes are owned by my friends Tom & Karen. I met these two characters back in April of 2023 at the “Corvettes in Paradise” car show that the Lake of the Ozarks Corvette Club holds each year.
I took a selfie with Tom and Karen, along with their 3 beautiful Corvettes, while we waited for it to get dark out.
It was at that show that Tom and Karen, as well as their 2012 Carlisle Blue Corvette Grand Sport Convertible, were selected by L•O PROFILE to receive The Corvette Character and Commitment Cup!
LO Profile Magazine
Missy Pinkel, L•O PROFILE’s owner and publisher, personally selected them as the award’s recipients. 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.” – That statement pretty much fits Tom & Karen to a T!
While I was there, Missy asked me to photograph the car before Tom and Karen headed back home to Fort Myers, Florida, the morning after the show. I was pretty excited to do so, as it’s not something I get to do every day! I’m usually photographing vehicles, light painting style, in the dark! The images were to be published as part of a feature story about the car, and its owners, Tom & Karen, in L•O PROFILE Magazine, the following spring.
Here’s Tom & Karen with one of their 3 Corvettes! The feature article about them and their 2012 Carlisle Blue Vette would be published in LO Profile Magazine the following spring.
I wrote a story about it after it was published. You can read all about it by clicking on this link.
Light Painting the Torch Red C5 2002 Corvette
In addition to the 3 Corvettes, Tom and Karen’s home (and a good portion of their beautiful yard) served as the backdrop for their light painting artwork. As for the Corvettes, let’s start with their Torch Red C5 2002 Corvette Convertible.
Tom and Karen’s 2002 C5 Corvette Convertible. Torch Red is pretty darn hot!
The 2002 C5 Chevrolet Corvette can reach a top speed of 170 mph – perfect for a “quick” run to the grocery store! It can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds with a 6.2L V8 producing 436 horsepower! And it was available with both manual (6-speed) and automatic (4-speed) options that year.
Light Painting the 2012 Carlisle Blue Corvette Grand Sport Convertible
Tom and Karen’s 2012 Carlisle Blue Corvette Grand Sport Convertible is a high-performance version of the Corvette. It features a 6.2L LS3 V8 engine that produces 436 horsepower. It is available with either a six-speed manual or automatic transmission. The Grand Sport also includes wider fenders, a unique suspension. It also has larger brakes compared to the base Corvette model.
The 2012 Carlisle Blue Corvette Grand Sport. This little beauty was what started our friendship a couple of years ago!
- Grand Sport Specifics: Wider fenders, enhanced suspension, and larger brakes (borrowed from the Z06).
- Carlisle Blue Metallic: A unique exterior color option only for the 2012 model year, and is described as a light metallic that has a unique look. Particularly when viewed up close.
- Convertible Top: A power-operated convertible top allows open-air driving.
- Interior: The 3LT trim level, including leather seating, navigation, and other premium options.
- Performance: 0-60 mph in around 4 seconds, with excellent handling and cornering capabilities.
- The Grand Sport is a “hybrid” of the Z51 Stingray and the Z06, sharing bodywork with the Z06 and engine components with the Z51.
- 2,268 of the 2,889 2012 Corvette convertibles were Grand Sports.
Light Painting the 2019 Corvette Stingray Coupe
Tom and Karen’s Long Beach Red 2019 Corvette Stingray Coupe is a beauty! With its 6.2L V8, producing 460 horsepower and 465 lb-ft of torque, it’s a fast one, too! It does 0-60 in 3.7 seconds!
The Stingray has an 8-speed automatic transmission and gets 15 mpg in the city and 25 mpg on the highway. It even has 15 cubic feet of cargo space to boot!
Long Beach Red sure is pretty!
Light Painting Three Corvettes
As mentioned earlier, I left AirVenture early that Monday morning and arrived at Tom and Karen’s home in Illinois that afternoon. They treated me like a King, with a nice place to sleep, and a fantastic steak dinner too! And then a full breakfast before my drive back home in the morning, too!
Here’s the behind-the-scenes look at the camera setup for Tom and Karen’s light painting project.
After dinner, we began setting up the scene, placing the 3 Vettes right where we wanted them. Then, we waited for it to get dark. The sky that night didn’t appear that it was going to be anything special. However, a Waxing Crescent Moon was visible. Then, right around sunset, a few passing clouds made their way into view as well. Pretty cool timing!
That Monday was very hot! The temperature and the humidity were extremely high. I was very worried about the dew point. Nothing ruins a vehicle light painting project more than a wet car – and we had 3 of them in this one!
The three of us got to work as soon as it was dark enough. It didn’t take long for the cars to begin getting wet, especially the windshields. Tom worked very hard to dry them off. Then, as soon as I could, I made passes with my “light-on-a-stick” while Karen triggered the camera with our iPad Pro.
As you can see, miraculously, we managed to get the images that I needed to complete a darn cool light painting of their three cool Corvettes (with clear windshields too)!
Here they are! What a sweet light painting trio!
The 3 Corvette Movie on YouTube
Tom, Karen, and I took 350 images that night! I ended up using well over 100 of them to create their final light-painted artwork! And, like I always do, there’s a “Build Video” of the whole project. It showcases the images I used, and the whole image coming together, one small piece at a time. The link to view it on our YouTube channel is below:
There’s More, Lots More!
If you love this light-painted photograph of these 3 Corvettes, we have an entire website with light-painting projects of all kinds! Cars, trucks, aircraft, high school seniors, light painting at weddings, and lots more! It’s found at www.MichaelAndersonLightPainting.com