What?

Occasionally I am granted the opportunity to take pictures of animal life and behavior, and I get a chance to walk away with a really cool picture.  When it comes to shooting wildlife, you pretty much leave it as is.  My typical style of photographic art is in the creative realm, which means that I alter my pictures to get a desired look.  The only time I put that creativity to the side is when I take pictures of animals.  There are opportunities when I can put a creative spin on some shots, and you will see them from time to time, for example, transforming the picture to black and white and leaving the animal in color; or using painting effects to create a new look.  However, the key element in this type of photography is the subject themselves, so leave it be for the most part. Below you will see a pretty cool shot I got of a female gorilla.... just softening the background a hair.

She's a beauty, what do you think?

The Flip Side

There are some pictures that I shoot and love to create multiple versions of the image, so when I shot the picture below, I knew that I would eventually present multiple options.

I absolutely love rich blues, glasses in that cobalt, navy, midnight blue hue.  I have been a fan for a while and love to collect and shoot object like that.  So when I captured this shot, I knew that I wanted to give that blue a richer color and make it a little artistic reflecting my personal style.... so I created this version....

Brought out more of the purples.... and altered the pic a little.  I also wanted to do something even more creative and that is how I came up with this version....

So the rainbow hues came out totally cool.... so as you see you can create two works from one.  Just as a portrait photographer will offer a picture in it's original color and add a sepia and black and white version. 

Enjoy!

First Collective Art Show

Today I am attending my very first reception for one of my pictures.   I am thrilled and honored to be included in the group of artists that I am!  The show is titled 24 Maximum and basically includes a variety of works that are square in format no longer than 24 inches in size.  I submitted two pictures and the one that was chosen was "By A Thread."

It is leaves that were caught in the spider web of my annual Halloween decorations.  This picture was taken in October of 2010... below is the original file.

And following is the publicity (flyer) that was created to promote the show!

I am looking forward to many more shows and hopefully a solo show that would be great.  I have painted and drawn all my life, but it was just recently that I decided to devote myself to my work and actually call it my career.  So since July of 2010,  I have been creating work out of pictures that I have taken in the past and trying to get exposure!  If you would like to look at my library of work so far, just visit my website at www.simonehester.com.  Hopefully, I will have more updates and new shows to talk about.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's a piece of my heart.  This pic combines two of my favorite things.... creative photography and flowers (I'm an avid gardener--absolutely love it).... so enjoy.  When you have a chance be sure to stop by my page http://www.simonehester.com/ and browse the site or even purchase a picture!

Have a great Valentine's Day!

New Pictures completed This Week....

Hello All, I have been quite the busy worker over the past few days.  With the opporutnity to capture some pretty cool snow pictures, my creative juices have overflowed!  So here's my recent pieces....

This one is entitled "Icicle"

This one is entitled "Three Trees In Snow"

This one is called "Amber Snow"

And finally this picture is entitled "Layer of Trees"

Look for more work soon!

Street Scene Revisited

As I had previously touched on.... I have a painting background in my education in art and use my computer to "paint" my pictures when I am editing them.  This particular shot, I cropped significantly to illustrate the street aspects.  Whenever you take a shot, always save it because you never know when there is an interesting perspective that you can focus on within the image.  So here is the before picture...

and next is the finished piece....

I applied several of my favorite techniques to get this finished product!

Enjoy..... this print, along with many others are available for purchase on my website www.simonehester.com, you can browse the site, leave comments and recommend it to family and friends. 

Have  good day!

Snow Day Part One

My children were ecstatic that they got a "snow day" as a result of the Blizzard that hit the Chicagoland area.  I was thrilled at the chance to get some really cool pictures.  So I had the chance to capture quite a few cool shots and was fortunate to create some cool pictures.  One of these pictures I titled "3D Snow."  Below is the before shot....

 and here is the after....

 Have a great, snow filled day!

Midwest Blizzard 2011

Quick update, we are in the midst of one of the biggest winter storms that the midwest has seen in quite a few years.  I am from the Chicagoland area, and with the massive amounts of snow that has currently fallen and the high winds in the background; life must go on.  Below you will see a picture of a little finch in a tree struggling to stay on the branch as the snow and wind blows against him/her.  Good luck little bird! If anything, it made a pretty cool picture!

Street Scene

I have mentioned that I will show pictures from time to time on shots that I have taken and my end product.  As an artist it is important that you stay true to yourself and that is something that I pride myself on.  I see the beauty of my photos when I shoot them and I also see the end result, what I can create from them.  Besides being a photographer, I am an artist with a painters background.  I painted oils and eventually watercolors for years.  Now in the digital age, I use the computer as my paintbrush.  So every picture I take, I rework in a new way.  I treat it like a painting and the end results are pretty cool.  So the shot I am going to show you know is one of my archive photos.  I took the picture in 2008.  I just recently did the work on it, around 6 weeks ago.  It is so important to archive your pictures, because you may not see the final product when you first shoot it, but some time afterwards, it could be that magic picture.

So here's the picture...

In one of my next posts, I will show you what work I have done and how it turned out.

Stay tuned!