Have you ever been on a trip where you felt that it would be so wonderful if you could just paint the picture you are seeing in a given moment? Perhaps its the way the scene is naturally framed, the intrinsic beauty of the objects, and/or the lighting. Maybe its all of these things.
When I was on a trip to France recently, there were many of these moments. Without hesitation they were saved as photographs. Then, over the course of many weeks, I looked into how these digital photograph bits and bytes could be adjusted to have watercolor or oil painting effects such that the result would look like a really good piece of art using the impressionism style.
Certainly the 30+ years I've worked in the software industry helped me here. In the end, a series of proprietary post processing techniques were developed and utilized to get the results I was after.
I am pretty happy with how these came out. And as time goes on, I will continue evolve the process.
Here are my Burgundy, France Watercolor Effects pieces: http://digitalprintgifts.com/p882640675
And here are the ones from Paris, France: http://digitalprintgifts.com/p695194605
Ok, so it's not like an original Monet oil painting that he painted in the 19th century is just getting discovered now in the 21st century. But for a couple of these, I am nearly as happy with gazing at them as an original Monet painting! And certainly from a cost standpoint, I am WAY ahead!