The Kailua Village Artists featured member for the month of March is photographer Whitney Steele.
The Kailua Village Artists featured member for the month of March is photographer Whitney Steele.
Steele’s photography reflects her close bond to nature. Her artistic vision and keen eye for small details are captured in her photographic images of Hawaii’s flora and fauna. She started taking photography classes in high school and she received her first camera. Steele learned the fundamentals and the lost art of developing film in a darkroom. She continued with classes throughout college. Her deep connection to nature influenced her choice of career and she earned her bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from Washington State University. She grew up playing in the streams and creeks in a small farm town in eastern Washington.
In 2013, Steele and her husband moved to Hawaii Island to explore Hawaii’s tropical foliage and continue to grow as an artist.
She uses a modest DSRL camera and a complement of lenses to capture her images.
“Unlike many of today’s photographers that use digital tools to greatly manipulate their photography, I choose to keep my images as I see them through the lens,” she said.
Along with Steele’s ever-expanding collection of water drop photos, she is expanding her work to showcase Hawaiian flora and fauna. Steele recently deviated from the realm of using solely macro lenses to using a wide-angle lens, allowing the lens to capture a new and different prospective in the world of macro photography.
Those interested may meet Steele while she works at the Kailua Village Artists Gallery on Monday and March 16 and 30. The gallery is at 75-5729 Alii Drive on the mauka side, in Suite C-110 in Kona Marketplace. in Kailua-Kona. The gallery is open Monday through Saturday.