Abandoned – heath ofee dot com

Sit Tight

Heath OFee — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:10:45 +0000

Last week I had the pleasure of providing the brackets for the most recent game of HDR Tennis on Facebook. The game wrapped up last night, so I thought I’d post my version on the blog today.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 13mm, F 11, ISO 100

Hose, Anyone?

Heath OFee — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:15:56 +0000

I’ve been sitting on a few images of these fire hoses from the abandoned fire station south of Indio, CA for a couple of months now. When shooting, I was pretty happy with what I captured, but when I got back home and dumped the images onto my computer, I was less impressed. Last night I decided to take a crack at one of the bracket sets to see if I could come away with something I’m happy with…and what you see below is the result.

Sometimes persistence is your best friend

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 16, ISO 100

I Want My MTV

Heath OFee — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 14:57:25 +0000

I don’t know about you guys, but for some reason I’ve always wanted to smash an old CRT television. I just looks like so much fun when they do it on TV! I didn’t get the chance to live that dream with this old RCA that I found in an abandoned diner, but someone did…and I bet they had a blast doing it.

As for the title of this post…I grew up listening to Dire Straits because my dad was a huge fan. I can remember many a road trip rocking out to those guys, and I specifically remember the long introduction to ‘Money For Nothing’ was one of my favourite parts of any of their songs. And what a riff once it got started!

We’re Watching

Heath OFee — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 12:37:23 +0000

Back to the abandoned warehouse in Niland, California for today’s image. When I walked into this urbex heaven, as soon as I turned and looked to my right, these are the creepy graffiti eyes I was greeted with. I felt safer for the rest of my time there knowing I had a pair of watchful eyes looking out for me

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 20mm, F 11, ISO 100

Slow Burn

Heath OFee — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 16:33:52 +0000

The small abandoned fire station that I stumbled up on just south of Indio, California has yielded a few good images. Some of you may recognize the broken chair in the bottom of this frame from a previous shot I published of it.

What I’ve been realizing more often during my processing, is that the occasional bit of significant cropping can really go a long way to making an image a bit more interesting. This frame originally included an awful lot more of this room to the right, but I felt all the additional clutter just made for a far too busy frame. Isolating the chair and the row of lockers with this square crop resulted in a much more pleasing frame.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 11, ISO 100

Salton Sea – The End

Heath OFee — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 13:43:57 +0000

Okay, last one of the series…from this trip anyway. And what better way to finish a series about a huge inland saltwater lake than with a shot of the shoreline and lake stretching to the horizon at sunset. This shot also more clearly depicts an interesting duality that exists in the Salton Sea: while fish are dying by the thousands, bird life is absolutely flourishing in this area. Apparently, the Salton Sea is right on a major migration route, and quite a few species of birds make a stop there during their annual commute.

Thanks so much for all the amazing feedback I’ve had on this series, I appreciate every single comment and RT! I hope to be back in the area sometime this year, and with any luck I’ll be able to resurrect the series sometime down the road.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 16, ISO 100, 1/60 sec

Salton Sea – Cafe

Heath OFee — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 13:20:56 +0000

Well, I think this series is finally coming to a close. I should be able to squeak out one more image for tomorrow to finish things up on a Friday, but from here on out you probably won’t see any more from the Salton Sea area processed in the same fashion as what you’ve seen this week. I have quite a few sets of brackets from the area that I want to process as HDR and stylize a bit differently than this series.

One thing I learned during my trip to this area is that you never know what location will provide you with amazing photographic opportunities. I spent a good amount of time looking through photos of the Salton Sea on Flickr before I left, and the one place I was most excited about visiting was Bombay Beach. While I did get some great shots there, I found quite a few other unexpected locations that yielded some pretty amazing photographs. So make sure you don’t have blinders on when visiting a new location. Keep your eyes open because you never know what hidden gems can be found if you just take your time.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 20mm, F 11, ISO 100, 1/125 sec

Salton Sea – Leaning

Heath OFee — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 13:51:50 +0000

I’m not entirely sure what this old, rusted barrel would have been used for back in the day, so if you have any ideas, feel free to let me know. This structure is one of the only things still standing on the waterfront at Bombay Beach. Most of the other old houses and trailers have completely caved in and decayed over the years…I should have a couple shots of those coming in the near future.

The one thing that made it difficult to shoot at this location was the nasty ground conditions. From the photo below, it may appear as though the ground is just a firm, salty crust, but what you don’t see is the one or two inches of soft mud that lies just below the surface. The day I went to Bombay Beach, I did not have the appropriate footwear for tramping around in the mud, so I was unable to get some of the shots I would have liked. I’ll be making my way back there better prepared on my next trip to California.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 11mm, F 16, ISO 100, 1/50 sec

Salton Sea – Tripled

Heath OFee — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 13:57:26 +0000

So, when setting up and taking this shot, I purposely tried to get a double sunburst effect through the reflection in the water…however, I did not even see the third tiny sunburst until I got the image into Lightroom. Happy accidents, gotta love ’em.

This is a shot from Bombay Beach, home of this shot. While I was there, I ran into a former local who lived in the area as a child. She had fond memories of playing on the beach and swimming in the sea all summer long. Looking at this beach now, it’s hard to believe that people once enjoyed it as a recreation area.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 16, ISO 100, 1/100 sec

Repeat After Me…

Heath OFee — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 15:08:18 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve posted something with an obscene amount of colour. This has been a conscious decision, as I know that when I first started with HDR processing, I went a little overboard with my saturation slider. However, I feel that this image is one that benefits from a large dose of colour, and I really tried to amplify the awesome pink graffiti on this old brick wall. I wanted the splash of colour to be the first thing people noticed and then let their eyes drift upwards to the spraypainted quote.

This abandoned warehouse in Niland, California was a great find. I’ve already shared a few images from this location, and I can’t wait to keep leading you all on a tour of the place Oh…and I apologize for the unavoidable F-bombs present in this frame. Hard to avoid them sometimes in places like this.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 20mm, F 11, ISO 100