august – heath ofee dot com

michael+vanessa

Heath OFee — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 14:56:31 +0000

These are two of the most in love people I’ve ever met. I’m not ashamed to say that I welled up listening to the words they wrote about each other.

preparations

Heath OFee — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 04:03:02 +0000

Vanessa was a gem. Here she is getting extra purdy before all the action.

Liam

Heath OFee — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 13:55:03 +0000

Liam and his family are amazing. I got to spend an evening with the three of them a couple of weeks ago and we had a great time capturing some memories. I challenge you not to get infected by this little guy’s smile.

The Dry Side

Heath OFee — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:10:36 +0000

One of the most amazing things about Maui is the extremely diverse ecosystem. On one tiny island you can find rainforest full of ridiculous waterfalls, rugged coastline with aggressive surf, dry, arid hillsides with scrubby brush, and gorgeous white sand beaches. And all of this can be seen during a days worth of driving. Crazy.

Today’s shot is from the drier, west side of the island just south of Lahaina.

Switch?

Heath OFee — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:45:30 +0000

To switch or not to switch? A question that I’ve been asking myself for a couple of years now. What am I thinking about switching, you ask? Well, currently I’m running a Windows PC that is about 3 or 4 years old and I’ve been considering making the switch to a Mac for quite some time. I predominantly use my machine for editing photos and I’ve heard nothing but great things about Macs from other photogs. I think it’s really only a matter of time before I make the switch…although it’s a little bit scary thinking about moving all my photos and Lightroom catalogues over to a new computer. I guess the next big question is what Mac do I go for? I definitely don’t have the cash for a Mac Pro and I don’t think a Mac Mini will have enough power to keep me working away for the next several years, so I guess that leaves me with the iMac. Thoughts? Dual-core vs. quad-core? Processor speed and RAM? Refurbished to save some $$? Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Oh, and here’s a pretty picture of a train track switch.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 12mm, F 11, ISO 100, 3 Exposures

Mistakes…

Heath OFee — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:33:02 +0000

We all make ’em, right? Whether it be in our personal lives, at work or while doing something we love, mistakes are an unfortunate but necessary part of life. So, since these mistakes are inevitably going to happen, the best thing to do is try our best to learn from them and try not to make the same mistake again. Why am I talking about mistakes today? Well, recently I was given the opportunity to shoot the interior of St. Paul’s Anglican Church (you can find some photos of the exterior here and here). When I got home and dumped my images into Lightroom, I was disappointed to see that for a number of series of brackets I neglected to shoot a frame that was suitably exposed for the stained glass windows on the east side of the church. When shooting my brackets I always check my histogram to make sure I’ve covered the whole spectrum of light, but on this occasion I didn’t think to double check the images themselves to make sure the windows were okay. Thankfully, there is a ton of information stored in those magical RAW files and I was able to retrieve enough light information to make the windows passable in a few images…this is the case in the photo you see below. Moral of the story? Check your histogram AND the images themselves…or get yourself a darn Promote Control and bracket from -4 to +4 ALL THE TIME

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 11, ISO 100, 5 Exposures

Clouds and Bales

Heath OFee — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:14:32 +0000

Living on the prairies lends itself to some pretty good photography opportunities, and sometimes I think I take my proximity to wide open farmland for granted. If I hit the road and drive for 30 minutes south, east, or west of where I live I quickly find myself surrounded by soft rolling hills and patchwork farmland as far as the eye can see. I decided I’d try to capture some of this iconic Alberta landscape yesterday afternoon.

Hay bales are such a common sight along these country roads and I’ve always felt they make for great photographic subjects. I took a number of shots at the same location you’ll see below, but it wasn’t until I trespassed a bit more than I would have liked and got nice and close to this bale that I was really happy with the composition. Having one bale as a prominent foreground element was key.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 11, ISO 100, 5 Exposures

Building Blocks

Heath OFee — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:11:34 +0000

On the way back into town from our company golf tournament this past Thursday, I saw what is probably the coolest and largest piece of construction equipment I have ever seen. This giant contraption is currently being used to build the elevated track structure for the west LRT extension that will see our public train system make it’s way out to 69th St West.

I knew as soon as I saw this monster that I would have to come back to capture it, so on Friday night Brei and I made our way downtown to get a few brackets. Although I don’t think there’s anything outta-this-world about the shot, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Mostly I just wanted to get a shot of this thing while it was right over 9th Ave!

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 12mm, F 7.1, ISO 100, 5 Exposures

Simmons Heritage Building

Heath OFee — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:02:59 +0000

Although Calgary is a relatively young city, there are a few pretty cool historic landmarks still kicking around, and any of these landmarks that are deemed worth preserving are given Heritage status and are typically restored and sometimes used as retail or office space. The old Simmons building in the East Village was constructed in 1912 for an estimated cost of $20,000 and was used by Simmons to make quality bedding products until 1966 when flooding from the Bow River necessitated a move. It is currently occupied by the Calgary Municipal and Land Corporation. They have a much more detailed history of the building on their site if you’re interested.

I took the below shot with my Sigma 10-20mm and purposely got nice and close to the building and shot at 10mm to get the interesting distorted perspective. I also don’t usually place a subject right in the middle of the frame but sometimes the symmetry of a shot can be much more powerful than a traditional “rule of thirds” composition.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 11, ISO 100, 3 Exposures

The Crusher

Heath OFee — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:00:56 +0000

I’m not sure what it is about big construction equipment and HDR, but I’ve been on the lookout for a cool piece of equipment to bracket since I started with the HDR thing. I’ve mentioned before that I live in a fairly new suburb of Calgary so there is still quite a bit of construction going on…which means plenty of large yellow equipment is lying around not being used on the weekends just begging to be photographed. So, this past weekend I did a quick lap around the neighbourhood on my way home from a downtown photowalk and came across this bruiser of a machine sitting on an empty lot between two finished houses. I like to think it’s main job is to crush whatever happens to be in it’s path with those giant teeth mounted on the front cylinder…it’s a pretty cool machine.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 11, ISO 100, 3 Exposures