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Peace Bridge – A New Calgary Icon

Heath OFee — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:10:15 +0000

This past Saturday afternoon the newly finished Peace Bridge in Calgary had its official opening. The Santiago Calatrava designed pedestrian bridge has been a number of years in the making, and its construction was wrought with controversy over missed timelines and budget issues. The city still seems split; some love it while others feel it was a great big waste of money (~25 million). Me? I think its gonna make for some great photographs, and below is the first of what I’m sure will be many studies of this interesting new icon.

DUMBO Sunrise

Heath OFee — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 13:10:38 +0000

I must seem a little schizophrenic these days…photos from New York – Hawaii – New York – Hawaii. I just had such a great time in both places, and I love sharing how I saw both locations. Soooo…back to NYC today!

The one sunrise I caught while in New York was on the morning of the epic 18 hour photowalk with the now infamous photog crew that gathered there. We began the day in an area of Brooklyn called DUMBO which offers great views of the lower Manhattan skyline along with the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. While it would have been nice to have a few clouds in the sky, we were blessed with some wonderfully warm light as the sun started to come over the horizon. I think we call came away with some sort of composition with the light spilling onto this boardwalk with the Manhattan bridge in the background – but we all saw it slightly differently. This is my take.

Equipment:
– Canon EOS 5D Mark II
– Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L
– B+W 77mm 10-stop ND Filter

No Sleep Till Brooklyn

Heath OFee — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:10:24 +0000

As I’m sure most of my readers know by now, I met up with a great bunch of photographers while I was in New York City for a ridiculous day of shooting around the city. The morning began just across the East River in Brooklyn, and as the sun was setting we made our way back to the same spot – but on the Manhattan side. From this long walkway one is afforded great views of both the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges – both of which you can see in the image below.

On a processing note, I decided to go against my usual workflow of Lightroom -> Photoshop -> Phototools -> Lightroom and edited this image exclusively in Lightroom. It was nice not leaving the one interface, and I don’t feel like adding those extra steps would have added anything extra to this image. I may be trying more of this simplified workflow in the future.

Oh, and as for the title of this post – I couldn’t get that song out of my head during that entire day of shooting

Equipment:
– Canon EOS 5D Mark II
– Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L

Bump on a Log

Heath OFee — Thu, 26 May 2011 13:10:50 +0000

Another shot from Marble Canyon today…but this time at the other end of the chasm. Tokumm Creek exits the deep canyon just to camera left, makes a 90 degree turn and continues its flow downstream. I spent a good 30 minutes at this location making long exposures and just enjoying the scenery.

Millennium Bridge

Heath OFee — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:10:42 +0000

I decided to dive deep into the archives for my shot today. In 2007, I took a 12 day trip to London shortly after I had purchased my very first digital SLR. I took an obscene amount of photographs while I was there, but looking back, I didn’t come away with a whole bunch of what I would now consider ‘keepers’. Obviously, this is to be expected when on one’s first journey with a new piece of equipment…plus it gives me a great excuse to get back to London so I can shoot it properly

Of the good photos I did manage to take while I was there, this is hands down my favourite (even though it is quite a ‘touristy’ shot). The juxtaposition of the ultra modern with the extremely old is something that is present almost anywhere you walk in London, and this shot is no exception. Millennium Bridge set against St. Paul’s Cathedral. Awesomeness.

Canon Rebel XTi, Tamron 28-80mm, 51mm, F 8.0, ISO 100, 8 sec

Bridge Over Fish Creek

Heath OFee — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 16:13:46 +0000

From a winter wonderland photo yesterday to a beautiful summer haven today…apparently I’m feeling a little schizophrenic when it comes to choosing photos to process Growing up in the southwest quadrant of Calgary, Fish Creek Park was a pillar of natural beauty for me as a kid. Going back now brings back memories of countless bike rides, skipping rocks with my dad, and having picnic lunches with family and friends. When I’m lucky enough to have my own kids, I know we’ll be spending some quality time in the park, just like I did.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 8.0, ISO 100, 3 Exposures

Centenary Park Bridge

Heath OFee — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:39:28 +0000

A couple nights ago I ventured down to Centenary park to attempt some sunset/blue hour shots of the Calgary skyline. I knew the exact spot I wanted to shoot from because I had been there a few years ago with my dad’s old Canon FT-b and his trusty old 50mm f/1.8 manual focus lens. This was the first SLR camera I ever used and I had a ton of fun with it for about 6 months until I bought my first DSLR.

While the photos of the skyline still need a bit more tweaking, I did take one other set of brackets of the bridge leading into Centenary Park. This shot is a bit of a re-creation of an old photo I shot on film from years past. I’ve always known I wanted to try the shot again because the colors came out completely wrong on film. I’ve put both images in this post…the top one was shot the other night and the greeny looking bottom one was shot on film all those years ago. Hopefully the new one is an improvement!

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 16, ISO 100, 4 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