California – heath ofee dot com

The Desert

Heath OFee — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:12:22 +0000

Another small set from Joshua Tree National Park:

Curvature

Heath OFee — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:10:46 +0000

My previous visit to the Salton Sea area yielded a ridiculous amount of images – none of which contained any clouds. I spent the better part of three days shooting in and around the salt-lake, and the entire time there wasn’t a cloud in sight – ridiculous.

Thankfully, for my second visit a couple of weeks ago, we were blessed with a day full of clouds that had potential to deliver a stunning sunset. We were not disappointed. As the sun started to dip below the low mountains, we were treated to some pretty great reds and oranges in the clouds.

This shot is of the curving shoreline of Bombay Beach.

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

Good Times

Heath OFee — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:10:17 +0000

This will be the first of a few collage posts of images from my time in southern California. All but one of the photos in this post are from Joshua Tree National Park – the one exception is the orange tree which is in my inlaws’ backyard in Indio.

Mike Olbinski and Chris DeAngelis get a starring role in one photo each, and the last frame shows the whole crew walking amongst the Joshua trees.

Equipment:
– Canon EOS 5D Mark II
– Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L
– Canon 50mm f/1.4

Joshua Sunrise

Heath OFee — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:10:14 +0000

The best part of the one night I spent camping in Joshua Tree was when the sun started to come up and I was forced to get out my freezing cold sleeping bag and go take photos. Sub-freezing overnight temperatures ensured that I didn’t get any sleep, so the rush of finding some good sunrise compositions was a welcome bit of activity.

I’m sure that all six of us who were camping got a silhouette shot similar to this one at sunrise. There were just enough clouds on the horizon to create some interesting colour, and those Joshua Trees are just too cool to pass up as a foreground element.

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

Cracking Up

Heath OFee — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:10:55 +0000

When Rick Young turned off the highway and led us down a long dirt road towards the Salton Sea that ran next to an orange orchard, I wasn’t entirely sure that the location would work out. But as it turned out, this portion of the beach had some amazing photo ops and the six of us who made it down there each came away with some keepers.

A spent a good chunk of my time on this section of shoreline shooting towards the lake, but when I spotted this cracked earth and the mountains in the background I switched things up and shot in the opposite direction. I’m glad I did because as soon as I saw this long exposure on the LCD, I knew I had my shot of the day. Thanks for dragging us down that dirt road, Rick!

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

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

Goodyear

Heath OFee — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 13:10:07 +0000

As I become more familiar with the post-processing tools at my disposal, I find myself leaning towards a group of the same effects on a regular basis. I’ve come to know what these tools will do for my images, I enjoy the results, and I feel using similar post-processing techniques on most of my images helps me to develop a unique ‘style’. That being said, I don’t want to get into a rut where I just stick to what I know and don’t explore all of the other great options that are out there.

While the myriad of processing options may seem daunting sometimes, it is important to continue to experiment in order to further our growth as photographers/post-processors. Even if it means trying something new and NOT liking it, at least you can say you gave it a shot. What is there to lose? Storage is cheap, so experiment as much as possible!

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

Hard Light

Heath OFee — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 13:10:03 +0000

Since I was up late last night watching the final few episodes of Prison Break season one and didn’t have time to process a new image, we’re going back to Joshua Tree National Park today. I had thought about including this shot in my original week-long series from the park, but it just didn’t work as a square crop. So, the processing is the same as the others you’ve all seen, but I left it in its native aspect ratio.

Canon EOS 50D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L, 24mm, F 7.1, ISO 100, 1/320 sec

The Fan

Heath OFee — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 13:10:01 +0000

Back to a bit of urbex today. After processing my shot for Game 11 of HDR Tennis over on Facebook, I got a serious hankering to process some more gritty urbex. So, I trolled my images from California and found this shot of a fan in a small room in the abandoned diner I found. There wasn’t much room to get in close to it, so I decided on a wide framing that included a large portion of the door as a foreground element. I used FocalPoint in post processing to add the blur which helps draw your eye to the fan.

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

Stone Tub

Heath OFee — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:10:14 +0000

Since you all seemed to enjoy yesterday’s shot from the amazing house in Palm Springs, I figured I’d give you another taste.

This huge stone hot tub is right around the corner from the infinity pool and is just outside the master suite patio doors. What I wouldn’t give to be relaxing in that tub with an adult beverage right now…

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