Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L – heath ofee dot com

Shot of the Day

Heath OFee — Wed, 11 May 2011 15:16:22 +0000

A while back I posted a self-portrait taken in the pirate themed photobooth I set up at my nephews 3rd birthday party. Well, today I’m sharing what was hands down the best shot of the day from that photobooth.

These two were hamming it up for quite a while in front of the lens, so I’m glad they got something really cool out of it

Canon EOS 50D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L, 24mm, F 5.0, ISO 100, 1/200 sec

Mountain Water

Heath OFee — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 13:10:59 +0000

Another long exposure from my trip to Elbow Falls last weekend.

Canon EOS 50D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L, 24mm, F 16, ISO 100

Gold and Blue

Heath OFee — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 13:10:42 +0000

Over the weekend I made a trip to Elbow Falls for some practice with my B+W 10-stop ND filter. It was an absolutely beautiful day with the sun shining and the birds chirping. I could have used some clouds in the sky, but I’m not complaining about being able to enjoy the sun outdoors for the first time in a long time. I’m hoping to have a few shots to share from this trip, and I hope you enjoy the first.

Canon EOS 50D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L, 24mm, F 16, 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

Aarrrr!

Heath OFee — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 13:53:07 +0000

Yesterday was my oldest nephews’ 3rd birthday party, and he and his parents decided on a pirate theme. I thought it might be cool to get some fun pirate props and set up a photobooth somewhere in the house where the guests could ham it up in front of the camera. I had never done anything like this before, so it was a bit of an experiment, but (for the most part) I’m quite happy with how the shots turned out.

This was my setup:

– Canon 50D paired with 24-105mm on a tripod with cable release
– Single 430ex slightly above and camera right through a shoot through umbrella @ full power, triggered by cheap Cactus V5 wireless triggers
– White sheet for a backdrop

I wanted the guests to feel like they could do whatever they wanted in front of the camera without me being there to make them nervous, so taped my cable release to a tripod leg, set the camera to the 10 second self timer and left instructions on which button to press on the release. People seemed to love it!

So, if you have any specific questions about the setup or if you have any pointers on what I could do better next time, I’d love to hear them! For now, here’s a self-pirate-portrait…enjoy (Oh, and forgive the shoddy cloning in this shot…it was late last night and I just wanted to get something up!)

Canon EOS 50D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L, 24mm, F 5.0, ISO 100, 1/200 sec

Hooligans

Heath OFee — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:10:43 +0000

I have a busy day ahead of me, so just a quick one this morning.

I shot this during my very brief visit to Florence a couple of years ago. Nothing terribly exciting, but I had to capture this lone graffiti tag on what was an enormous brick wall.

Canon EOS 50D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L, 88mm, F 7.1, ISO 100, 1/500 sec

Espresso

Heath OFee — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 13:10:10 +0000

I have such great memories from my time in Venice, and one of the best was the morning of our arrival. We took an overnight train from Rome to Venice and arrived in the city just before sunrise. That morning, we basically had the place to ourselves. Nothing was open yet and the streets and alleys were silent and deserted…it was such a peaceful few hours.

When the cafes finally started to open, we stopped at the first one we could find for a quick breakfast and an espresso. This shot of my (at the time) girlfriend (now my wife) really captures the feeling we had both had that morning. Beautiful light and empty streets in one of the most unique cities in the world.

Canon EOS 50D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L, 45mm, F 5.6, ISO 100, 1/50 sec

Textured Villa

Heath OFee — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 15:05:29 +0000

Since I’m on a bit of an Italy kick, I thought I’d share another from my time there a couple years ago. This shot is of Villa Poderaccio, the Tuscan Villa we stayed in for the week. I love the contrast in colour and shape of the red brick surrounding the door and the round stone throughout the rest of the frame.

Canon EOS 50D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L, 47mm, F 7.1, ISO 100, 1/60 sec

Grand Canal

Heath OFee — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 13:10:27 +0000

Back to the Italy archives for today’s image.

I’m sure I’ve said this before, but Venice is by far one of the coolest cities I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting. There are so many streets and alleys to explore, and you never know what you’ll find around the next bend. If you haven’t been, you should put Venice on your must see list.

Although I still love processing HDR photographs (and probably always will), lately I’ve been finding a lot of enjoyment in processing single exposures. There are many times when the limited dynamic range of a camera can make a scene more compelling than if the full range of light were exploited. If you’re an HDR enthusiast, experiment with two versions of an image: one tonemapped from a set of brackets and one single exposure from the set. See if all that dynamic range is really necessary to convey your photographic message. It’s easy to fall into the trap of shooting brackets and processing for HDR all the time…make sure you inspect your bracket sets before tonemapping to really see if you need to expand the dynamic range.

Don’t be afraid to try new (or old) things, it’s good for you, and you may just fall in love with this wonderful hobby all over again.

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

Was It Good For You?

Heath OFee — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 11:57:24 +0000

My Twitter buddy Chris Nitz has a knack for creating very cool images with Lego men, and last month he came up with an idea for a photography challenge called LegoWars. Basically, he’s gathered as many participants as he can and asked us to submit a new Lego themed photograph each month. These photographs will be judged by his readers, and the winner gets bragging rights (and perhaps a small prize) for the next month! The first month of photos will go live this morning, so be sure to check out his site here.

As soon as I thought of the idea you see below, I knew I had to find myself a Lego Chewbacca to make it happen. Hope you enjoy it

Canon EOS 50D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L, 105mm, F 16, ISO 100, 1.6 sec