Canon – heath ofee dot com

Roots

Heath OFee — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:10:56 +0000

Some places on this planet are just made to be photographed – and I found out that a great deal of them happen to be in Hawaii. During my time there, I was constantly amazed at the natural beauty and diversity available to capture with my camera – and the scene below is no exception. This tree couldn’t have fallen in a more beautiful spot and I felt very lucky to have stumbled upon it.

Equipment:
– Canon EOS 5D Mark II
– Sigma 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye
– onOne Phototools

Tea for Two

Heath OFee — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 13:10:43 +0000

In addition to the 15mm fisheye I rented for the trip, I also opted to try out the Canon 24mm tilt shift. I’m hoping to use the shift functionality to build some panoramas of what I can only imagine are the amazing views to be had in Hawaii. As with the fisheye, I had to do a bit of experimentation before I left.

I’ve never really done any still life photography before, but I got home with these lenses and saw that this little tea set had placed itself just outside my office. I’d never seen it before, which is a little strange, but I was intrigued enough by it to take it out to my back steps for a few shots.

As it turns out, my wife’s grandmother had given this tea set to her in the hopes that I’d be able to photograph it. It belonged to my wife’s great-grandmother, and when her house burned down years and years ago, this was the only thing that was salvaged. Glad I could be a part of this bit of nostalgia, and I hope I’ve done this little gem justice.

Iconic Reflection in Palliser South

Heath OFee — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:45:49 +0000

Anyone who has been to Calgary knows that the most iconic building (to date) is, of course, the Calgary Tower. Although not the tallest tower in the city, its distinctive shape and red cap make it instantly recognizable. While walking back to my car from work a few weeks ago I noticed that on a clear day the Calgary Tower produces an almost full reflection of itself in the new Palliser South building…I instantly knew that I had to come back with my camera to capture the scene. Conveniently, the deadline for the 2010 Buildex Calgary Photo Competition was swiftly approaching and I wanted a couple extra photos to enter. So on my downtown photowalk a couple weeks ago I made sure to capture this really cool scene…hope you like it!

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 13mm, F 9.0, ISO 100, 3 Exposures

The details: 3 exposure HDR tonemapped in Photomatix, Lightroom for catalogue, color, contrast, clarity, Noiseware for noise control.

St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Midnapore

Heath OFee — Mon, 31 May 2010 14:55:48 +0000

We’ve been having some pretty depressing weather here in Calgary for the past couple of weeks…lots of rain, a bit of snow and plenty of cold. Not the kind of weather you’d like to see at the end of May. However, this kind of weather produces some really cool looking cloud formations that make for absolutely great photos. I had been telling myself that I should go take advantage of the opportunity all week, but never mustered up the motivation until yesterday afternoon (thanks for the extra push sweetie!). I knew exactly where I wanted to go…St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Midnapore. This historical church was built in 1885 and is in fantastic shape thanks to the Midnapore Church of England Society who have worked hard to maintain the church since the 1990’s. I was inspired to photograph this church by Steph over at MzDeitz who posted a really cool photo of the dilapidated St. Patrick’s Catholic Church which is just a stones throw north of St. Paul’s.

The clouds couldn’t have been more perfect when I arrived…this was the first shot I took when I got to the scene and the only one I’ve processed so far. I think I should have a few more good ones to make a neat little series of the church and cemetary. Let me know what you think:

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 13mm, F 11, ISO 100, 3 Exposures

The details: 3 exposure HDR tonemapped in Photomatix, white balance, contrast, clarity, sharpening in Lightroom, noise reduction in Noiseware.

Cedarbrae Bus Shelter from the Archives

Heath OFee — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 21:11:16 +0000

Since I’m heading to Las Vegas tomorrow morning and won’t be back until late next week, I thought I’d post another photo right now since I’ll probably be skipping my post next week.

This past weekend I took the time to watch the HDR presentation Trey Ratcliff gave at Google Headquarters in California. I’m not going to do a full review here, but I will say that it’s well worth checking out if you want to learn a bit about HDR photography and see plenty of pretty pictures. One tip that Trey gave to new HDR photographers is to go through your old photo collection and give a few the HDR treatment for practice. Even though you’d only be working with a single RAW file instead of a number of bracketed exposures, the algorithms in Photomatix can still produce a very good HDR image. I took this to heart and went through a few dozen old photos from a photo walk I took in Cedarbrae/Braeside two years ago. I thought this detail photo of a bus shelter bench turned out kinda cool after the HDR conversion. It’s kinda gritty and dirty and old but I like it!

Canon EOS 50D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L, 24mm, F 8.0, ISO 100

The details: single exposure HDR tonemapped in Photomatix, color correction, contrast, clarity, sharpening in Lightroom, noise reduction in Noiseware.

Grain Elevator in Brant, Alberta

Heath OFee — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:07:33 +0000

This past Saturday, Brei and I took a quick road trip about an hour south of Calgary to the extremely small town of Brant, Alberta so that I could take some photos. You might be wondering why on earth I would choose to travel to this tiny town…according to www.ghosttowns.com, Brant is home to a large number of abandoned old buildings and I thought it would be cool to check them out. However, upon arriving in Brant, we found it to be mostly occupied. There are probably about 100 people still living there but it was far from abandoned and there didn’t appear to be a large amount of abandoned buildings as the ghost towns website advertised. So…I made the most of what was there. The most prominent structure was the old grain elevator situated right along the train tracks so I snapped a few shots of the elevator and the few train cars that were lying around. Below is the first photo I’ve processed. It’s a pretty simple image…big ‘ol grain elevator with a sunburst along one edge…but I like it. Sometimes simplicity is nice.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 14mm, F 20, ISO 100, 3 Exposures

The details: 3 exposure HDR (-2,0,+2) tonemapped in Photomatix, color correction, contrast, clarity, sharpening in Lightroom, original sky masked in using Photoshop, noise reduction using Noiseware. Let me know what you think!

Art Parkade Walkway at the U of C

Heath OFee — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:48:40 +0000

This past weekend I decided to take a nostalgic photo walk through the University of Calgary campus. I hadn’t been back there since I graduated a few years ago and I thought it would be kinda neat to see what (if anything) had changed. Everything was just as I remembered with the exception of the brand new Taylor Family Digital Library (still under construction) and all the scaffolding and false walls in the engineering building…apparently they’re doing a bit of a fix-up job there.

The brown grass and leafless trees of early spring don’t make for particularly pretty photos, so I stayed indoors and shot anything I found interesting. Symmetry was a common theme at the university so played around with that for a change since I typically try to place my focal point off centre (rule of thirds). I also let myself into some lecture theatres and will be making a few lecture hall panoramas in the coming weeks. For now, here’s the first image I shot upon my arrival at the U of C:

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

This is the skywalk from the Art Parkade to Craigie Hall. I almost kept walking once I got through the doors from the parkade but I’m glad I stopped to shoot this hallway. Converging lines are so much fun!

The details: 3 exposure HDR (-2,0,+2) tonemapped in Photomatix, masking in Photoshop, noise reduction using Noiseware (unbelievable results!), final tweaks in Lightroom. Let me know what you think.

Anderson Apartments

Heath OFee — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:13:32 +0000

It’s been about a week and a half since my last photo post/upload and I’m feeling like a bit of a slacker. Last weekend I had the brainwave to take some shots of my car in the parkade of my downtown work building, but after what was a somewhat lackluster car wash it appears as though those photos are going to need some significant TLC in post-production before they see the light of day. I did however, visit a colleagues apartment last Friday night after the annual company bonspiel (curling tournament). Despite the significant amount of booze in my system I seemed to remember that the building was almost 100 years old and had plenty of character, so on Monday I made sure to ask my colleague if I could make another visit to his apartment building to take some photos of the amazing foyer. I made the trip back to the Anderson Apartments just off of 17th Ave SW on St. Patrick’s Day and took photos to my heart’s content. Apparently my memory hadn’t failed me because when I walked into the building I was just as impressed as I was the week before. Imported Italian marble covers the foyer and the stairs leading up to it and there is an unbelievable brass cage elevator that is still in working order (we took an impressively smooth ride up to the top floor). Below is one of my favorites from the visit.

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

This is a 3 exposure HDR (-2,0,+2) tonemapped in Photomatix with some final tweaks in Lightroom. The white balance is a little off because of the two different light sources…incandescent bulbs in the lobby and natural sunlight streaming in through the stairway window, but I kind of like the contrast between the yellow and orange in the lobby and the slight blue cast coming from the stairs. I’m really glad that I was able to stumble across this historic Calgary building. If I didn’t know someone who lived there I would never have found it…thanks Raj! As always, comments and critiques are more than welcome.

An Aging Semi and Layer Masks

Heath OFee — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:00:20 +0000

I live in the far southeast quadrant of Calgary in a relatively new community called New Brighton. One of the major arteries that runs through the southeast is 52nd Avenue and I find myself on this stretch of road at least a couple times a week. Two weeks ago on my way to play a round of disc golf I spotted this really cool looking wrecked and abandoned semi-truck/trailer and thought it would make a fantastic HDR photo. I took a day off work this past Tuesday and took this photo:

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 12mm, F 16, ISO 100, 3 Exposures

It’s nice being a little further north during the winter because the sun stays relatively low in the sky for most of the day. This photo was taken around 11am and the sun was still low enough for me to get it well into the frame. I’ve always been a fan of sunbursts, so I made sure to stop the aperture down (this is f/16) to make sure I got that effect.

This photo is my first attempt at using a layer mask in Photoshop…I should probably have already known how to do that, but I try to do most of my post-processing in Lightroom exclusively. Anyway…after running my three exposures (-2,0,+2) through Photomatix, I found that the sky looked a little dirty and was a bit noisier than I would have liked, so I masked in the sky from the original 0ev RAW file. Turned out pretty well I think, and I learned a valuable new skill! As always, critique and comments are more than welcome.