Clouds – heath ofee dot com

Lone Sentinel

Heath OFee — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:10:00 +0000

Wow. I can’t believe it’s been almost an entire month since I’ve posted anything here! I’ve been in a bit of a photographic funk for the last little while, so I didn’t feel much like shooting or spending much time on Twitter and around blogs – but I should be back in at least some capacity now.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of shooting in Joshua Tree National Park and around the Salton Sea with an awesome group of guys: Mike Olbinski, Chris DeAngelis, Rick Young, Chris Frailey, and Doug Wise. I was down in the Palm Springs area for a week of vacation and let these dudes (who are from Phoenix and the Fresno area) that I was thinking of camping one night in Joshua Tree and taking some photos, of course. These brave souls agreed to meet me, and we proceeded to freeze our butts off as temperatures dipped below freezing overnight! Despite the cold, we had a great time and I think we all came away with some shots we’re quite proud of. Make sure you stay tuned to all of our blogs for the photo goodness that is sure to come.

The first image I’ll share with you is from Bombay Beach on the Salton Sea (some of you may remember my series from this location last year). It was great to visit this unique location again – and doubly awesome to have some clouds in the sky this time!

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

Sunset Clouds

Heath OFee — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:10:06 +0000

Sometimes you just get lucky.

The clouds during the sunset over Lake Minnewanka were just amazing – and sometimes you have to allow those clouds to be the main subject of your frame.

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

Lake #4

Heath OFee — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:10:33 +0000

After visiting Lake Louise, I made a short trek up the Icefields Parkway to both Bow Lake and Peyto Lake. Today’s image is of the latter which is known as ‘the bluest lake in the Rockies’. The colour of the lake in the photo below is an accurate representation of what I saw when I was there – it’s just crazy blue!

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

Lake #2

Heath OFee — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:10:05 +0000

The second lake I hit on my mountain journey last week was Lake Louise – one of the most well known lakes in Banff National Park. I can almost guarantee you that it’s been shot by every photographer that comes to Banff, but I still can’t get enough of it. It’s just so picturesque and it looks a little bit different every time I visit. Last week the distant peaks were shrouded in circling cloud – something I’d never seen before, so I was happy to be able to capture it.

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

Mountain on Fire

Heath OFee — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:10:50 +0000

Back to Quarry Lake in Canmore for my post today. While not a shot of the actual lake, this was the view off in the distance that I was treated with as the sun started to peek over the horizon. The glow on those mountains was out of this world – seeing colour like that makes getting up early for sunrise seem worth it every time.

Equipment:
– Canon EOS 50D
– Canon 24-105mm f/4L

Days End

Heath OFee — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:20:44 +0000

As my day in the mountains was ending on Tuesday, I was treated with a pretty amazing moonrise over Lake Minnewanka. It was an amazing end to an awesome day.

Equipment:
– Canon EOS 50D
– Canon 24-105mm f/4L

Be There

Heath OFee — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:17:59 +0000

Yesterday I treated myself to an all day, sunrise to sunset shoot in the Rocky Mountains. I feel like I neglected the amazing scenery I live so close to again this summer, so I thought one last day in the mountains before it starts getting really cold was necessary.

I didn’t really have any set plans as to where I was going except for sunrise. I picked Quarry Lake in Canmore as my first location because it wouldn’t take me too long to get there and I’d never shot there before. I arrived well before sunrise and did a bit of scouting for locations. Once I found my spot it felt like ages until that amazing glow started to appear on the mountains – but it was worth it. I know I got some great stuff of the frozen lake and mountains – but one of the coolest shots I think I got was the one you see below. It was 100% a case of ‘F8 and Be There’. While my other body was capturing some long exposures, I had my second body in hand rattling off some single frames of the amazing colours. At one point I saw a bird out of the corner of my eye, so I wheeled, framed, and fired and managed to capture it’s silhouette against the fiery clouds. Not an epic landscape, but a frame I’m very pleased with nonetheless.

I’ll likely start showing some of the lake photos from the day I’m calling ’12 hours, 6 lakes, 3 cameras, 1 man’ (cheesy, I know ;)) next week. Stay tuned!

Equipment:
– Canon EOS 50D
– Canon 24-105mm f/4L

Black Sand

Heath OFee — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:10:32 +0000

While in Hawaii earlier this year, my wife and I drove the famous ‘Road to Hana’ – but didn’t stop and turn around upon reaching the town like most people do. We took our rental vehicle all the back around the east/south end of the island, which apparently is not recommended for rentals The road gets a bit bumpy and sketchy for a while, but it was well worth it as we found some great spots on the way back. Unfortunately I can’t remember off the top of my head if this black sand beach was before or after Hana, but I can tell you that I was absolutely amazed by it. I’d never seen a beach like this before and finding one was high on my list for our visit, so I couldn’t have been happier when we arrived here.

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

Lakeside

Heath OFee — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:10:00 +0000

While I was in Waterton National Park last week, I experienced two very different days. When I arrived on Tuesday morning, the entire area was socked in with low cloud and it looked as though it could rain at any moment. I was a little disappointed, but as it turned out those low clouds around the mountains made for some very dramatic images – like the one you see below of Upper Waterton Lake.

The next morning I awoke before sunrise to completely cloudless skies – quite the dramatic transformation in weather overnight. Next week I’ll share a couple images from the second day of my trip so you can see the difference.

Equipment:
– Canon EOS 5D Mark II
– Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L
– B+W 77mm Circular Polarizer

Ripples

Heath OFee — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:10:00 +0000

If any of you have used the B+W 10-stop ND filter, you’ll know that it’s actually not quite neutral in colour – it tends to have a bit of a warm cast. Most times I try to eliminate this cast in post-processing, but for some images – like the one below – it just works. The added warmth from the filter helped emphasize the tones in the sand and made those sunset colours really pop. So, when using a filter that may create a bit of a colour cast, make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons and not just because you ‘think you should’ – you may find yourself happy with the uncorrected frame.

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