Country – heath ofee dot com

Aging Barbs

Heath OFee — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:16:18 +0000

I was up late last night with the intention of processing a ton of images, but as it turned out I spent most of my time on the one you see below. I knew from the start that I wanted a bit of a rustic look to it, but I had no idea that I would start experimenting with textures for the first time! Since I’d never added texture to a shot before it was a bit of a learning experience for me in Photoshop. After a decent amount of playing around with a bunch of different textures, the opacity slider and a gradient I felt I was happy with how the texture added to the look of the photo. I also threw a yellowish layer on top to give the photo a bit more of an aged look which I felt suited the content.

It’s always nice to try something new when processing an image…gets the old brain working in different ways. As much as I love online tutorials for learning how to do things like this in Photoshop, I’ve always thought the real learning comes from trying a few things, screwing up, and then trying again (which I did plenty of last night). I’m happy with how my first textured shot came out, but I’m open to some constructive criticism as well…please let me know what you think!

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 11, ISO 100, 5 Exposures

Clouds and Bales

Heath OFee — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:14:32 +0000

Living on the prairies lends itself to some pretty good photography opportunities, and sometimes I think I take my proximity to wide open farmland for granted. If I hit the road and drive for 30 minutes south, east, or west of where I live I quickly find myself surrounded by soft rolling hills and patchwork farmland as far as the eye can see. I decided I’d try to capture some of this iconic Alberta landscape yesterday afternoon.

Hay bales are such a common sight along these country roads and I’ve always felt they make for great photographic subjects. I took a number of shots at the same location you’ll see below, but it wasn’t until I trespassed a bit more than I would have liked and got nice and close to this bale that I was really happy with the composition. Having one bale as a prominent foreground element was key.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 11, ISO 100, 5 Exposures

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!