Grass – heath ofee dot com

The Dry Side

Heath OFee — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:10:36 +0000

One of the most amazing things about Maui is the extremely diverse ecosystem. On one tiny island you can find rainforest full of ridiculous waterfalls, rugged coastline with aggressive surf, dry, arid hillsides with scrubby brush, and gorgeous white sand beaches. And all of this can be seen during a days worth of driving. Crazy.

Today’s shot is from the drier, west side of the island just south of Lahaina.

Watch Your Step

Heath OFee — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:10:05 +0000

The light on these stairs was irresistible.

The Path

Heath OFee — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:10:14 +0000

Well, I wasn’t expecting to post this image today. I was planning on making a few minor changes to this shot before posting, but a late night at the Calgary Flames game kept me from processing and uploading something else or making the edits to this shot. So, I hope you enjoy this shot as it is

I had a great time playing with textures and experimenting with onOne Software’s Mask Pro 4.1 when processing this shot. Mask Pro is an absolute joy to use when creating complex masks. Just choose which colours you want to keep and which ones you want to drop, and the magic brush does all the work for you. I was able to create the ridiculously complex mask around all those tree branches in a matter of minutes (you can see the mask here). Absolutely amazing.

Canon Rebel XTi, Tamron 28-80mm, 46mm, F 7.1, ISO 200, 1/100 sec

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

Dexter! (the puppy, not the TV show)

Heath OFee — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 21:07:03 +0000

Apparently a lot of people have been asking Brei to see some new photos of Dexter, and truthfully it’s probably about time I did a mini-shoot for him! He turned 1 in April and I haven’t really taken any photos of him since we got him last summer. Last week I rented the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 for the 4 shoots I had (those photos to come soon) and decided to snap a few shots of the pup while we were over at my parents place for a barbeque on Saturday. I absolutely love the subject isolation this lens affords with the wide aperture, and the bokeh quality is pretty nice too (after renting this lens for only a week, I can already see myself getting addicted to fast primes…pocketbook beware!). All of the photos in the slideshow below were shot at F 1.8 and I think they turned out awesome!

Storm Over New Brighton

Heath OFee — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:39:30 +0000

Recently we’ve been getting some pretty dramatic looking clouds and storms over Calgary, but because I have to get up ridiculously early for work I haven’t been staying up late enough to catch these storms during sunset. Inspired by Mike Olbinski, who has some amazing storm photos, I decided it was worth the loss of sleep and ventured out last Thursday night to get me some brackets!

I live in a relatively new suburb so there is still plenty of open space and construction going on and I knew just where I could find a good vantage point to see this storm…it was just luck that there was some tall wavy grass growing on the hill that happened to make for a perfect foreground. I thought about masking in one of the originals to keep the grass looking a bit more stationary, but I kinda like the flowing feel that the windswept grass gives. Hope you enjoy!

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

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

Engagement Photos!

Heath OFee — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 14:01:38 +0000

A couple weekends ago Brei and I had our engagement photos shot by my good buddy Tye Carson. On his suggestion we hit up the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary for the shoot, which turned out to be an absolutely awesome location! We had a ton of fun doing the shoot and we couldn’t be happier with how the photos turned out…thanks Tye, you rock!

Device to Root Out Evil – Dennis Oppenheim

Heath OFee — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:18:30 +0000

I took the day off work yesterday and went for a decent photowalk downtown early in the morning. I got a few really cool shots of the new Palliser South building which I’ll share next week, but today I want to show you all an awesome outdoor art installation in Ramsey. This piece is called “Device to Root Out Evil” by Dennis Oppenheim. Until a couple of years ago the piece was in Vancouver, but it was brought out to Calgary by the Glenbow Museum and placed in a small grassy area in Ramsey (just off Spiller Road on 24th Ave). The clouds were just awesome when I showed up there yesterday morning so I had a ton of fun shooting this amazing piece of art. I hope you like the finished product below…I’ll probably share a couple more shots in the future.

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

The details: 3 exposure HDR tonemapped in Photomatix, Lightroom for contrast and clarity, Noiseware for noise reduction.

Oh, I have to throw out a hat tip to Chelsey over at Wishing Star Photography who brought this cool piece of art to my attention. Thanks Chelsey!

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.