HDR – heath ofee dot com

Toggles and Dials and Switches, Oh My!

Heath OFee — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 13:10:41 +0000

This is a view of the dash on a flight simulator they have at the Aero Space Museum of Calgary. I’m sure this isn’t nearly as complex as what pilots look at on commercial jets, but there’s still an awful lot to pay attention to! I think on most days they allow guests to hop in and give it a go…maybe on my next visit I’ll give it a try.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 14mm, F 8.0, ISO 100

RCAF 273

Heath OFee — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 13:10:24 +0000

We as photographers always hope for ideal conditions when we head out for a shoot, but unfortunately, things don’t always work out as planned. When conditions don’t pan out exactly as planned, it’s important to keep shooting and make the best of what you’re dealt…you never know what kind of inspiration you’ll be able to find.

I found myself in this situation last week when I made a visit to the Aero Space Museum of Calgary. I arrived and paid my $10 to get in, only to find the Calgary Airport Authority setting up a stage, speakers and hundreds of chairs in preparation for their annual general meeting the following day. As a result, some of the planes were re-positioned (closer together of course) to make room for the stage and chairs. Conditions were most definitely not ideal for shooting, but I made the best of it and found as many interesting shots as I could given the conditions. With any luck I’ll have another couple to share from my short visit.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 8.0, ISO 100

North American Harvard Mk. IV

Heath OFee — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 14:30:02 +0000

Today I thought I’d show another one of the handful of shots I was able to get at the Aero Space Museum of Calgary. This is a North American Harvard Mk. IV. It is considered one of the best pilot training aircraft ever built, and the original version first flew in 1935. I’m no expert on aircraft, nor am I a history buff…but I can definitely appreciate the craftsmanship and skill it must have taken to conceive and build these planes. I still consider it a miracle that we’re able to fly hundreds of miles across oceans in these giant metal contraptions…absolutely mind boggling.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 8.0, ISO 100

Who Knew?

Heath OFee — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:10:06 +0000

Yesterday afternoon I took a trip to the Aero Space Museum of Calgary. It’s not a huge museum and there aren’t a whole lot of planes, but there are definitely some cool shots to be had. Unfortunately, while I was there, the Calgary Airport Authority was setting up chairs and a stage for their annual general meeting that will be taking place today. This meant that I wasn’t able to get my camera into a large majority of the spaces I would have liked in order to get all the shots I wanted. You win some, you lose some I guess…this just means I have an excuse to go back another time to shoot the place properly.

The upper level of the museum is filled with old engines which were pretty neat, but the most interesting thing up there (for me at least) was this old gun turret. It had a little bubble where the gunners head would stick out of the plane and a double barrelled machine gun sticking out the front…pretty badass. I could have snapped a few brackets of the outside of this thing, but as cool as it was, it was a bit boring to look at. So I maneuvered myself as best I could to get this shot of the turret control panel. Who knew General Electric made machine guns?

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 20mm, F 8.0, ISO 100

Goodyear

Heath OFee — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 13:10:07 +0000

As I become more familiar with the post-processing tools at my disposal, I find myself leaning towards a group of the same effects on a regular basis. I’ve come to know what these tools will do for my images, I enjoy the results, and I feel using similar post-processing techniques on most of my images helps me to develop a unique ‘style’. That being said, I don’t want to get into a rut where I just stick to what I know and don’t explore all of the other great options that are out there.

While the myriad of processing options may seem daunting sometimes, it is important to continue to experiment in order to further our growth as photographers/post-processors. Even if it means trying something new and NOT liking it, at least you can say you gave it a shot. What is there to lose? Storage is cheap, so experiment as much as possible!

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

The Fan

Heath OFee — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 13:10:01 +0000

Back to a bit of urbex today. After processing my shot for Game 11 of HDR Tennis over on Facebook, I got a serious hankering to process some more gritty urbex. So, I trolled my images from California and found this shot of a fan in a small room in the abandoned diner I found. There wasn’t much room to get in close to it, so I decided on a wide framing that included a large portion of the door as a foreground element. I used FocalPoint in post processing to add the blur which helps draw your eye to the fan.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 12mm, F 11, ISO 100

Infinity

Heath OFee — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:10:49 +0000

Ah, to be back in Palm Springs basking in the sun while sipping a cold one. Soon enough…

This is the second shot I’ve posted from this amazing house I had the pleasure of visiting one afternoon while in Palm Springs. Not much to say here. Beautiful day, beautiful pool…it was hard to screw this one up

Oh, one note: I downloaded a trial of Unified Color’s HDR Express last night and used it to process this image. I was very impressed with how real the tonemapped result was and the edit you see here is not far off from the raw output. I’ll be using the trial for the next 30 days and I’ll try to keep you all updated on what I think of it.

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

Primary Colours

Heath OFee — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:10:06 +0000

Okay, I know that red, yellow, and blue aren’t the traditional set of primary colours…but this is the title I first thought of when looking at this image. I like that among all the boring grey, white and black of the parkade, these vibrant colours exist as a nice contrast.

I’m not sure about anybody else, but I’ve been in a serious winter weather shooting funk. The boring overcast skies and constant snow has really put a damper on my motivation, and I’m finding it difficult to find any inspiration to go out when my city looks so disgusting. With any luck, April will bring some nicer weather and I’ll be out and about shortly, but in the meantime, you’ll have to put up with shots from my archive. Here’s hoping for spring!

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 11mm, F 8.0, ISO 100

Hose, Anyone?

Heath OFee — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:15:56 +0000

I’ve been sitting on a few images of these fire hoses from the abandoned fire station south of Indio, CA for a couple of months now. When shooting, I was pretty happy with what I captured, but when I got back home and dumped the images onto my computer, I was less impressed. Last night I decided to take a crack at one of the bracket sets to see if I could come away with something I’m happy with…and what you see below is the result.

Sometimes persistence is your best friend

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

I Want My MTV

Heath OFee — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 14:57:25 +0000

I don’t know about you guys, but for some reason I’ve always wanted to smash an old CRT television. I just looks like so much fun when they do it on TV! I didn’t get the chance to live that dream with this old RCA that I found in an abandoned diner, but someone did…and I bet they had a blast doing it.

As for the title of this post…I grew up listening to Dire Straits because my dad was a huge fan. I can remember many a road trip rocking out to those guys, and I specifically remember the long introduction to ‘Money For Nothing’ was one of my favourite parts of any of their songs. And what a riff once it got started!