Interior – heath ofee dot com

The Loneliest Number

Heath OFee — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 17:01:50 +0000

This was the last set of brackets I shot on my brief solo downtown photowalk yesterday afternoon, and am I glad I did! I think this is going to end up being one of my favorites of the day.

For me, this shot is a lesson in persistence. About half an hour before I took these brackets, I was accosted by a security guard for taking photos of the exterior of the building I work in. I wasn’t too impressed with the encounter, and it left a very bitter taste in my mouth. I really just wanted to walk back to my car and head home, but I convinced myself that there were more brackets to be had, and at the start of the day I knew I wanted to hit a parkade to see what I could come up with. So, I sucked it up and kept shooting, and I’m really glad I did.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 16mm, F 8.0, ISO 100, 3 Exposures

Wooden Faith

Heath OFee — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 16:31:31 +0000

This tiny church has made a number of appearances on my blog…well, 3 in addition to this one, to be exact, and I think this will be the last in the series. I had a ton of fun shooting the exterior of the church with those amazing clouds, and I feel very lucky to have been given the opportunity to photograph the interior as well. To close out the series, I’m giving you a view from the entrance straight down the aisle to the altar. Tiny church, right? Despite it’s small size, it’s still pretty impressive when walking in. The wood panels are a very deep, rich red/brown and the stained glass windows really are as vibrant as they look in the photo. Enjoy!

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

Mistakes…

Heath OFee — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:33:02 +0000

We all make ’em, right? Whether it be in our personal lives, at work or while doing something we love, mistakes are an unfortunate but necessary part of life. So, since these mistakes are inevitably going to happen, the best thing to do is try our best to learn from them and try not to make the same mistake again. Why am I talking about mistakes today? Well, recently I was given the opportunity to shoot the interior of St. Paul’s Anglican Church (you can find some photos of the exterior here and here). When I got home and dumped my images into Lightroom, I was disappointed to see that for a number of series of brackets I neglected to shoot a frame that was suitably exposed for the stained glass windows on the east side of the church. When shooting my brackets I always check my histogram to make sure I’ve covered the whole spectrum of light, but on this occasion I didn’t think to double check the images themselves to make sure the windows were okay. Thankfully, there is a ton of information stored in those magical RAW files and I was able to retrieve enough light information to make the windows passable in a few images…this is the case in the photo you see below. Moral of the story? Check your histogram AND the images themselves…or get yourself a darn Promote Control and bracket from -4 to +4 ALL THE TIME

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

Conference Lounge – MGM Grand

Heath OFee — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 21:48:38 +0000

I was in Las Vegas for the very first time in May and we stayed at the MGM Grand. Not only was this my first time in Vegas, but it was also my first trip anywhere since I started shooting HDR in January of this year. Needless to say I was extremely excited about all the amazing photo opportunities I knew I would have, but I was also a bit nervous (and self-conscious) about carrying my camera/tripod setup with me everywhere since I’d never done that in such a public place before. I hope I’m not the only one who felt this way the first time they walked through a busy hotel or down a busy street with camera on tripod, legs extended just looking for a cool shot! After the first day of exploring and shooting I was feeling much better about things and was almost feeling confident…until the first time I got kicked out by security. Well maybe not kicked out altogether, but I was definitely told my tripod was not welcome…so I asked if I could shoot handheld…of course that was forbidden as well. Crap. Back to feeling like I’m some weirdo with a tripod.

To be fair, this was only one of two times I was told I couldn’t use my tripod in any of the hotels in Vegas, and the vast majority were more than welcome to accommodate me. But it’s those few bad experiences that stick with you. So…if any of you have some good tricks for getting in under the radar or how to approach security about permission to shoot I’m all ears!

One very early morning (4 AM) while staying at the MGM Grand, I went downstairs and explored as much of the hotel as I could before it got too busy. Eventually I made my way down a long corridor past the pool and ended up in the conference center which is absolutely enormous! We definitely don’t have hotels with conference centers like that here in Calgary. After snapping a few brackets in the main lobby area I made my way upstairs to where they have some of the smaller conference rooms…and stumbled into this really cool lounge type area. Anyway, enough rambling. Here’s the shot:

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 8.0, ISO 100, 3 Exposures