Lobby – heath ofee dot com

Checkmate?

Heath OFee — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 13:14:00 +0000

I didn’t do this on purpose, but it seems as though I’ve completely bookended my trip with the first two photos I’m posting. Yesterday’s image was the first frame I took on the beach, and today’s HDR is the third to last set of brackets I shot before leaving Mexico.

This chess set is in the lobby of the Excellence Riviera Cancun where we spent our honeymoon. As soon as I walked in on the first day and saw these large table boards with the huge carved wooden playing pieces, I knew I had to get a shot of them before I left. I also knew I would be throwing on my 50mm to get some super shallow depth of field and some nice bokeh on some of those playing pieces. I don’t usually choose to go with an angled frame, but I thought it would work nicely here, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Canon EOS 50D, Canon EF 50mm f/1.4, 50mm, F 1.4, ISO 100, 3 Handheld Exposures

Bellagio Ceiling – Chihuly

Heath OFee — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:07:38 +0000

This photo is 100% inspired by Trey Ratcliff over at Stuck in Customs. After seeing the images he was able to capture in Las Vegas, I made a point to try and find a few of the locations and see what I could come up with.

The picture below is a set of 3 handheld brackets of the amazing ceiling installation in the lobby of the Bellagio. All the glass sculpture is done by Dale Chihuly and you can find a few more of his masterpieces around Las Vegas…they really are quite stunning.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 3.5, ISO 200, 3 Exposures

MGM Grand Elevator Lobby

Heath OFee — Mon, 17 May 2010 12:37:03 +0000

I’m pretty excited about some of my Vegas photos and I’ve been having a great time going through and processing them all. If any of you have stayed at the MGM Grand before I’m sure you’ve walked past this fountain area a number of times on the way back to your room after a long day of drinking on the strip. I woke up very early in the morning to get this shot before anybody else was around (well, there are always a few people around in Vegas no matter what the hour) and it was well worth it; this is probably my favorite photo from our trip. Enjoy:

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

The details: 3 exposure HDR tonemapped in Photomatix, Photoshop for some masking, Lightroom for catalog, color correction, sharpening, and Noiseware to finish it off.

Chateau Lake Louise

Heath OFee — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:55:23 +0000

I took yesterday and today off work and made a trip out to the mountains to nab some photos. I was really hoping that the mountain lakes would be thawed by now so that I could do some experimenting with mountain reflections in water…but that turned out to be wishful thinking as the lakes in Banff National Park are still almost completely frozen. My first stop was Lake Louise and after seeing the lake still frozen I decided to head into the Chateau for some interior photos. It had been a long time since I was last in the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise and it didn’t disappoint. Although it seemed a little smaller than I remember, the lobby and great room leading into the Lakeview Lounge are very impressive. Below is a shot looking from the lobby towards the Lakeview Lounge.

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

The details: 3 exposure HDR (-2,0,+2) tonemapped in Photomatix, adjustments in Lightroom and Photoshop, noise reduction using Noiseware.

After my time at Lake Louise I hit Johnston Canyon on the way back to Calgary and made the hike all the way to the upper falls despite the semi-treacherous trail (still covered with ice in some sections). I’ve gone through a couple of those photos and it looks as though I’ve got some keepers. I’ll be sharing those sometime in the future.

Anderson Apartments

Heath OFee — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:13:32 +0000

It’s been about a week and a half since my last photo post/upload and I’m feeling like a bit of a slacker. Last weekend I had the brainwave to take some shots of my car in the parkade of my downtown work building, but after what was a somewhat lackluster car wash it appears as though those photos are going to need some significant TLC in post-production before they see the light of day. I did however, visit a colleagues apartment last Friday night after the annual company bonspiel (curling tournament). Despite the significant amount of booze in my system I seemed to remember that the building was almost 100 years old and had plenty of character, so on Monday I made sure to ask my colleague if I could make another visit to his apartment building to take some photos of the amazing foyer. I made the trip back to the Anderson Apartments just off of 17th Ave SW on St. Patrick’s Day and took photos to my heart’s content. Apparently my memory hadn’t failed me because when I walked into the building I was just as impressed as I was the week before. Imported Italian marble covers the foyer and the stairs leading up to it and there is an unbelievable brass cage elevator that is still in working order (we took an impressively smooth ride up to the top floor). Below is one of my favorites from the visit.

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

This is a 3 exposure HDR (-2,0,+2) tonemapped in Photomatix with some final tweaks in Lightroom. The white balance is a little off because of the two different light sources…incandescent bulbs in the lobby and natural sunlight streaming in through the stairway window, but I kind of like the contrast between the yellow and orange in the lobby and the slight blue cast coming from the stairs. I’m really glad that I was able to stumble across this historic Calgary building. If I didn’t know someone who lived there I would never have found it…thanks Raj! As always, comments and critiques are more than welcome.

Jamieson Place – Downtown Calgary

Heath OFee — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:37:50 +0000

This weekend I’ve been on call for work which means I have to come into the office for a few hours each day. Since I was already going to be downtown I figured I might as well pack along my camera gear and go out for a morning photowalk each day to practice my HDR photography. Yesterday I got out for just over an hour before I had to head back to the office to finish up, but managed to walk from my office (the Suncor Energy Centre) to Prince’s Island Park and back taking photos all along the way. My travels took me past the new Jamieson Place building which is still under construction. The hanging sculptures just outside the entrance and in the lobby are pretty amazing so I stopped to take a few shots. I processed a few of the images from my walk last night and this one of Jamieson Place was one of my favorites.

This is a 3 shot HDR (-2, 0, +2) processed in Photomatix with some small adjustments in Lightroom.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 13mm, F 11, ISO 100, 3 Exposures

Let me know what you think of the processing…it might be a bit heavy but I think I like the effect. Also, this photo has a bit too much noise for my liking but the noise reduction algorithms in Lightroom don’t seem to be very powerful. Does anyone know if Photoshop is better for this?? Or should I just suck it up and get myself a copy of NoiseWare??