Nik Color Efex Pro – heath ofee dot com

Empty Shadows

Heath OFee — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 13:40:39 +0000

This scene may be somewhat familiar to those of you who check this blog on a regular basis, as I posted a similar photo at the start of 2011. The company I work for recently moved into a new set of offices in a brand new building here in Calgary, and most of the floors are still unoccupied. So, this past weekend I took my second trip up the stairs to the 45th floor (5 from the top) to capture a few more shots of the (almost) completely empty space. I can’t get enough of the long shadows the floor to ceiling windows create on the concrete…it just makes me smile.

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

In Your Face

Heath OFee — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 14:57:39 +0000

Interesting foreground elements and leading lines can turn a ho-hum scene into something more compelling. Although there were a number of great individual elements in this abandoned warehouse to shoot, creating an interesting composition that included a large chunk of them required a bit of thinking. Nobody wants to look at a pile of discarded junk without any sort of focal point or direction, so finding that key element that leads the viewer through the frame is key.

When I saw this overturned table and rusted piping, I knew how I wanted to frame this shot. Getting close to the end of the pipe with my wide angle lens allowed me to make the opening of the pipe the focal point, and the distortion provided by this same lens really leads the eye through the frame.

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

Vanishing Point

Heath OFee — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 13:50:43 +0000

This is a spot at the Excellence Riviera Cancun that I knew I had to shoot as soon as I saw it the first day. We walked through this long outdoor corridor at least two or three times a day, commuting from our room to the restaurants, the beach, and the pool. During daytime hours, this corridor isn’t anything too special, but at night when the lights are on it’s much more compelling. This photo was taken before one of my sunrise trips to the beach, so I was able to capture it without any other pesky tourists in the shot.

Originally, this shot included much more of the tiled floor in the foreground, but I felt the composition worked a bit better with the extra tile cropped out. I threw a few of my favourite Phototools filters on the tonemapped image, and then used the Midnight filter in Nik Color Efex Pro selectively to darken a few areas. This is exactly how I remember this hallway looking that morning:

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 7.1, ISO 400, 5 Exposures

Rehab

Heath OFee — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:56:19 +0000

Hi, my name is Heath, and I’m a tilt/shift addict.

Canon EOS 50D, Canon TS-E 17mm f/4.0L, 17mm, F 4.0, ISO 100, 5 Exposures

Smoke Break?

Heath OFee — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 12:50:01 +0000

I’ve said this before, but one of the coolest things about this whole social networking thing is meeting so many other like-minded people who share the same passion for HDR photography that I do. Twitter has been a gold-mine for finding and connecting with these wonderful people, and I feel very lucky to be a part of the community as I’m able to draw daily inspiration from my tweeps.

I would never have thought to take this photo if I hadn’t connected with some great urbex photographers recently. Although I don’t think I can really classify this shot as urbex since this spot is far from abandoned, it definitely has a nice grungy, dirty feel. As soon as I saw this scene I immediately thought of the work of Brian Matiash, Bob Lussier and Jacques Gudé. The grungy barrels and brick, and especially that single old chair, reminded me of the great work all three of these photogs produce on a daily basis. So, this shot is my homage to them…thanks for the inspiration, fellas!

Oh, and as for the title of the post…while in the process of taking a set of closeup brackets of the chair and barrels, I was almost hit by that door being opened by two cooks coming out for a smoke break in the alley. I conceded the chair to them after my last exposure was done

Canon EOS 50D, Canon TS-E 17mm f/4.0L, 17mm, F 16, ISO 100, 5 Exposures