Old – heath ofee dot com

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!

Salton Sea – Cafe

Heath OFee — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 13:20:56 +0000

Well, I think this series is finally coming to a close. I should be able to squeak out one more image for tomorrow to finish things up on a Friday, but from here on out you probably won’t see any more from the Salton Sea area processed in the same fashion as what you’ve seen this week. I have quite a few sets of brackets from the area that I want to process as HDR and stylize a bit differently than this series.

One thing I learned during my trip to this area is that you never know what location will provide you with amazing photographic opportunities. I spent a good amount of time looking through photos of the Salton Sea on Flickr before I left, and the one place I was most excited about visiting was Bombay Beach. While I did get some great shots there, I found quite a few other unexpected locations that yielded some pretty amazing photographs. So make sure you don’t have blinders on when visiting a new location. Keep your eyes open because you never know what hidden gems can be found if you just take your time.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 20mm, F 11, ISO 100, 1/125 sec

Panoramic

Heath OFee — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 13:52:38 +0000

Okay, so this image isn’t a true panorama, it’s just cropped that way…sorry to get your hopes up. The image title actually comes from one of the songs on the Book of Eli soundtrack which I was listening to while editing this shot. It’s an epic soundtrack and I find myself listening to it at least a couple times a week while editing photos. Oh, and make sure you check out Mike Olbinski’s movie title Wednesday photo from this week inspired by the very same movie.

So, after seeing all the hullabaloo on Twitter today about the release of Nik Silver Efex Pro 2, I decided I should probably give it the old college try. I downloaded the 15-day trial last night, and produced the image you see below. I was very happy with how the software worked and I can definitely see myself shelling out some cash once my trial version has expired.

Canon EOS 50D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L, 24mm, F 11, ISO 100, 300 sec

Nasty and Delicious

Heath OFee — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 14:12:11 +0000

Today, I thought I’d take you all back to the Salton Sea for some delicious urbex. This is a shot from Bombay Beach which is quite possibly the creepiest little town I’ve ever been through. It’s set up in a small grid pattern and probably measures 10 streets by 10 streets. There are still some people living there, but most of the houses and garages have either fallen completely apart or are in the process of slowly decaying. I really wanted to explore all of the amazing urbexy goodness, but to be honest, I was scared of being chased off by some crazy person with a shotgun. Probably an unnecessary fear…but you never know

Just over the hill from the main town, there’s an old beach with some completely burned/salted over homes and trailers. What was once a nice little beach is now completely abandoned and littered with dead fish. It’s a bit sad, but makes for some very interesting images.

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

Pillar of Light

Heath OFee — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:08:10 +0000

This shot is from my first stop along the Salton Sea last month. I turned off the highway onto an old dilapidated road that led to the sea with no idea what was awaiting me. This was the most accessible building, so I beelined towards it as soon as I parked to fire off my first few sets of brackets. I’m not sure if you can tell from this shot, but there was an unbelievable amount of bird crap in this place…I definitely felt sorry for my tripod legs

Initially, I wasn’t sure if this was going to turn out. The lack of a physical focal point was a concern, but when taking the photo I was hoping the two large sources of light would be enough. I feel the hard pillar of light coming from the doorway behind and to my left provided a great source of depth and contrast and helped lead the eye through the frame to the view of the Salton sea beyond. I think this image shows that even if a physical focal point isn’t present, a great source of light can function in a similar way.

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

Salton Sea – RV Park

Heath OFee — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 17:47:52 +0000

I think this will be the last image in the first portion of this barren Salton Sea series. I think I have some more to add, but I have an itch to get back to processing some HDR’s. Hope you’ve enjoyed the series so far!

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 11, ISO 100, 1/200 sec

Stairway to…

Heath OFee — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 14:25:28 +0000

After finally finishing the last of my Lightroom data transfer to my iMac last night, I decided to sift through some of my old brackets from early this year to see if there was anything I missed or wanted to reprocess. As it turns out, there are probably a whole lot of images that could use some TLC! My HDR processing skills have increased quite a bit since earlier this year, and it was a bit painful looking at some of the images I had created.

This particular shot was a bit of a white balance nightmare. The natural light coming from the doorway behind the camera and the window at the top of the frame was at odds with the warm incandescent light coming from the light fixtures. I was able to deal with this by masking two copies of the same image together with different white balance values. Now that I know how to fix this problem, I will probably process some more shots from this cool old apartment building in Calgary!

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

Shall We Bake?

Heath OFee — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 13:06:15 +0000

Well, I think this is the first image that I’ve really noticed a difference between what it looked like on my monitor at home when editing and other monitors. The image I worked on had much more warmth and vibrance than what you’re probably seeing below…I guess it’s really time to invest in a monitor calibration device.

This is another shot from the abandoned baseball diamond in Seebe. You may recognize the bowl sitting on top of this old oven from a previous image. Cake, anyone?

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

Peoples Lunch

Heath OFee — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 17:09:07 +0000

It’s fun to explore the more hidden and off-the-beaten path places in the city in which you live. Although I’ve lived in Calgary for basically all my life, I had never really explored the back alleys of our downtown core until very recently. The front facades of all these buildings have been meticulously redone to add curb appeal, but the alleys behind these old buildings look the same as they did years and years ago. It’s a great way to catch a small glimpse of the past.

A lot of the old buildings in this alley still had stenciled lettering and logos from businesses that have long since gone under, and it was fun to see and capture them. Below is a view looking up above an old doorway that once invited passers by to a ‘Peoples Lunch’…hope you enjoy!

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 14mm, F 16, ISO 100, 5 Exposures

Fire Alarm Redux

Heath OFee — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 12:53:45 +0000

I posted a different shot of this same fire alarm a few weeks ago (you can find it here), and I thought I’d show it from a more conventional angle today. I don’t know what it is about this fire alarm, but I can’t seem to get enough of it! The texture of the old red brick combined with the cracked face and worn letters on the alarm itself make this image a perfect candidate for an HDR treatment to help define all that wonderful age. I’m finding myself looking for scenes with texture and grit more and more often, and although I haven’t really had the chance to photograph many of them, there are a few locations on my list. Now that life seems to have calmed down a bit, I should be able to get out and shoot some of these great spots.

Canon EOS 50D, Canon EF 50mm f/1.4, 50mm, F 2.0, ISO 100, 3 Exposures