Shallow Depth of Field – heath ofee dot com

Gasoline Alley – The Pink One…Again

Heath OFee — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:10:19 +0000

I couldn’t resist posting another shot of the mystery pink car. Perhaps this view of the rear may help a few car aficionados out there identify this beaut. One of my favourite things about shooting these old cars – the high gloss polish and indoor lighting yields some awesome bokeh

Equipment:
– Canon EOS 5D Mark II
– Canon 50mm f/1.4
– BlackRapid RS-4 Camera Strap

Gasoline Alley – The Pink One

Heath OFee — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 13:10:47 +0000

Alright. I feel terrible about this one. I took a few shots of this amazing old pink car, and I have no idea what the make or model is. Complete failure. If anybody can tell from this abstract view what this car is, please feel free to let me know in the comments.

A Portrait of Lahaina

Heath OFee — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:10:25 +0000

If you haven’t been following the work of my bud Jesse Pafundi, you should definitely start now. He’s been posting some great little sets that really tell the story of a day or location – awesome stuff. With that said, this post of mine was 100% inspired by what Jesse has been doing.

Lahaina is a great little town on the western coast of Maui – we were told it is a must visit, and we weren’t disappointed. Not only does it have one of the coolest town parks I’ve ever seen in Banyan Tree Park, but the main streets have some great places for both shopping and eating. We spent a good portion of an afternoon just cruising the streets and I did what I could to capture a little piece of the town with my 50mm. Oh, and we had a meal at Cheeseburger in Paradise – hard to pass on a name like that.

Equipment:
– Canon EOS 5D Mark II
– Canon 50mm f/1.4
– Black¤Rapid RS-4 Camera Strap (this camera strap changed my life)

Meet Chris

Heath OFee — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:10:32 +0000

Since I started this blog almost a year ago, I’ve learned an awful lot about photography and I’ve applied quite a bit of this knowledge to help further my skillset as a photographer. Aside from this though, the most important thing that has happened since I started this blog has been the forging of new relationships. Through the magic of social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook, I’ve become good friends with a number of like-minded individuals – something that never would have happened just a few years ago. Although I haven’t had the chance to meet most of these people in the flesh, I did get the chance to meet two such people last month. Chris Lazzery and Chris Halford made the long journey from the northeastern US to the Canadian Rockies for a week of shooting, and I was lucky enough to join them for a weekend. While the shooting was amazing, the best times of the weekend were had sitting around the table in our rental condo chatting about our passion…and snapping photos of each other, of course So, everybody, meet Chris Halford (he likes red wine):

Droplets

Heath OFee — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 13:51:06 +0000

Just something quick and simple for a Saturday morning.

Lead the Way

Heath OFee — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 13:10:01 +0000

One of the stops I made on the way home from Golden, BC this past weekend was at Wapta Falls. From the parking area, it’s about a 3km hike to get to the very impressive falls, and on the way back to my car I decided to slap on the 50mm, set it to f/1.4 and see what I could come up with. I had a great time experimenting with how to make the shallow depth of field work in that environment, and I came away with a few shots that I’m happy with. It can be very rewarding to limit yourself to a single lens or focal length while on a shoot. It forces you to think a bit differently and get out of your comfort zone.

Untitled

Heath OFee — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 13:10:48 +0000

Today, a flower.

Red and White

Heath OFee — Wed, 18 May 2011 13:10:16 +0000

I had grand visions of writing a really profound blog post last night. Thoughts of growth as a photographer, going back to basics, and shooting simple compositions were floating around in my head, but for some reason I couldn’t get them to coalesce into a cohesive paragraph or two. So I’ll leave it at this: I’m constantly growing as a photographer, and I absolutely love this process. My style and tastes are constantly evolving and I’m extremely pleased with the direction in which I’m heading. In the (paraphrased) words of my friend Jesse Pafundi, this blog is an extension of who I am and what I feel at any given moment, and at the end of the day I’m doing all of this to better myself. Shoot what you love, shoot what makes you happy, shoot what makes you FEEL.

This is a photo. I took it with a camera.

Spring

Heath OFee — Tue, 17 May 2011 13:10:49 +0000

It’s slowly looking more and more like spring here in Calgary; the grass is starting to green up, and buds are beginning to appear on the trees. After such a long, cold, and snowy winter, it’s extremely relieving to see the weather finally starting to change. In the spirit of spring, I’ve decided to post a floral macro today. This was shot with my X100 in ‘macro mode’ which effectively decreases the minimum focus distance to enable close up shots. While it’s definitely not as impressive as a specialized macro lens, it’s not too bad for a small handheld.

Fujifilm Finepix X100, Fujinon 23mm f/2.0, 23mm, F 2.0, ISO 400, 1/210 sec

Linked Up

Heath OFee — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 14:25:40 +0000

So…I bought a new toy. A Fujifilm X100

I placed my preorder with my local camera store a few months ago, and due to the tragic earthquake and tsunami in Japan, my camera didn’t arrive here in Calgary until yesterday afternoon (about a month after it was expected). Thankfully, none of the workers in the Fujifilm factory that was affected by the tsunami were hurt or killed.

I brought up the idea of purchasing this camera with a handful of my twitter pals…and for the most part, they were skeptical of how much use I’d get out of a pricey compact with a fixed 35mm lens. I completely understood their concern, but I really had my heart set on this camera. I’ve always wanted something small that I can carry around with me everywhere without the need to lug around a bag full of gear, and the X100 seemed to fit the bill perfectly (plus, it looks fantastic!). I guess time will tell how much use I end up getting out of it.

I’ve been nursing a serious head cold for the past few days, and yesterday was probably the worst day so far…as a result, I didn’t spend too much time outside testing my new toy. I did get a few shots from the 10 minute walk around my neighbourhood…the first of which is below.

Fujifilm Finepix X100, Fujinon 23mm f/2.0, 23mm, F 2.0, ISO 200, 1/240 sec

As always, I used onOne PhotoTools (part of the onOne Perfect Photo Suite) to process this photo. If you’ve never used this amazing Photoshop plugin, I’d highly recommend it…almost every shot that hits this blog is touched by at least one onOne Software product. If you’re in the market for something like this, make sure you check out the ridiculous sale they’re having right now. The entire Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 is on sale for $349.95 from May 1 through May 15…that’s a savings of $150! You can’t go wrong.