Spring – heath ofee dot com

viola family

Heath OFee — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 15:45:31 +0000

These little dudes were all about the moustaches. Loved it.

New Growth

Heath OFee — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:10:19 +0000

This is a shot from my trip to the Kootenays earlier this year. I think I mentioned the huge forest fire that took out an enormous portion of this forest in a previous post. You can see more of that devastation in this shot, but you also get a peek at the new growth that will form the base of the new forest that will continue to grow in years to come.

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

Chateau Lake Louise Sitting Room with a View

Heath OFee — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 12:54:07 +0000

This was one of the last places I visited during my last trip to the Chateau Lake Louise and I’m very happy that I did. I was pretty sure this would make a decent HDR photo because of the very dramatic difference in light levels between the view through the window and the ambient light in the hotel. I just processed this one last night and I’m quite happy with the results…when I look at this photo I feel like I’m back at the Chateau looking at that beautiful view! Let me know what you think:

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 8.0, ISO 100, 5 Exposures

The details: 5 exposure HDR tonemapped in Photomatix, layer masking in Photoshop, contrast, clarity, sharpening in Lightroom, noise reduction in Noiseware.

A Frozen Lake Louise

Heath OFee — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:13:25 +0000

I haven’t done this since I started posting one photo per week, but since I didn’t get out to do any shooting since my trip to the mountains last Monday, I’m going to post another photo from that trip. This is my first attempt at a black and white HDR image…the colors were kinda dull but there was plenty of contrast to play with so I thought a B&W conversion might be nice. I probably could have done without the HDR treatment on this image, but it helped pull out some of the detail in the partial reflection of the mountains. I’ll definitely be heading back to Lake Louise this summer to get a similar shot to present in full color with a full reflection in the lake…at least that’s my goal

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

The details: 3 exposure HDR tonemapped in Photomatix, black and white conversion, curves, and saturation adjustments in Lightroom, masked in original sky in Photoshop, noise reduction using Noiseware.

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.

Grain Elevator in Brant, Alberta

Heath OFee — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:07:33 +0000

This past Saturday, Brei and I took a quick road trip about an hour south of Calgary to the extremely small town of Brant, Alberta so that I could take some photos. You might be wondering why on earth I would choose to travel to this tiny town…according to www.ghosttowns.com, Brant is home to a large number of abandoned old buildings and I thought it would be cool to check them out. However, upon arriving in Brant, we found it to be mostly occupied. There are probably about 100 people still living there but it was far from abandoned and there didn’t appear to be a large amount of abandoned buildings as the ghost towns website advertised. So…I made the most of what was there. The most prominent structure was the old grain elevator situated right along the train tracks so I snapped a few shots of the elevator and the few train cars that were lying around. Below is the first photo I’ve processed. It’s a pretty simple image…big ‘ol grain elevator with a sunburst along one edge…but I like it. Sometimes simplicity is nice.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 14mm, F 20, ISO 100, 3 Exposures

The details: 3 exposure HDR (-2,0,+2) tonemapped in Photomatix, color correction, contrast, clarity, sharpening in Lightroom, original sky masked in using Photoshop, noise reduction using Noiseware. Let me know what you think!