Wood – heath ofee dot com

Tea for Two

Heath OFee — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 13:10:43 +0000

In addition to the 15mm fisheye I rented for the trip, I also opted to try out the Canon 24mm tilt shift. I’m hoping to use the shift functionality to build some panoramas of what I can only imagine are the amazing views to be had in Hawaii. As with the fisheye, I had to do a bit of experimentation before I left.

I’ve never really done any still life photography before, but I got home with these lenses and saw that this little tea set had placed itself just outside my office. I’d never seen it before, which is a little strange, but I was intrigued enough by it to take it out to my back steps for a few shots.

As it turns out, my wife’s grandmother had given this tea set to her in the hopes that I’d be able to photograph it. It belonged to my wife’s great-grandmother, and when her house burned down years and years ago, this was the only thing that was salvaged. Glad I could be a part of this bit of nostalgia, and I hope I’ve done this little gem justice.

Watch Your Step

Heath OFee — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:10:05 +0000

The light on these stairs was irresistible.

Mistakes…

Heath OFee — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:33:02 +0000

We all make ’em, right? Whether it be in our personal lives, at work or while doing something we love, mistakes are an unfortunate but necessary part of life. So, since these mistakes are inevitably going to happen, the best thing to do is try our best to learn from them and try not to make the same mistake again. Why am I talking about mistakes today? Well, recently I was given the opportunity to shoot the interior of St. Paul’s Anglican Church (you can find some photos of the exterior here and here). When I got home and dumped my images into Lightroom, I was disappointed to see that for a number of series of brackets I neglected to shoot a frame that was suitably exposed for the stained glass windows on the east side of the church. When shooting my brackets I always check my histogram to make sure I’ve covered the whole spectrum of light, but on this occasion I didn’t think to double check the images themselves to make sure the windows were okay. Thankfully, there is a ton of information stored in those magical RAW files and I was able to retrieve enough light information to make the windows passable in a few images…this is the case in the photo you see below. Moral of the story? Check your histogram AND the images themselves…or get yourself a darn Promote Control and bracket from -4 to +4 ALL THE TIME

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 11, ISO 100, 5 Exposures

An Engagement in Las Vegas

Heath OFee — Thu, 06 May 2010 19:46:04 +0000

It’s official, I’m engaged!! Brei and I took a trip to Las Vegas for the first five days in May and I popped the question while we were down there. I had a hard time finding the right spot to do it (there aren’t many places where two people can be alone in Las Vegas!) but we got an opportunity to have Fiamma (an Italian restaurant in MGM Grand) all to ourselves so I jumped at the chance and asked for Brei’s hand in marriage there.

The ambiance and decor in Fiamma is absolutely amazing and made for a wonderful place to propose. To make sure Brei would be surprised, I got her into the restaurant under the guise of me getting the chance to photograph the place. I won’t tell the whole story here, but I will show you the spot in which I proposed:

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 6.3, ISO 100, 3 Exposures

The details: 3 exposure HDR tonemapped in Photomatix with a few tweaks in Lightroom.

I’d like to give a special thanks to Jeffery Metcalf (the assistant manager of Fiamma) who granted me access to the restaurant after hours.