I’ve had the good fortune to get to know Heath more and more through the advent of Twitter, email, and Skype video chats. New-era pen pals of sorts, I’ve watched Heath’s work climb in quality and complexity rather drastically. It’s always a fantastic thing to see other photographers’ evolutions with their sense of style, framing, composition, and processing creativity.

Heath attacked HDR and UrbEx photgraphy with tenacity and keeps showing his depth to refine and grow. There have been a great number of times when I’ve just sat back and soaked in the work that he shares. Heath is also a stand-up guy, to boot. He has a solid head on his shoulders and a well-placed sense of humor.

I am really happy to have Heath spur up the Alt Perspective series again and I’m sure you will enjoy his words and images as much as I have.

You can follow Heath on Twitter, Facebook, and his Blog.

Experiment – Heath O’Fee

Seriously.  I’m still a little overwhelmed by the fact that I’m writing a guest post that’s to appear on Brian’s blog.  Brian has been a guy who I’ve looked up to and been inspired by since I first laid eyes on his work part way through 2010.  I credit a good portion of my growth as a photographer to his support and encouragement.

So, first things first.  I suppose a quick introduction is in order.  I’m a born and raised Canadian hailing from Calgary, Alberta, and with the exception of two years in Australia when I was very young, I’ve spent my entire life in Calgary.  Immediately following high school I attended the University of Calgary, where I jumped through a few faculties on my five year quest the culminated with a degree in Economics.  Today, my job in the oil and gas industry pays the bills, but my loving wife and passion for photography are what really keep me going.

So, how exactly did I get into photography?  Well, some of my first memories that involve a camera are those of my dad taking what seemed like FOREVER to get the settings on his Canon FT-b just right for our family photos.  He was always fiddling with these crazy dials on the camera body, winding film into place, and turning the edges of the giant piece of glass that protruded from the device.  Nobody knew what the heck he was doing.  All my mother, sister and I knew was that taking family photos on Christmas day was a task not easily accomplished!

Turns out, my dad was a bit of a hobby photographer when he was younger, and knows his way around a camera pretty well.  Some of his passion for the craft must have rubbed off on me, because in the spring of 2006, I asked him if I could borrow the exact camera that he used to use for our family photos.  I knew nothing of aperture, exposure length, or film speed.  Heck, I didn’t even know how to get film into the darn thing!  But my dad took the time to show me the ropes before I stumbled out the door, not knowing what I was getting myself into.

My first photographic journeys took me to what I think is a typical starting point: nature.  There was a provincial park not far from where I lived at the time, and I spent a good amount of time there shooting rolls of cheap 100 film, hoping that some of the trees and creeks I shot would come out okay.  The learning curve was steep, and before I knew it I was experimenting with depth of field and long exposures.  My love for photography was born.

I transitioned to digital that December, and shot sporadically for the next couple of years.  The real fun began when I started photoblogging in early 2010.

So. I titled this post ‘Experiment’ so I suppose I should delve into that.  I believe that experimentation should be at the heart of any passionate pursuit.  It’s experimentation that gets us out of our comfort zone and really allows the creative juices to start flowing.

For me, my first big experiment in photography was getting into HDR.  After seeing some of the amazing work of others, I really wanted to try my own hand at the technique.  For the first number or months, my experimentation yielded what I thought were good results…looking back now, I cringe at a lot of my earlier work knowing that I’d do it much differently today.  But that’s all part of the experimentation process.  As we all learn and grow as photographers, we’re constantly trying new things behind the camera and in the digital darkroom.  This is a good thing.  One of my major ‘lightbulb’ moments came when viewing Jacques Gude‘s HDR work for the first time.  The way he is able to shape the light in his HDR processing is fantastic…his shadows remain dark, the highlights are trimmed to where they should be, and the colours are true to the scene.  This is when I realized that I was trying much to hard to expose absolutely everything equally and wasn’t’ paying enough attention to keeping the natural contrast of the scene.  Oh, and the saturation slider was WAY too far to the right :)  I started to experiment in the way I tonemapped and processed my images, and eventually found settings and processing techniques that I find much more pleasing.  I have no doubt that these techniques will change as I progress further as a photographer, and I welcome these changes.

As time has gone by, I’ve begun to experiment with the use of fast prime lenses for portraiture.  The effect a super wide aperture has on a portrait can be truly magical, and I find myself drawn more and more to this type of photography as I continue to shoot it.  I’ve also tried my hand at wide angle tilt shift photography.  The ability to correct for perspective and shift the focal plane is addictive, and I’m eager to continue learning more about these techniques in the future.  Recently I’ve also picked up a 10-stop neutral density filter to experiment with extremely long exposures.  This is another technique that will take some time to master, but it’s the road to that mastery that is truly valuable.

I guess what I’m really trying to say, is that as photographers we shouldn’t rest on our laurels or let ourselves just go through the motions day after day.  It’s important to try new things and get ourselves out of our comfort zone, even if it feels a bit uncomfortable or challenging to begin with.  So get out there and experiment!