Monday, September 1, 2008
Mission Rose Garden Sunset

Click the main image for a larger view

I really love the fountain by the Santa Barbara Mission. But most people don't realize there is another fountain across the street in the rose garden. It is really worth the little walk, especially at sunset.

If you have been around the site for a while you know that I really like the clouds in the winter around Santa Barbara. Mainly because we don't normally get much weather in the summer other than some very thick low fog in the mornings. Well, this summer has been a little different. Not much fog, I assume because it has not been very cool at night, but lots of humidity. On the plus side we have had some really nice winter-like sunsets. Of course there is one drawback. The night before last was so warm and humid I almost could not breathe. Fortunately it looks like we are starting to get a break from the heat.

Saturday, March 15, 2008
Santa Barbara Courthouse Clocktower View

This was the same day as the recent Mission shot. It was also the day of the grand reopening of the Granada theatre on state street. That is what the giant tent is for in the gardens in this image. Aparently the reception was at the Courthouse. I actually thought of taking a shot of the Granada, but apparently it was not a priority to get ALL of the boards off the windows before opening night. Of course, those were the office windows and they were probably not very noticable after dark. At any rate, it was a fun day of shooting!

Thursday, March 6, 2008
Queen of the missions in HDR VR

Ok, still taking a while to get these images together this way. But after taking all the time to build the VR interface I could hardly wait to use it again.

I got the opportunity today when the clouds started to get interesting. We dropped everything to try to get some nice images. Turned out to be a busy afternoon and an amazing sunset. This is the first of several nice images that will come out of the adventure around town today.

The clouds look a little ominous, but they were fast moving and quite beautiful.

Friday, January 4, 2008
Mission Storm

Click on the main image for a bigger version

Another attempt to get to the Nativity Scene at the mission a couple of weeks ago, and still no animals. Probably a good thing for them, it was raining like crazy. But I do so hate to come home empty handed! And, I still have not had a chance to develop the film from this evening. This was from my digital camera, but four feet wide just might not be big enough. :-D

Monday, December 17, 2007
Mission Christmas Trees

Merry Christmas!

Some of the Christmas decorations at the Mission Santa Barbara. They don't usually do a lot in a flashy way, but I like the Christmas trees. They put them up really early too so you have lots of time to enjoy them!

Sunday, December 9, 2007
Archway Palms

I still have not had a chance to get my film developed from my adventures last week. (Been a busy week with a sick hound dog.) But this was one of my test shots from my digital camera.

For the next couple of weeks the christmas decorations will be at their peak so I'm going to try to get as much time behind my camera as possible. So, with a little luck, I should have some nice new images under the tree for Christmas. That is if the hound has not managed to knock the tree over by then.

Thursday, December 6, 2007
Mission Nativity

By request! This is actually a little older shot, I still have not seen if they are doing the nativity this year. I'll have to go check it out. This is one of my favorite Christmas attractions in Santa Barbara too.

Sunday, December 2, 2007
Santa Barbara Courthouse Palms

Another angle on the Santa Barbara Courthouse. The early morning light casts some beautiful shadows.

Sunday, October 21, 2007
Courthouse Glow

Sometimes its nice to take a closer look at something beautiful. This is a gateway into the Santa Barbara Courthouse. The building as a whole is amazing, but as I am so fond of pointing out I really like the details. There is some incredible craftsmanship there that I don't think you would find very easily today. Perhaps the only thing that will make me stop sounding like my grandfather now (WHYYYY, IN MY DAY... !) is to point out that it was probably pretty rare to EVER find this kind of creativity!

(Unless of course, it was actually one of my perfectionist German grandfathers doing it! :-D At least I come by it honestly!)

Sunday, August 26, 2007
Courthouse Light

We are getting some unseasonable moisture from the hurricane that went through the Gulf of Mexico last week. The days have been really humid, but the clouds have been a nice change. Seemed like a good time for some evening shots of the courthouse.

This is actually a combination of about ten exposures in a technique called a High Dynamic Range Image. Takes a little work, but a normal long exposure would have blown out the image around the lantern and you would still not have been able to see the clouds and stars.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Sunset at the Mission Rose Garden

(click on the main image to see a bigger version)

More experimentation! This image was created from about 11 shots of the sunset. I could not get exactly what I wanted from one shot from any one lens. The only thing I had that was wide enough to get the whole sunset was a fish eye. I like my fish eye, but in this case I wanted to give more of the feeling of standing there in the rose garden watching the sunset. The distortion of the fish eye detracted from that too much.

The sheer scale of things caused some interesting problems. The full scale image could be printed easily 4 and a half feet at high resolution. And as long as I am building this kind of thing I figure why not go for full scale!?

I think I need more ram... and more hard drives.

Friday, April 14, 2006
La Purisima Mission Fence

As I look back I see that my site has been the FLOWER of the day lately. So I thought I would find some good California architecture. I really like the cart and the random fence. And that is a real fence! As umm... impromptu as it looks there is real livestock in that pen.

Monday, March 6, 2006
Twilight Mission

By request!

I had someone leave feed back who was interested in photos of the Mission Santa Barbara. (see August 12, '05)

I am developing a tool that will allow everyone to browse the previous photos of the day by keyword and various other tools to allow easy navigation. I do have the calendar, if you have not seen that, be sure to click on the link on the upper right of the screen. That will allow you to see thumbnails of the photo of the day a month at a time.

Now, on to the Mission. This is the Mission Santa Barbara "Queen of the Missions." It was founded on December 4, 1786 by Father Fermin Lasuen. It was the tenth of 21 Franciscan missions in California. It holds the distinction of being the only one to remain in continuous use since the day it was founded. Named for Saint Barbara, and founded on the day of her annual memorial feast, it continues to operate as home of the Saint Barbara Parish. And it is a place that always makes me happy to be a photographer! Here is a list of my other images of the Mission Santa Barbara and her grounds on the photo of the day.

• September 7, 2005: Mission Sunset
• February 17, 2006: Santa Barbara Mission Twilight
• April 17, 2005: Nighttime at the Mission
• May 1, 2005: Mission Gardens
• May 5, 2005: Mission Storm
• June 13, 2005: Mission Arches
• June 22, 2005: Mission Kitchen
• June 29, 2005: Mission Palms at Night
• July 8, 2005: Mission Doorway
• July 11, 2005: Nighttime Mission
• August 12, 2005: A View from the Mission

Friday, February 17, 2006
Santa Barbara Mission Twilight

This was a long exposure. The exposure time made the reflection much more interesting. it gave the effect of the sharpness near the bottom of the image getting blurry near the top where the water was falling from the top of the fountain.

Monday, January 16, 2006
Courthouse Clock Tower

I'm always trying to find a different angle on my subjects. Especially ones as photographed as the Santa Barbara Courthouse. This is the courthouse clock tower... from the inside, straight up!

Cool architecture in there, but I rarely have the right film on hand to get shots of the inside. This was from my recent experiments with a rental Canon 20D digital camera.

Friday, January 13, 2006
Courthouse Detail

I always appreciate the kind feedback I have received when I have displayed my photos. I particularly love the stories I get from people when my images make them think of something near to their hearts. Many times I leave with a much deeper appreciation for my subjects.

I was looking through my recent images for a good Santa Barbara image for Mary Ann, and this is what I came up with. The day I took this was a bit overcast so the wider "city" images are not as exciting, They are more "ideas" that I am building on for future images. But the detail in this image reminds me of another person that stopped by the La Cumbre Art Walk a couple of times. She told me about her Grandfather who worked on the stone detail at the base of the Courthouse. If I remember correctly, some of his work is near the fountain. I have always loved taking detail shots of the courthouse especially since there's already a wide variety of angles on the bigger views out there. Now, every time I look at these details, I think about the incredible talent that went into creating them, especially by one particular grandfather.

Monday, October 3, 2005
Twilight Clocktower

This was a long exposure on a breezy evening. You can tell by the softness of the trees. But, that actually made the bright clocktower more visible through the tree than it would have been in a daylight shot.

I had to find a nice Santa Barbara architecture image today for a fellow photographer from the area who now lives in Texas.

Wednesday, September 7, 2005
Mission Sunset

Sunset at the Mission, would only be better if that tree were not in the shot. But that's ok, I like the trees around here.

Friday, August 12, 2005
A View from the Mission

Most of the mission shots you see don't give you an appreciation for the beautiful setting of the surrounding Mission grounds. The beautiful color in this photo is from the setting sun which was behind me to my right. Although the moisture in the atmosphere makes it hard to see where sky ends and sea begins, you can see hints of the outlines of the Channel Islands at the horizon.

Friday, July 15, 2005
Bells at Mission Santa Inéz

This is the bell tower from inside the mission grounds.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005
La Purisima Mission Bell

This was taken the first day experimenting with a new present, a polarizing filter. It made the sky much more intense.

There is a never-ending supply of wonderful subjects at the California missions.

Monday, July 11, 2005
Nighttime Mission

The cool thing about this long exposure is that fact that it made the surface of the water look like glass. If you look closely you can see that there are blurry areas near the center of the fountain where the water was running down. But most of the waves that moved slowly across the surface disappeared. I thought the motion of the ripples across the water would blur a larger part of the reflection but sometimes you get a pleasant surprise.

Friday, July 8, 2005
Mission Doorway

Once in a while my best friend and I go out and take pictures together. This would be the same best friend who taught me most of the technical things I know about photography. The best part of going to the same place together is you get to see what you missed. Or, see the same subject through someone else's eyes.

Her picture of this scene was a really nice close up on the basket. With the filtered light through the trees and the texture of the basket it made a really striking composition. Ever since looking through our shots from that day I have been much more aware of the drastically different images you can get from the same subject at the exact same moment.

Now, when I approach a subject, I try to grab a few "first impression" shots immediately. Then, I take the time to ponder what else is possible, what textures and odd compositions can I find, and of course...

What would my best friend see?

Thursday, July 7, 2005
Mission Santa Ynez Arches

Not long after I took this photo they repaired the plaster. Which would have made the photo much less interesting. :-D