A Photo a Day by Bill Heller

California Mission Photos
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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!

 
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.

 
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.

 
Saturday, February 18, 2006

San Fernando Fountain

 This is an interesting mission. It is at a bit of an unexpected place right in the middle of a city, just north of LA.

 
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.

 
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.

 
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

 
Wednesday, July 6, 2005

Mission Santa Ynez

 Another in the line of California Missions. This is just on the other side of the mountain. The bell tower is much simpler than the Mission Santa Barbara, but the simplicity is kind of nice too.

 
Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Mission Palms at Night

 Always lookin' for a different angle on a subject. Especially one as photographed as the Mission.

 
Tuesday, June 21, 2005

La Purisima Room

 I like this room, just simple and plain. This mission has been destroyed and rebuilt at least once in it's history. Fortunately it is in pretty good shape now. It's a beautiful place.

 
Friday, June 17, 2005

The First Mission

 Statue of the founder of this and eight other California missions, Father Junipero Serra. This is the first of twenty-one missions.

 
Monday, June 13, 2005

Mission Arches

 One of my new collection of local architecture images. I am preparing them for a restaurant remodel.

 
Sunday, June 12, 2005

Cross Bird

 Well... maybe a little agitated anyway. (Cross Bird... Mad Bird... get it? oh never mind! it's not funny if I have to explain it!)
 
Sunday, June 5, 2005

Ventura Mission Silhouette

 Unlike most of the missions, this one is right in the middle of downtown Ventura. It makes it convenient to get photos of it since I have been doing some coding for a company right down the street from it.

 
Thursday, May 5, 2005

Mission Storm

 I actually went out to get a shot of a really nice rainbow. But the scene of the clouds over the mission was the best opportunity of the day. The clouds were bunched around the mountain. As the sun set, it was shining under them through the heavy rain close the mountain. It made for some particularly dramatic lighting. As you can see from the streak of car headlights on the right of the photo, this was not a short exposure.

 
Sunday, May 1, 2005

Mission Gardens

 There are quite a few images of the front of the Santa Barbara Mission. And for good reason, it is a beautiful place. But it's beauty is much more than skin deep.
 
Sunday, April 17, 2005

Nighttime at the Mission

 I almost lost this image. It was on a roll of film in a camera that I had not used in a few weeks. Assuming it was empty I opened the back of the camera. Luckily the best shots seemed to be early on the roll and deep enough in the camera to not be affected.

This was a long exposure from the edge of the fountain. the blurry area in the water is the affect of the water on the surface over the length of the exposure.

 
Saturday, March 26, 2005

Mission Gate

 This is a gate in a wall around La Purisima Mission in Lompoc California. You can see another of my images of this mission here and read more about the mission itself. I really like the archways and shapes of this Mission.

 
Thursday, March 3, 2005

Mission Sunset

 We don't get a lot of clouds around here. But when we do it's quite a show, the whole sky was lit up like this.

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