California Mission Photos
Monday, May 20, 2013
Santa Barbara Mission Cross at Night
One evening when we were at the Santa Barbara Mission we noticed someone playing ball with their dog in the field by the mission rose garden. The really interesting thing for my camera is they were playing with a ball that had a light in it. It was a lot of fun watching the ball move back and forth, it was too dark to really see the dog, but it was obvious where he was. In the end, there were too many cars to get an interesting shot of the ball, although it is in there bouncing under the big tree at the left. The fun thing is the shot came out beautifully anyway.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Candlelight Christmas Carols at the Santa Barbara Mission
The candlelight service on the Saturday before Christmas at the Santa Barbara Mission is one of the most beautiful events of the Christmas Season.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Golden Hour at the Mission Cross
The wispy high clouds made the sun glow a beautiful golden color on the mountains and the side of the mission with a beautiful result.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Sanctuary at the Carmel Mission
The Sanctuary at the Carmel Mission. The twenty one California Missions each have their own unique and beautiful details and the Carmel mission is sure no exception. This is the main sanctuary, just inside the front door.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Santa Barbara Mission Cross Sunset
The Santa Barbara Mission is one of my favorite places to experiment with my camera. It is such a beautiful location it almost guarantees a wonderful evening of photography. This evening I started early when I saw the beautiful cloud formations, but the trick was to predict just where the interesting clouds would be once the sunset really warmed up. When the clouds really put on their show I was glad I went with the really wide angle.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Mission San Miguel Bell Tower
View of the bells at the Mission San Miguel. The red tiles in the foreground are on the top of the low wall that surrounds the mission. As with many of the California Missions, this mission has had a troubled life. But the people who care for it now are doing an excellent job restoring it to the thing of beauty it deserves to be. The Mission San Miguel is California Historical Landmark No. 326.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Santa Barbara Mission Millstone
I'm always wandering around the Santa Barbara Mission looking for a new angle or a veiw that I have not noticed before. This was at the end of a long day of shooting, as the last glow of the sunset was slipping behind the mission. These pepper trees are a beautiful part of the look of the mission and they are prominent in many of my photos. The interesting details I love about this shot are the old millstone and the stone bench under the pepper tree.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Christmas Carols At The Old Mission
Every year on the Saturday a week before Christmas, Saint Barbara's Parish has candle-light Christmas carols on the steps of the mission. At the end of the carols they bless the creche (nativity scene). This is one of the few times that the mission is even more beautiful than usual.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Mission San Miguel Fountain
On a recent trip home from Monterey we stopped along the 101 at the San Miguel Mission. It was a pretty hot day, but I was able to explore a bit. It was well worth the stop, and I will definitely be back again.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Mission Sunset Time Lapse
Time lapse of the sunset over the Santa Barbara Mission from the Mission rose garden. The Mission is my favorite place to try out a new technique, so after an evening of driving around trying to find an interesting spot that might have some interesting clouds I ended up here. And I wasn't disappointed.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Dinner at La Purisima
Although our Santa Barbara Mission has a wonderful historic tour with some authentic artifacts, there is nothing quite like spending some time in a mission where they have painstakingly restored and recreated on a large scale what the day to day life must have been like when the missions were the full communities they were designed to be. La Purisima offers the space and flexibility to almost step into the past. It is a wonderful experience.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Santa Barbara Mission Nativity
The nativity scene at the Santa Barbara Mission early in the morning.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Mission Sunset Glow
The Santa Barbara Mission is an amazing local gem. It is one of the places I go just to play with my camera. The evening I took this however, I was on a mission to get a nice long exposure, evening shot of the mission. I almost turned around when I saw how thick the fog was getting, but the light coming through the fog can do some interesting things. Once I got to the mission I could see that the fog was cooperating nicely rolling in behind the mission but still giving me a clear view, with the beautiful sunset colors filtering through in the background.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Carmel Mission Bell Tower from the Fountain
A view of the Carmel Mission bell tower over the fountain in the courtyard. The sun was getting low in the sky and there was just enough of a breeze to make the water look beautiful in the sun.
California Historical Landmark NO. 135 Mission San Carlos Borroméo de Carmelo
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Carmel Mission Bell Tower From The Courtyard
The Carmel Mission is an absolute treasure, it has so many beautiful architectural details I always find new and interesting angles every time I return. This is the main bell tower, the one you can see from the street, but this angle is from the inside courtyard. California Historical Landmark NO. 135 Mission San Carlos Borroméo de Carmelo
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Mission Sunset Fog
Click on the main image for a larger view.
Once again we are having a fire in the area. Fortunately for
us here in the city it's a little further away this time.
Of course that's not much consolation to the over-worked firefighters on the
front lines.
As always, the fire is making for some nice sunsets. And I had
a project specifically looking for a nice wide straight
shot of the mission. This looked like my opportunity, but
I thought the fog was going to roll in
too thick to get the photo. In the end the fog
swirled right behind the mission with the beautiful colors of the sunset
making for an amazing backdrop.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Sunset Over the Rose Garden Bench
Usually when I'm in the Mission rose garden I'm focusing on the Mission, or even the roses. But this time was something special. I was there to get an image for an anniversary gift. You see, one of the rose garden benches is where he chose to propose to her. He came to me looking for just the right image and had just about selected one of my older panoramic Mission Photographs. But listening to his story, I thought I could create something a little more fitting. Of course, it's not all up to me. I had to hope for just the right backdrop. Wednesday evening I saw my chance!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Queen of the Missions Fountain Test VR
This is the rest of the image from my lens test at the Mission Santa Barbara the other day. Actually, most of the recent photos of the day have full 360° panorams to go with them that I will get online soon. Usually the panoramas start out based around one nice shot. Of course the challenge is to find a point of view on that nice shot that also looks good in all directions.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Sanctuary at the Mission Santa Barbara
Another image from the new lens I was trying out the other day. This is another one that is just a slice of a 360° image. I'll get the whole thing online when time permits, but I really liked the colors I was able to pick up especially in this part of the image. So I thought a tighter crop would be nice too.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Queen of the Missions Fountain Test Shot
Last evening I rented a lens to try out
for some upcoming panorama work. I was pretty
sure I knew what I wanted, but it was worth
taking it for a spin first. When I'm trying out
new equipment I like to go somewhere familiar.
I couldn't think of anywhere better to start than
the Santa Barbara Mission. This is only one part of
the image. The final image is a full 360° panorama.
But my computer is a little overworked at the moment, so
I thought I would get this much online.
As for the lens, I was so happy with the results
that I was ready to buy it before the rental was up
but it turns out I'm not the only one who likes it, it's
on backorder everywhere I called. Oh well, there is always
the rental! And whenever I have rental equipment it
motivates me to go out and get my money's worth.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Mission Portico 360° VR
This is an image that took a while to process. One slice of it was a previous photo of the day. But I wanted to finish the whole view. This is standing on the portico (long patio behind the archways) at the Mission Santa Barbara. This is a series of long exposures just after sunset. It was a beautiful evening to get a little different perspective on the Mission. With a little luck I'll get some time in the next week or two to spend some more time in the mission gardens to get some shots for an upcoming project. If I do you'll see them here first!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Mission Carmel Bell Tower
This is from the inner courtyard at the Carmel Mission. I believe the tree with the white blossoms is a Flowering Pear Tree. This is thier time of year. There are some around here that are pure white with so many blossoms you can't see their leaves.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Father Junipero Serra
Before we drove down Highway 1 yesterday we stopped at the
beautiful Carmel Mission. It was a great place to wander with my camera.
We have tried to make it into the mission on several previous
trips to the area but our timing was always off. I'm glad
we made it this time. The grounds on the inside were much bigger than I thought.
This is a statue of Father Junipero Serra, founder of nine
of the twenty-one California Missions.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Mission Arches
I've been spending a lot of time at the mission
lately. This evening it was to try to catch the
animals in the Nativity Scene before they went away.
I was too late! But it was such a nice evening I stuck
around anyway and I'm glad I did. It turned out to be a
beautiful sunset. As I was trying to get some new angles
on a building that has been photographed thousands of times
(many of them by me).
I was thinking it may be time to get all my mission shots together
in one place.
I received some really nice feedback
recently which always makes me want to revisit a great subject.
I appreciate all of the kind words! That is one of the things
that makes my photography so enjoyable.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Candelight Blessing of the Creche
About a week ago (the 20th) we were lucky enough to happen by the Mission at just the right time. My wife had reminded me to go check to see if the Creche (Nativity Scene) had been set up. When we got there we saw that the animals were there, but we also saw a large parade of unlit luminaries. (lanterns made of candles in a paper bag with a little sand to hold them in place.) So after a quick trip home for an unsuccessful scouring of the Internet to try to see what the occasion was and to get my camera (D'OH! Should always have that with me!) we headed back. We were lucky enough to get there just as the congregation of the Saint Barbara Parish (The church that calls the Mission home) were starting to sing christmas carols around the steps of the mission. It turns out it was the Blessing of the Creche ceremony. Ahhh, what perfect timing my wife has!!
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