Saturday, February 20, 2010
East Beach Sunset

The winter sunsets are always beautiful in Santa Barbara. But once in a while there is a particularly amazing evening. This was one of those evenings.

Saturday, February 6, 2010
Trinity Episcopal Church Bell Tower

There is no shortage of beautiful architecture in Santa Barbara. The Trinity Episcopal Church (giant stone) church on State Street is something particularly interesting. Unlike the mission with its wide open spaces and rose garden, the Episcopal church right in the middle of things takes a little creativity to get a good angle for a shot. This particular shot was the result of driving by at the right time of day and realizing that the beautiful clouds in the evening sky would make a great background for an up shot close to the church. I only stopped for a couple of minutes, but I was very happy with the timing.

Sunday, January 31, 2010
Courthouse Clocktower at Sunrise

The Santa Barbara County Courthouse has been called the most beautiful government building in the country and it's easy to see why. Overall the grounds and the building are absolutely breathtaking, and when you focus on the details both well known like the clock tower and the lesser known architectural aspects you can really see how much thought and care went into its design.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010
UCSB Starry Night

Walking at sunset around the campus of UCSB during a holiday break I thought I might find everything too quiet to get the photos I was looking for. But like any small city, there is always something going on there. I was happy to see some lights in the windows and the beautiful landscape lighting still on. This image was the last of the evening and one of my favorites.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Butterfly Beach Stone Wall Sunset Landscape

We're having a wonderful run of beautiful sunsets right now. But this is actually from a beautiful evening walk along Butterfly Beach back in October. I had a request to use the image, but they needed a horizontal layout. Fortunately I usually shoot both horizontal and vertical if I can frame a nice composition both ways for just this reason.

Sunday, January 10, 2010
Montecito Sunset

Yesterday was a bit overcast during the day. We had some things to do around town and later in the day found ourselves in a beautiful little nursury in Carpenteria. As the sun was getting low it started to break through the clouds so we found a nice spot in the Montecito hills on the way home to watch the show. What followed was one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. It was truly one of those times you wish you had your camera! Fortunately I did!

Sunday, November 8, 2009
The Natural Cafe Hitchcock Twilight

The Natural Cafe is a great place to get some excellent food in a wonderful atmosphere. This is the Hitchcock location in Santa Barbara. This is from a recent shoot for an article in a magazine featuring the restaurant, and their wondeful yet healthy food.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Shipwrecked After Dark on Butterfly Beach

The clouds were beautiful the other evening at Butterfly beach. Just after sunset they looked almost like an aurora. This was an extremely long exposure, the last of a particularly beautiful day.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Sunset over Santa Barbara from Butterfly Beach

If you've looked around my sites much you probably already know that Butterfly Beach is my favorite beach in Santa Barbara. It's a beautiful place to wander and relax. Sunset is my favorite time, it's always beautiful, but Sunday (the day this was taken) was something truly special!

Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunset Clouds Over The Clock Tower

This is a little bit different angle on the Courthouse from the sunken gardens. Of course the main star of the show was the amazing sunset clouds. They were moving very quickly and the light was changing fast. In only a few minutes they were gone. But I'm very happy with the results!

Sunday, October 25, 2009
Camino Cielo Sunset Over Cachuma Lake

Sunset is one of the most beautiful things that happens every day. It's so hard to take the time to enjoy it. Most people think of the sun setting over the surf in California, and that is the case in most parts of the state. Our little section of the coast is a little different. We look south when we watch the waves break and this is the view from a trail at the top of our mountains. Just in front and to the right of the sun you can see Lake Cachuma, a man made lake which is a beautiful home to all sorts of amazing wild life including bald eagles. Someday soon I'm going to go catch one of them with my camera.

Saturday, October 24, 2009
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Courtyard

This is a beautiful little church out in Montecito. It's one of my favorite places to wander in the evenings with my camera. The architecture is really something special and the people are really nice too! This was actually taken the same night as a previous photo of the day which is now part of my Santa Barbara Calendar.

Thursday, September 24, 2009
Santa Barbara Historical Museum 360 Panorama

Some days you look for a nice lighting for the subject you are interested in. Then there are the days that the lighting itself is the real star of the show. Actually, most great shots are more about the lighting than the subject but not usually this literally or obviously.

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.

Friday, August 14, 2009
Knapp's Castle 360 VR

This is one of the most beautiful spots I can think of in the Santa Barbara area. Knapp's Castle was a beautiful mansion in the early 1900's. But even the impressive construction from those days could not stand up to the wild fires we have in the mountains here. A few arches and stone walls are all that remains of the mansion. Fortunately the panoramic view of the Santa Ynez Valley is as breathtaking as ever.

Part of this image was on the photo of the day before, Storybook Castle Sunset. But I recently had a chance to work on the high resolution image again when I was working on my 2010 Santa Barbara Calendar. This is the September image. In the process I was also able to finish the whole 360° view.

Thursday, August 13, 2009
Butterfly Beach Sunset VR

Like I mentioned on yesterday's Photo of the Day, the sky was beautiful in every direction. Which of course is a perfect opportunity to take a 360° VR photo. The only problem is I did not have any kind of tripod or my normal tools. But the sky was too good to pass up so I gave it a try hand-held and I'm pretty happy with the results.

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!

Thursday, April 30, 2009
Storybook Castle Sunset

Click on the main image for a larger view.

One more shot from the mountains. And, if I had to choose, I think this would be my favorite. I really like the way the wall frames the stairway.

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.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Church of the Wayfarer VR

We spent a couple days in Monterey and Carmel this week. Like the Mission here in Santa Barbara, I have my favorite spots in Carmel to tinker with new camera equipment. This is the Church of the Wayfarer in Carmel by the Sea. This beautiful little church and a bakery on Ocean street where you can get some of the biggest Coconut Macroons you can imagine are two of our regular stops as soon as we get to the Monterey area.

Monday, April 27, 2009
Sunset over Knapp's Castle

This was one of the last shots as we were starting our walk back to the car from Knapp's Castle. I had put most of my camera gear away at this point and just looked back as I was walking away.

For a test shoot I ended up with quite a few images that I'm really happy with.

Sunday, April 26, 2009
Knapp's Castle Sunset Panorama

Click main image for a larger view

This is another one of the "test" shots from the hike up the mountain the other day. Well, OK, actually more of a drive up the mountain followed by a half-mile hike on a nice trail. Regardless, it was a beautiful evening! These two shots were exactly what I had in mind before I got there. I still have some ideas for a later evening shot or two, but I'm going to have to find some warmer clothing before I go back up for that.

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.

Friday, April 24, 2009
Knapp's Arch Sunset

For the last couple of months I have been contributing a "Photo of the Week" to a local news site, Santa Barbara's Blog. Yesterday a request came through them for a shot of Knapp's Castle, the ruins of an old mansion that burned in the forties. It is just over the peak of the mountain north of Santa Barbara overlooking the Santa Ynez valley and Cachuma Lake. For the last year I had been trying to get up there to get some photos, so I was happy to get up there and take some test shots. The intention was to just check out the location and plan for equipment and timing. But, I'm pretty happy with the test shots. I'm still going to try to get up there again soon, but it's hard to beat a couple of nice shots on the first pass.