A Photo a Day by Bill Heller

Mediterranean architecture Photos
 
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!

 
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

 
Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Santa Barbara Hills

 Happy New Year!

It's been a busy holiday season. This was from one of my many trips by the Mission to see if the animals were in the nativity scene yet. I had no luck there before things got too busy, but as long as I was out with my camera...

 
Friday, December 14, 2007

Sunset at 1525 State

 When the evening sun does beautiful things like this I find myself wishing I could drop everything and take pictures. Today I had a busy afternoon of meetings and appointments, fortunately one of them was with a new client so I just happened to have my camera handy. I think the wispy pink clouds really add a lot! Not to mention the cool bus tail lights that came through at just the right time.

This is a combination of five images in what is called a High Dynamic Range Image, mostly used in this case to pick out the details in the bright spots. One of the interesting things about one of those bright spots is the color of the sign. That lovely green is the way film (or in this case a digital sensor) sees fluorescent lights. As they ummm... "encourage" us in California to use the CFLs my evening shots are going to get a lot greener, supposedly in more ways than one.

 
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.

 
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.

 
Saturday, November 25, 2006

A Cloudy Day in Santa Barbara

 Ok, not all the cloudy days are this pretty here. But yesterday was!

I like these vertical panoramas. I think they play especially well with the format of the site.

 
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.

 
Friday, December 2, 2005

Carmel Architecture

 There are a bunch of little walkways between buildings in Carmel. They are all lined with little shops and interesting things. I love to explore them. With a little bit of luck I will get to explore them more in the near future!

 
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.

 
Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Dr. Seuss Was Here

 This is a building they are just finishing on Cota Street. The front wall and gate makes it look a little like something out of a Dr. Seuss story. Actually it looked like it was gonna be a lot crazier when it was only half done. It is actually quite nice now.

I have heard the developer is planning something else next to my church. Could be a cool new photography subject!

 
Sunday, July 3, 2005

Courthouse Lights

 Another courthouse shot, taken moments before yesterday's, but has a completely different feel. The lighting had not changed much between the two shots. However, in this image I was facing the glow in the western sky where the sun had set. The long exposure brought out the glow of the lights more than yesterday's.

 
Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Mission Kitchen

 I really liked this picture. It is one of the first batch of photos I pulled out to scan when I got my new scanner a year ago. But, I was not sure who else might find it attractive. Turns out, it is pretty fitting for a Mexican Restaurant.

 
Saturday, June 18, 2005

Courthouse Bell

 I have a customer that was looking for images of the Courthouse for her father for Father's day. I have a few that I pulled out to make prints for her for this weekend.

But, as I was driving home yesterday evening, the colors of the sunset were particularly golden from the residual "June Gloom" in the air.

So I stopped by the courthouse and got a few nice images of which, this one is my favorite. It is a different angle on a highly recognizable building, and I will be interested to find out how many people realized it even had an exposed bell!

 
Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Courthouse Archway

 In keeping with my recent architectural theme! I'm really enjoying those night shots!

 
Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Courthouse Clock Tower

 Ahh computers!

A necessary evil of modern life.

A little over a week ago the drive on my server failed, which started an absolutely unimaginable week of hardware problems. Not the least of which was the new drive in the server failed right after the OS was installed. When the week was over I had lost more hardware (and data) to random failures than I have ever before in my whole life.

Now for the good news. The last two Saturdays I have started a new art show at the La Cumbre Plaza and it has been fantastic. Lots of people, and many of them interested in my work. The first Saturday I did not get a chance to sit down the whole day.

And, another exciting result of the recent shows... my art will soon grace the walls of a newly remodeled local Mexican Restaurant! That brings me to toady's image. Since most of my work at the shows is floral and Hummingbirds, I am collecting some local architecture images for this project. If you would like to see the collection, just watch the previous week I will fill in the missing days. I really think someone is trying to tell me something! Computers... BAD! Photography... GOOD! It's times like this I'm glad I don't use a digital camera!

 
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!)
 
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