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!

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!!

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.

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!

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.

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.

Sunday, April 30, 2006
Nun Bee

The sun came out today!!! Not something that would normally be such a surprise in California, but this year you have to take it one day at a time.

In honor of our beautiful sunny day we decided to take a bit of a rose garden tour. We went to the Mission rose garden and the rose garden at Fess Parker's Resort on Cabrillo.

This was one of my favorite roses of the day. I was actually taking pictures of it before the bee flew into the picture. She was quite the ham! She hovered all around in front of the rose for me.

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.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Mission Lily

There are a million photos of the Mission Santa Barbara out there. Which is all the more reason to look around while you are there to see if there might be something you would miss with the standard "Visitors Bureau" shot.

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.

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?

Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Mission Palms at Night

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

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.

Monday, June 13, 2005
Mission Arches

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