Montecito Photos
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Cypress Silhouette
This is one of my favorite trees in the Santa Barbara area. A beautiful Cypress that hangs out over Butterfly Beach in Montecito. It always makes a beautiful frame for the lights of Santa Barbara in the distance.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Last Rays of the Setting Sun
I was out for a beach walk the other evening. As the sun got closer to the horizon the waves kicked up some beautiful sea mist givng just a few moments of absolutely beautiful light.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Butterfly Beach Fog Season
Santa Barbara is always beautiful, to the point that some people think we don't hardly have seasons here. But maybe you just have to look at them a little differently. Winter sunset season just ended, at the beginning of that was butterfly season, when the Monarchs come home to roost. We're now entering fog season. Locals have lots of names for it, most commonly "June Gloom", or before that "May Grey" but the fog is rarely solid and complete as those names make it sound. It's beautiful and wispy, it dances beautifully as it rolls in and out. Sometimes it hugs the coast and the ocean where from inside it may seem grey. But get above or beside it like this and it's an amazing soft blanket hugging the city.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Sunset Cypress
The windswept trees along our coast are all works of art in their own right. This little Cypress is between two of its absolutely massive big brothers at Butterfly beach. Even though it's much younger than the others you can still see the beginnings of the windswept character that make them so beautiful. The amazing view of Santa Barbara in the background doesn't hurt either.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Montecito Sunset Panorama
This spot in Montecito on the walk by Butterfly Beach is one of my favorite spots to watch the sunset. The lights on the land to the right are in downtown Santa Barbara, on the left you can see the channel islands.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Country Club View
A view out the back door of a beautiful house in a Montecito country club. A golfer's dream, your back yard is also a fairway.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Palm Sunset
Just another wonderful evening in Santa Barbara. There was a period of time when things got too hectic, and we didn't take too many walks on the beach. Not that we weren't thankful for the amazing beauty of the place we live, but life just gets busy sometimes. Lately we've set out to fix that though. Life is still busy, but we make sure to drop everything a few nights a week and go watch the sunset in a nice spot. I've really enjoyed that!
Monday, January 7, 2013
Tropical Butterfly Sunset
Our sunsets are spectacular in Santa Barbara during the fall and winter. This is one of my favorite spots, under a beautiful Cypress tree at Butterfly Beach in Montecito. The lights across the water are in downtown Santa Barbara. When the tide is low you can walk all the way along the beach from this spot to Stearns Wharf, but the tide was definitely not low this evening.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Butterfly Beach Cypress Sunset
The evening I took this a few weeks ago, like many evenings, I took a walk along Butterfly Beach. But that night I was paying particular attention to this tree, one of my favorite spots along the walk. I had just spoken to someone who was looking for a special gift for someone who loves this tree as much as I do. Now I have quite a few shots already, but many of them use the amazing sweeping branches to frame other subjects, especially the sunset from the other side. Never one to shy away from the chance to look at a faviorite subject in a new light, I took it as a chance to spend some time wandering the beach with renewed inspiration for one of my favorite spots!
Friday, December 14, 2012
Temple Rays
Sunset from the front stairs of the Vednata Temple in Montecito. This little temple out in the hilss above Montecito has some of the best views anywhere. In the winter the sun sets in the area of the Santa Barbara Harbor and the wharf. But closer to the temple the beautiful grounds make for a very peaceful place to spend the evening.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Sunset at Butterfly
Another shot from a beautiful sunset a few days ago at Butterfly Beach. Recently there has been a great deal of interest in photos of the Butterfly Beach area so I thought I would post a few new images. Gives me a nice reason to go out and wander the beach too.
Friday, December 7, 2012
Cypress Sunset
An amazing sunset captured in one of the most perfect spots, under the Butterfly Beach Cypress Tree in Montecito.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Butterfly Glow
This evening I had the wonderful opportunity to take a new camera for a spin (Canon 5D Mark III). Now understand I love my current camera (the Mark II,) and before I took the new model out I just couldn't see the need for an upgrade based upon the specs. Other than the fact that my camera just passed the hundred thousand exposure mark. (Timelapse will eat the shutter eventually.) The one thing I did expect was better low light performance. And since I love my evening photos that is a big deal to me. So I decided to wander Butterfly Beach just after sunset. This was one of the early shots, but I was already impressed. I could easily hand-hold shots that would have required a tripod before. And the speed of the camera was amazing. Although it's only supposed to be 33% faster, I found in practice it would easily shoot twice as many photos in the same period of time. Thanks Canon for a great update to a wonderful camera, and thank you for the opportunity to take it for a test drive! Check back throughout the week for more real world impressions of the 5D Mark III.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
La Pacifica Ballroom Terrace 360 degree Panorama
La Pacifica Ballroom at the Coral Casino has one of the best views around. Overlooking butterfly beach,
with a huge terrace under the stars. This shot was taken specifically to catch the reflection of the sunset
in the glass doors.
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Thursday, July 12, 2012
Vedanta Temple View
The view from the Vedanta Temple steps in Montecito during a particularly amazing sunset. From this spot you can clearly see the Santa Barbara Harbor and Stearns Wharf in the distance. The evening this was taken the weather in the hills above Montecito was changing quickly and it looked like you could reach up and touch those clouds.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Pacifica Graduate Institute Elevated Evening View
An elevated view of the Pacifica Graduate Institute Lambert Road campus. This beautiful campus just south on the 101 from Santa Barbara is a wonderful place to continue your education. I can't think of a better environment to concentrate on your studies.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Stargazing
We are so fortunate to have such amazing beaches, and their beauty is not limited to the warm sunny days. After sunset they are an amazing place to watch the sky. They may not be dark enough to see the really wonderful skies you can see further away from the light of the cities, but the proximity combined with the athmosphere of the crashing waves makes them a perfect spot for stargazing. Originally this shot was going to be a virtual reality panorama, but after a little experimentation I thought this would be a better way to take in the whole sky.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Montecito Hills Sunset
This is the view from the Montecito hills looking toward Santa Barbara. The evening I took this I had been exploring the nursuries in Carpenteria. On the way home it looked like the clouds were going to put on quite a show so we drove up into the hills to find a good spot. This is from the parkeing lot of the Vedanta Temple, a very fitting place to watch such a peaceful and beautiful scene.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church Sanctuary
This is an iconic little church out in Montecito, California. It's image has popped up everywhere from album covers to advertising according to the nice people in the office. It is a wonderful example of south-western architecture. It seems like it would not be out of place in the middle of the desert, or southern Mexico somewhere.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Sunset at the Vedanta Temple Planet View
This is a beautiful spot in the Montecito hills, made even more beautiful by the amazing sunset. 360 degree photos allow for fun with different projections, this planet view (or stereographic) projection is one of the most fun.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Under the Tree by the Coral Casino, Virtual Reality
I love the Butterfly beach area in Montecito.
When the tide is low you can walk all the way to Summerland in one direction,
and back to East beach in Santa Barbara in the other direction.
On the other hand when the tide is really high, or after a strong storm when
the sand is washed away you can't get much of a beach walk.
Thats when we like to walk along this walkway by the beach and watch the waves
and sunset.
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Saturday, September 25, 2010
Pacifica Graduate Institute - Campus Tour Guide by the Fountain
The other night I was at the Pacifica Graduate Institute taking some test shots for a project I'm working on. The light was not what I was looking for earlier in the evening, so I decided to shoot some other things and come back to see how things looked after dark. As soon as we got back, we met the campus tour guide. Not sure what his name is, but he showed us around the grounds pointing out his favorite spots. This spot in particular had a nice contemplative feel. Our feline guide was kind enough to pose and add some extra feeling to the scene. It was a very nice evening at a beautiful spot in Montecito.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Starry Night Over Butterfly Beach
This is an extremely long exposure just after dark at Butterfly Beach. Even by moonlight our beaches are beautiful, but most of the details of the rocks and the sand were not even visible to the naked eye.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Vedanta Temple Sunset Panorama
One of the many beautiful images I can credt to feedback from kind people
around Santa Barbara who read one of the various sites (Santa Barbara View) I contribute to.
I found out about this spot about a year ago and I have been there several
times, but the evening I took this shot was the best by far. In fact it was
one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen.
If you have a spot around Santa Barbara County you would love to see I would
love to hear about it. Just post it here or the
main contact page on my site.
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