f974 National Historic Landmark Photos, by Bill Heller

National Historic Landmark Photos

Santa Barbara Courthouse Clocktower
Friday, November 2, 2012
Santa Barbara Courthouse Clocktower

One of the best places in Santa Barbara to sepnd the day is the Santa Barbara County Courthouse. One of the most amazing architectural experiences around, and it costs absolutely nothing to enjoy the beauty and the view from the top. (Unless of course you have a photo shoot there and you have to pay for a permit, but this day was purely for the enjoyment.)

Courthouse Clockwork Closeup
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Courthouse Clockwork Closeup

This is a close-up of the gears at the top of the clockwork inside the Courthouse Clocktower. I find the gear box on the top as well as the cool looking universal joints on the four sides that allow the shafts to have a slight angle in them. I'm sure glad they were inspired to display the clockworks when they refurbished the clock.

View from the Top of Santa Barbara
Friday, October 12, 2012
View from the Top of Santa Barbara

A beautiful view over Santa Barbara. This is one of the most amazing spots in Santa Barbara. The top of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse Clocktower. From here you can see from one end of the city to the other, The Mission to the Ocean. This particular angleis overlooking the sunken gardens of the courtyard with the Pacific Ocean on the right.

Santa Barbara, City in the Hills
Monday, October 8, 2012
Santa Barbara, City in the Hills

One of the most amazing views around is, of course, from the Courthouse clocktower. I love the perspective it gives you on the city, like a map laid out in front of you that not even Google can compete with. This is the view over Anapamy Street looking north. On the left you can just make out the towers of the Mission Santa Barbara.

Courthouse Clockwork
Friday, October 5, 2012
Courthouse Clockwork

Thanks to some dedicated volunteers, the Courthouse clocktower has a new attraction. As if the view from the top wasn't enough. Refurbishing the mechinsim of the clock was something that was overdue. But the dedicated caretakers of this local gem went above and beyond. Rather than just fix the clock and close it back up, they realized the intricate workings of this amazing device was something most visitors would love to see. With the backdrop of an amazing mural the wokrings of the clock are as beautiful and interesting as the exterior architecture that encloses it. I particularly like the gear at the top that distributes the movement of the clock to the four faces on the sides of the tower.

Multnomath Falls, Oregon
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Multnomath Falls, Oregon

When we started planning our trip to Oregon, Multomath Falls was the one thing that I definitely wanted to see. As you can see we definitely made it. This shot was handheld with a fast shutter, I have a few other creative shots I'll share in the near future, some nice long exposures. At around 620 feet tall the falls are beautiful to visit any time of year. And being only 30 minutes to the east of Portland they are easy to get to. Even in the dry days of summer... (yes Portland does have dry days, this was the end of August and they had not had any rain for the whole month.) even in summer, the falls are full and beautiful because they are fed by an underground spring. Still, I can't wait to go back and see what they are like in the rainy season.

Santa Barbara Mission Cross Sunset
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.

Santa Barbara Mission Millstone
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.

Santa Barbara Mission Cross Sunset
Monday, February 13, 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.

Christmas Carols At The Old Mission
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.

Mission San Miguel Fountain
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.

Mission Sunset Time Lapse
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.

Dinner at La Purisima
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.

Mission Sunset Glow
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.

Sunset Clouds Over The Clock Tower
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!

Mission Sunset Fog
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.

Sunset Over the Rose Garden Bench
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!

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