Santa Barbara Photos

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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.

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!

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Storke Tower

I used to work right by this tower. It was particularly interesting during the holidays. They played Christmas Carols most of the day.

architecture ₅₄ | bell tower ₃ | Santa Barbara ₁₂₉ | tower ₈ | UCSB ₃

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.

Sunday, July 10, 2005

East Beach Sunset

This is looking back at East beach from Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara. I like the single glowing cloud. It really makes the sky a lot more interesting.

Saturday, July 9, 2005

Lotusland Walkway

The patterns on the sides of this walkway are actually rounded stones. From this angle it looks like the center of a Labyrinth.

Hmm... I wonder where the Minotaur is...

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?

Tuesday, July 5, 2005

Watching the Fireworks

Well it was a good fourth. We spent the day at a picnic put on by the Elks. I had a booth with my photography, there was a lot of food and lots of nice people. Even Zoe had a good time (she loved the chicken!).

I didn't know much about the Elks, other than the fact that a few of the ones I know remind me of my dad, so they must be good people. Turns out they are a pretty cool organization, they do a lot of things in the community to support kids programs.

beach ₅₅ | fireworks ₄ | Fourth of July ₅ | Santa Barbara ₁₂₉

Monday, July 4, 2005

Grand Finale

Happy Fourth of July!!

My favorite thing about this photo is the kid sitting on the post. He is a little blurry, it was a long exposure, and each time there was a really big boom he would jump and squirm a bit. You can not really make it out on this version, but in the high resolution scan you can even see a slight shadow of his arms out at the sides of his head as he covered his ears after a particularly loud one.

beach ₅₅ | fireworks ₄ | Fourth of July ₅ | Santa Barbara ₁₂₉

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.

Saturday, July 2, 2005

Nighttime Courthouse

I have been flipping through my photos looking for images of the courthouse since I have had quite a few requests for them lately. My favorites are the non-traditional views like yesterday's, but not many people would recognize that as the courthouse. Most are surprised to find out it even has a bell. (although one true local even figured out how I got that angle just by looking at the photo) So, I try to go for the non-traditional lighting.

Friday, July 1, 2005

Santa Barbara Sunset

This is a little different angle on an image from a couple weeks ago. Santa Barbara's business area was virtually flattened by a 6.3 earthquake in 1925. When they rebuilt, they took the opportunity to enforce a strict "Spanish style" building code. It has made for a really nice feel to the downtown area to this day.

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Mission Palms at Night

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

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Courthouse Sunset

It was a great evening for taking pictures.

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.

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Courthouse Clocktower Sunset

This was taken right after yesterday's photo of the day. When I was at the beach art walk today someone asked me what time of day I took that picture. So I said I could tell them exactly what time, and I flipped to this photo. Of course I now realize that someone at the Courthouse needs to adjust at least one of these clocks.

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!)

Friday, June 10, 2005

Solstice Giraffes

Not too often you get to see giraffes walking down State Street. This is in honor of the upcoming Summer Solstice Celebration on the 25th. It is by far the best parade in Santa Barbara (or anywhere for that matter :) !

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Butterfly Beach Sunset

The weather around here in June is known as "June Gloom." The fog comes in over the water before dawn and we usually don't see the sun until about 4:00 in the afternoon. Sometimes the beach is totally covered all day. There can be a wall of fog right by the beach that looks thick enough to touch.

The fog in this image is not quite that crazy. It was an amazing evening. I had to wade pretty far out in the water to get the angle of the sun behind the trees. And, I was not really dressed for swimming at the time.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Day at the Beach

This is actually from last summer, but it felt so much like summer around here yesterday I was feeling in the mood. That water is looking better and better at 90 degrees with no A/C!

Thursday, May 5, 2005

Mission Storm

I actually went out to get a shot of a really nice rainbow. But the scene of the clouds over the mission was the best opportunity of the day. The clouds were bunched around the mountain. As the sun set, it was shining under them through the heavy rain close the mountain. It made for some particularly dramatic lighting. As you can see from the streak of car headlights on the right of the photo, this was not a short exposure.