A Photo a Day by Bill Heller

Architecture Photos
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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!

 
Monday, January 21, 2008

Moonlit Tree

 This evening I went out to take some test shots for my current project. The moon was doing some beautiful things with the clouds so it got me a little sidetracked. But that is always lots of fun too.

 
Thursday, January 10, 2008

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

 My intent was to get some nice sunset shots of this beautiful church in Montecito. I was a little late, but it was still a nice night.

If you tilt your head to the left and use your imagination a little you can make out half of the constellation Orion rising from behind the church.

 
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...

 
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!

 
Saturday, December 15, 2007

CCSB in the Setting Sun

 As I mentioned yesterday I was out taking some test shots for a new project. The intention was to check the lighting and get an idea what equipment I would need. But as the sky got prettier I decided to take a shot at getting some images to combine into a high dynamic range image. Normally, not a difficult task. But in this case I only had a monopod so that made keeping the camera perfectly still between shots a bit of a challenge. I might not use it for a poster size image but I'm pretty happy with the results.

 
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, 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.

 
Thursday, June 21, 2007

Storke Sunset

 This is an older image, from the building I used to work in at UCSB. My office was on the first floor but in the winter I liked to watch the sunset from this spot.

 
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.

 
Saturday, November 18, 2006

Savoy Nights

 This week I had the enviable task of shooting and designing a new ad for a great restaurant in town. I love this kind of evening shot, and since the primary objective of the ad was to let everyone know they are now open for dinner it seemed the perfect opportunity for some dusk photography.

If you would like to see the finished ad, watch for the upcoming issue of Santa Barbara Food & Home or contact me for a sneak preview.

 
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.

 
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.

 
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.

 
Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Carmel Architecture

 Looking forward to going back to Carmel soon. This is the same building as in this image of the day.

 
Sunday, December 4, 2005

Lamp

 Another image from our sunset walk in Carmel. I really appreciate it when people have their cool lamps set to come on early enough in the evening to get a nice shot of their surroundings. :-D

 
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!

 
Thursday, November 3, 2005

Savoy Truffles

 This is a new place that just opened on Figueroa Street in Santa Barbara, "Savoy Truffles." They were kind enough to display my photos in their restaurant. And, I am now working on capturing some images of their beautiful place. They actually took this place down to the studs and crafted an incredible environment inside.

The food is excellent, not to mention all natural. I can highly recommend the strawberry spinach salad and the cappuccino (the one in the photo did not last long after this was taken, it was gooood!) Perhaps best of all, the couple who own the restaurant are locals who grew up here.

 
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!

 
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.

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