Fountain Photos

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Saturday, May 10, 2008

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish 360° view

Back to Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish in Montecito. This was actually the first image I took with my new panoramic tripod head. But as I mentioned in an earlier post it took me a bit of time to finish all of the shots and in the time it took the light had changed quite a bit. I did not think I was going to be able to stitch it together right. But now that I have had a little practice I was able to get it to work.

Of course that brought up some new problems. The image is so large I kept getting "Hard drive full" errors. Strange seeing as how there was 500 gig of space. In the end I realized that the format of the hard drive only allows a maximum of four gigabyte files. Yeah, it's a big picture... ten feet wide actually.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Stearns Sunset

I have learned to make the most of the clouds when they come out around here. during the summer we just have haziness and fog. Most of the rest of the year it's clear and blue. But as I have said so often on the photo of the day, the clear blue skies don't make for much of a sunset. But the evening I took this shot was just amazing! We almost did not go since we were getting out a little too late for the sunset. Turned out to be a better image with the stars in it anyway!

So now that I have the VR functionality down I thought I would take the time to fine tune the process. I created this image and recreated it from the 120+ individual shots that make it. This is my fourth complete revision, after trying out about ten different programs for different parts of the process. I can now confidently say there is no substitution for hard work. (I'm hearing my 7th grade english teacher in the back of my head asking me if the computer I did my homework on did the work for me when I pushed a single button) Maybe some day, but we're still not there yet. Quite to the contrary, with each new advance in computing power you just get more room to find a new level of creativity.

I hope you enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed making it!

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, July 30, 2007

Dolphins in the Evening

The hound decided that we should take our walks in the evening on this trip. Apparently the early morning walks while we are out of town have lost their shine. Can't say I am unhappy about that, especially when I get nice images like this.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Lotus & Lily Pads

Seems like a fitting image. As I upload this it is raining like crazy.

I love the way the water beads on the lily pads, and the ruffled edges of the pads themselves.

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Dolphins at Sunrise

This morning The Hound decided it was time to implement her morning vacation walks. This one was particularly early as you can see. She must know I love the morning light, but I am unlikely to see it without a little prodding.

Friday, December 8, 2006

Stone Fountain

I ran into this fountain while wandering through a local nursery. I was chasing hummingbirds at the time, but the fountain had some nice shadows on it so it grabbed my attention for a bit.

fountain ₂₇ | water ₅₅ | wet ₃

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, February 18, 2006

San Fernando Fountain

This is an interesting mission. It is at a bit of an unexpected place right in the middle of a city, just north of LA.

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.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Frog Statues

This is a great little scene in an art garden in Palm Springs. It is a place where artists can rent little workshops and the public can go in and see them work and purchase their art.

flower ₃₁₃ | fountain ₂₇ | frog ₃ | green ₃₅

Tuesday, December 6, 2005

Playing with Dolphins

I'm not totally sure if she was reaching up to hug the dolphin, or she was imagining it jumping through her arms. I think it was the latter. Either way, I can thank my hound dog for the opportunity to capture this scene. I would have slept in if not for the fact that she was in the mood for an uncharacteristic early morning walk.

Friday, November 18, 2005

Savoy

I have been a little behind in the photo of the day. So I thought it would be nice to give you another glimpse of the one of the many projects I have going at the moment.

This is a beautiful new restaurant on Figueroa. They have been kind enough to allow me to display my artwork, and I am working on capturing their beautiful atmosphere for their marketing materials.

This Sunday they are starting a Sunday brunch, I'm looking forward to that!

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.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Dolphins at the Wharf

I really like the water in this image. The long exposure hid the fact that the water was moving pretty well in the fountain. If you look closely you can see where the drops of water leave the edge of the fountain and hit the pool below. But they disappear in between. The surface of the water was covered with ripples which caused the blurred surface as opposed to a smooth reflective surface of a less agitated pool at night.

Friday, August 5, 2005

Lily Pads

This one, as with many of my photos, was only walking distance from my front door.

fountain ₂₇ | green ₃₅ | leaf ₄₁ | lily pad ₈ | pond 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.

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...

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Fountain Daisies

In the Cannery District in Monterey there is a beautiful fountain. It is a sculpture of several dolphins leaping in the air. This is the pool around the fountain. You can see the silhouette of the dolphins reflected in the pool.

Sunday, May 1, 2005

Mission Gardens

There are quite a few images of the front of the Santa Barbara Mission. And for good reason, it is a beautiful place. But it's beauty is much more than skin deep.

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Nighttime at the Mission

I almost lost this image. It was on a roll of film in a camera that I had not used in a few weeks. Assuming it was empty I opened the back of the camera. Luckily the best shots seemed to be early on the roll and deep enough in the camera to not be affected.

This was a long exposure from the edge of the fountain. the blurry area in the water is the affect of the water on the surface over the length of the exposure.

Saturday, April 16, 2005

El Estero Lake

We have been tinkering with Pastels a bit, and this was one of the locations we thought we might try to paint with them. But, as vacations always do, this week went by way too fast and we never took that much time sitting in one place. So we took lots of pictures for reference.

Of course, painting from photos is nothing short of heresy these days, as the art-fad-du-jour is "Plein Air" art (painting on location.) But I have always been more interested in the end result. I guess I have always loved art but not "Artists" (well not the snooty ones anyway.) :-D IMHO, if anyone tells you a particular way is the "WRONG WAY" or "THE ONLY WAY" they are showing their lack of imagination.

We always pass this lake on the way into Monterey. It is in a great little park. There is something for everyone including paddle-boats and a large playground called "Dennis the Menace Playground". In fact the granite pedestal that Zoe is standing on in yesterday's photo is part of a series of polished stones that get progressively taller as you walk around the lake.

El Estero ₁ | fountain ₂₇ | lake ₇ | Monterey ₁₇ | Park ₅

Friday, March 25, 2005

Floating Pads

The thing I like the most about this picture is the refraction happening at the edge of the lily pads where they touch the water. the surface tension of the extremely still water is grabbing the bottom edge of the pads. Which is causing the surface of the water to bend. This creates a refraction, like light going through a lens, giving you the bright edges around the shadows in the bottom of the fountain.

Sunday, March 20, 2005

Stearns Wharf Dolphin Fountain

I like the fact that this exposure was long enough to get the red, green and amber lights on the traffic signal. The people were waiting for an evening tour bus so they were there long enough to be visible in the photo.