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.

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.

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.

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.

Saturday, February 5, 2005
El Paseo Shadows

This is one of many cool photographs I can thank my art director for. I took this while walking with my best friend on EL Paseo in Palm Desert. She pointed out the shadows from across the street. I would have walked right past them (and I probably did many times.)

Monday, January 31, 2005
Arcada Ficus

Another night picture in La Arcada Court. That is not the sun at the top of the picture, it's a light on the bottom of a foot bridge between the buildings.

Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Mission Lily

One of the things I like most about this photo is the small ring of ripples to the left of the flower.

Saturday, January 8, 2005
Dolphin Fountain at Sunset

I have always liked taking pictures at sunset. Aside from the interesting shadows, the colors are much more intense. Lately I have been waiting 'til later in the evening to explore the glow of the lights along with the final light of the day.