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.

Saturday, July 30, 2011
Milky Way From Painted Cave Drive

This is the latest in my experimentation capturing the night sky from the mountains above Santa Barbara. The night of the new moon was dark enough to catch an image of the Milky Way. It was an amazing evening, and I will definitely be doing more of this type of work.

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.

Thursday, December 16, 2010
Under the Tree by the Coral Casino, Virtual Reality

I love the Butterfly beach area in Montecito. When the tide is low you can walk all the way to Summerland in one direction, and back to East beach in Santa Barbara in the other direction. On the other hand when the tide is really high, or after a strong storm when the sand is washed away you can't get much of a beach walk. Thats when we like to walk along this walkway by the beach and watch the waves and sunset.

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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.

Monday, November 15, 2010
El Paseo Restaurant Courtyard, Virtual Reality

This spot is a slecluded little courtyard behind the El Paseo restaurant. It's an amazing spot all around but I really love the wonderful Mandeviiia vine. It's got to be at least fourty years old.

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Monday, October 18, 2010
Santa Barbara Courthouse Sunken Gardens, Virtual Reality

This is from just off the side of the sunken gardens on the Anapamu street side. This is the VR view of the recent still photo of the Courthouse Gardens at night.

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Saturday, September 25, 2010
Pacifica Graduate Institute - Campus Tour Guide by the Fountain

The other night I was at the Pacifica Graduate Institute taking some test shots for a project I'm working on. The light was not what I was looking for earlier in the evening, so I decided to shoot some other things and come back to see how things looked after dark. As soon as we got back, we met the campus tour guide. Not sure what his name is, but he showed us around the grounds pointing out his favorite spots. This spot in particular had a nice contemplative feel. Our feline guide was kind enough to pose and add some extra feeling to the scene. It was a very nice evening at a beautiful spot in Montecito.

Friday, July 2, 2010
Pepper Tree Inn Virtual Tour

A beautiful spot on upper State Street in Santa Barbara, this is the Best Western Pepper Tree Inn. It was a great spot to do a tour. Be sure to look around closely for the arrows to move around and see the rest of the beautiful grounds.

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Monday, June 21, 2010
Newburyport Massachusetts Sunset

Another hand-held shot from our trip to Massachusetts. It was a beautiful evening. So many brick buildings! Of course that kind of architecture works in a place where the ground doesn't shake under your feet all the time.

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Thursday, June 17, 2010
Santa Barbara Historical Museum Virtual Tour

The Santa Barbara Historical Museum is a wonderful bit of history right in the middle of town. Just waling through their courtyard is like stepping back in time. And if you ever have the opportunity to be there in the evening the experience is even more magical.

This is a tour of their courtyard. Not a tour in the way you would systematically tour a commercial space for an online marketing campaign. But this is just me wandering around looking for the angles that interest me. If you click on the arrows on the ground you can wander aroud the beautiful courtyard with me.

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Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Moonlit Massachusetts Town Square

Recently we had the opportunity to spend a few quick days touring New England. This was a cute little town in Massachusetts we stopped in long enough to have dinner and snap a few photos. In an attempt to travel light I did not take a tripod, so this was shot totally hand-held. I was actually surprised at how well it came out for as late as it was. Hopefully we'll get back in the fall one year when the leaves are doing their show.

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Sunday, March 7, 2010
Santa Barbara Historical Museum Courtyard Portico

The Santa Barbara Historical Museum is a wonderful treasure. As with so many of the local architectural jewels, the beauty is only amplified by the evening light. Many times I have gone out of my way to walk through their beautiful grounds. It is an amazing change of environment in the middle of down town Santa Barbara and it is one of the things that makes our city special. With just a small detour you are taken not only to another place and time.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010
UCSB Starry Night

Walking at sunset around the campus of UCSB during a holiday break I thought I might find everything too quiet to get the photos I was looking for. But like any small city, there is always something going on there. I was happy to see some lights in the windows and the beautiful landscape lighting still on. This image was the last of the evening and one of my favorites.

Sunday, November 8, 2009
The Natural Cafe Hitchcock Twilight

The Natural Cafe is a great place to get some excellent food in a wonderful atmosphere. This is the Hitchcock location in Santa Barbara. This is from a recent shoot for an article in a magazine featuring the restaurant, and their wondeful yet healthy food.

Saturday, October 24, 2009
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Courtyard

This is a beautiful little church out in Montecito. It's one of my favorite places to wander in the evenings with my camera. The architecture is really something special and the people are really nice too! This was actually taken the same night as a previous photo of the day which is now part of my Santa Barbara Calendar.

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.

Saturday, July 25, 2009
Grand Finale Over Santa Barbara

So there I was thinking "If only I had a flash powerful enough to light up the whole city," and then...

Saturday, July 4, 2009
Fourth of July Over Santa Barbara

We usually try to avoid the crowds when there is some sort of celebration in town. (The exception being the Solstice Parade.) This year however, I was looking for a nice Independence Day Photograph for a project I'm working on. The thing is I would not really have been interested in the normal looking-up-from-the-crowd shot anyway. So earlier in the day we spent some time scoping out a nice angle that would include the Wharf and a more interesting Santa Barbara view and this is the result. It always helps to scout your locations ahead of time.

You can click on the main image for a larger view.

Happy Independence Day!! And thank you to all the brave people in uniform who make this day possible.

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!

Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Queen of the Missions Fountain Test VR

This is the rest of the image from my lens test at the Mission Santa Barbara the other day. Actually, most of the recent photos of the day have full 360° panorams to go with them that I will get online soon. Usually the panoramas start out based around one nice shot. Of course the challenge is to find a point of view on that nice shot that also looks good in all directions.

Friday, April 24, 2009
Knapp's Arch Sunset

For the last couple of months I have been contributing a "Photo of the Week" to a local news site, Santa Barbara's Blog. Yesterday a request came through them for a shot of Knapp's Castle, the ruins of an old mansion that burned in the forties. It is just over the peak of the mountain north of Santa Barbara overlooking the Santa Ynez valley and Cachuma Lake. For the last year I had been trying to get up there to get some photos, so I was happy to get up there and take some test shots. The intention was to just check out the location and plan for equipment and timing. But, I'm pretty happy with the test shots. I'm still going to try to get up there again soon, but it's hard to beat a couple of nice shots on the first pass.

Thursday, April 23, 2009
El Paseo Courtyard

So after the Mission the other day I was pretty happy with the new lens I was considering. But I like to get my money's worth out of a rental. I had it for two evenings, and when I went out last night I was a little disappointed by the overcast sky. It looked like it was going to be a very grey evening with low fog. But I figured it was worth a try. Fortunatly, my art director (my wonderful wife) suggested going to the El Paseo restaurant. As the sky got a darker blue there were a few minutes where the sunset colors mixed with the blue sky and the reflected city lights on the low fog to creat a wonderful purple color.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Santa Barbara Historical Museum

I was looking through some old shots for some photos that I remembered taking, but did not remember how they turned out. (Sometimes I take more photos than I have time to process.) This was one of the ones I was looking for. It's always a nice surprise to wander back through my photos and try to find cool things that fell through the cracks.

This was just after a particularly beautiful winter sunset. The wispy clouds are still reflecting the glow of the sunset and the lights of the city making the beautiful colors in the sky.