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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Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Natural Cafe Virtual Tour

A beautiful restaurant with great food! This is the Natural Cafe on Hitchcock in Santa Barbara. This tour was taken while I was there doing a shoot for a magazine article on the Natural Cafe. As long as I was shooting the interior I thought I would have some fun with it.

Click and drag to view in any direction and be sure to click on the arrows on the floor to navigate around the restaurant!

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Monday, May 17, 2010
Vedanta Temple Sunset Panorama

One of the many beautiful images I can credt to feedback from kind people around Santa Barbara who read one of the various sites (Santa Barbara View) I contribute to. I found out about this spot about a year ago and I have been there several times, but the evening I took this shot was the best by far. In fact it was one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen.

If you have a spot around Santa Barbara County you would love to see I would love to hear about it. Just post it here or the main contact page on my site.

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Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Sunset over Santa Barbara from Butterfly Beach

If you've looked around my sites much you probably already know that Butterfly Beach is my favorite beach in Santa Barbara. It's a beautiful place to wander and relax. Sunset is my favorite time, it's always beautiful, but Sunday (the day this was taken) was something truly special!

Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunset Clouds Over The Clock Tower

This is a little bit different angle on the Courthouse from the sunken gardens. Of course the main star of the show was the amazing sunset clouds. They were moving very quickly and the light was changing fast. In only a few minutes they were gone. But I'm very happy with the results!

Thursday, September 24, 2009
Santa Barbara Historical Museum 360 Panorama

Some days you look for a nice lighting for the subject you are interested in. Then there are the days that the lighting itself is the real star of the show. Actually, most great shots are more about the lighting than the subject but not usually this literally or obviously.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Mission Sunset Fog

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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.

Friday, August 14, 2009
Knapp's Castle 360 VR

This is one of the most beautiful spots I can think of in the Santa Barbara area. Knapp's Castle was a beautiful mansion in the early 1900's. But even the impressive construction from those days could not stand up to the wild fires we have in the mountains here. A few arches and stone walls are all that remains of the mansion. Fortunately the panoramic view of the Santa Ynez Valley is as breathtaking as ever.

Part of this image was on the photo of the day before, Storybook Castle Sunset. But I recently had a chance to work on the high resolution image again when I was working on my 2010 Santa Barbara Calendar. This is the September image. In the process I was also able to finish the whole 360° view.

Thursday, August 13, 2009
Butterfly Beach Sunset VR

Like I mentioned on yesterday's Photo of the Day, the sky was beautiful in every direction. Which of course is a perfect opportunity to take a 360° VR photo. The only problem is I did not have any kind of tripod or my normal tools. But the sky was too good to pass up so I gave it a try hand-held and I'm pretty happy with the results.

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!

Thursday, April 30, 2009
Storybook Castle Sunset

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One more shot from the mountains. And, if I had to choose, I think this would be my favorite. I really like the way the wall frames the stairway.

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.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Church of the Wayfarer VR

We spent a couple days in Monterey and Carmel this week. Like the Mission here in Santa Barbara, I have my favorite spots in Carmel to tinker with new camera equipment. This is the Church of the Wayfarer in Carmel by the Sea. This beautiful little church and a bakery on Ocean street where you can get some of the biggest Coconut Macroons you can imagine are two of our regular stops as soon as we get to the Monterey area.

Monday, April 27, 2009
Sunset over Knapp's Castle

This was one of the last shots as we were starting our walk back to the car from Knapp's Castle. I had put most of my camera gear away at this point and just looked back as I was walking away.

For a test shoot I ended up with quite a few images that I'm really happy with.

Sunday, April 26, 2009
Knapp's Castle Sunset Panorama

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This is another one of the "test" shots from the hike up the mountain the other day. Well, OK, actually more of a drive up the mountain followed by a half-mile hike on a nice trail. Regardless, it was a beautiful evening! These two shots were exactly what I had in mind before I got there. I still have some ideas for a later evening shot or two, but I'm going to have to find some warmer clothing before I go back up for that.

Sunday, March 15, 2009
Misty Morning Courthouse

This is another image from my recent Courthouse shoot. When I posted my previous courthouse shot I thought that was the one the client chose. But they are leaning toward this one now. A massive panorama taken in the first glow of the morning. The fog was so thick when I was driving there I thought I would not be able to get the shot. But it actually made for some interesting lighting. The light on the left cast shadows up from the building through the fog.

A few projects have been taking a lot of my time lately. To top it off, my main backup drive crashed. With just under a Terabyte of images on there I'm feeling pretty lucky at this point to have everything safe with the exception of one large image that I was working on at the time of the crash.

I did find an interesting thing though. When your backup drive crashes it is very nerve racking until you find a way to get everything backed up again. Of course, the only way to backup a terabyte of data fast is to put it anywhere and everywhere there is space.

I started posting this image on the fifteenth, but it's taken me a week since the full size image is 2.6 gigabytes. But I finally got things moved off onto new hard drives so I actually have some scratch disk space. TWO terabyte backup drives so everything is double backed up. With every drive crash I get more paranoid. But it's a healthy paranoia that keeps my favorite images safe.

Friday, February 13, 2009
Mission Portico 360° VR

This is an image that took a while to process. One slice of it was a previous photo of the day. But I wanted to finish the whole view. This is standing on the portico (long patio behind the archways) at the Mission Santa Barbara. This is a series of long exposures just after sunset. It was a beautiful evening to get a little different perspective on the Mission. With a little luck I'll get some time in the next week or two to spend some more time in the mission gardens to get some shots for an upcoming project. If I do you'll see them here first!

Monday, December 15, 2008
State Street Spiral Stairway 360° VR

Well it's been a busy holiday season. The photo of the day has been the photo of the month lately. That's not to say I have not been working on the site at all. There has been a lot of behind the scenes work one of the results of which is the new "browse" link at the upper right. And, at least I have been pretty happy with the few images that I have been working on. Most of them have been massive 100+ image panoramas like this one. It takes my computer more than a day to stitch them together after I do my work. But no more excuses!

This is a shot that I got one night when I was taking a break from the Joe's Cafe shoot. My wife and I were wandering on State Street a few blocks up from Joe's when we passed this cool entryway.

Thursday, November 6, 2008
Joe's Cafe

This is from Tuesday night. Tuesdays are farmers' market nights on lower State Street. You can see the booths at the left. The street is closed so it makes it safer, and more interesting, to be down there with my camera. This is about my fourth attempt to get the image I was looking for. There is a large tree (at the left) in front of Joe's. The tree makes for nice pictures, but it makes it a little hard to get a full shot of the front of the building where you can see the whole logo. But, I love a challenge. And this Tuesday my art director (my wife) went with me so that always helps!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008
La Arcada 360° VR

This is a nice little shopping center called La Arcada where I've spent a bit of time in the past with my camera. It was a fun night of shooting. I got so many shots it is going to take days to sort and process them all. I hope you like it, 'cause you'll probably see more! The response to the evening Santa Barbara shots has been very good lately so I'm betting that won't be a problem.

Saturday, November 1, 2008
Brophy Brothers at the Santa Barbara Harbor

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We were feeling like a harbor walk the other evening. And, it was looking like a nice night for some pictures. Of course I think every night is a nice night to take pictures. Even when it's raining... especially when it's raining. Looking outside right now, I might get some rain shots sometime in the near future. Although the last couple of nights it has waited until quite late to shower.

Anyway, the building at the left has, among other things, a great restaurant called Brophy Brothers where you can sit on the veranda up stairs and look out over the harbor. Been a while since I had a meal there. But I still remember the clam chowder. It was quite good. And the view is worth the trip too.

Sunday, October 5, 2008
Hotel Santa Barbara VR

This is another shot (or series of them really) from last night. It was a really great evening to take pictures. Maybe I'll Spend some more time on state street with my camera in the near future.