A Photo a Day by Bill Heller

Silhouette Photos
 
Wednesday, December 12, 2007

East Beach Woodcut - No Lifeguard On Duty

 I went out this evening to get some evening shots of the city. I was not sure exactly what I was looking for, but when I drove by East Beach I saw it. :-D

This scene reminds me of a woodcut technique where the black silhouette is printed over a gradient background. The sky was cloudless, the dark outline at the left on the horizon is Santa Cruz Island part of Channel Islands National Park.

 
Thursday, March 15, 2007

Santa Barbara Sunset Clouds

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What a wild evening. The clouds are absolutely amazing around here sometimes.

 
Monday, March 5, 2007

Pismo Beach Sunset

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It's not really the most popular time of year to go to the beach around here. But, then most people are not crazy photographers. (thank heavens!) Ya don't get sunsets like this in the summer around here.

The flowers in the center are Japanese Irises, on the right is a bird of Paradise.

 
Friday, February 23, 2007

I Can FLY!

 I took several shots of this dog, but the thing I like about this one in particular is the fact that none of his feet are touching the ground. He was running far ahead of his friend, the guy to the left. Then he would run all the way back. Apparently the pace of the walk was not quite as fast as he would like.

In my case, it could be me making multiple trips back and forth waiting for The Hound. Not because she is lazy, but because when she really gets into her walk she likes to inspect every inch along the way. I experience our walks with my eyes and camera. She is all about her nose. I don't think she even pays attention to her eyes unless something out of the ordinary happens. As evidenced by the orange traffic cone that snuck up on her tonight and made her jump straight up in the air when she realized it was there.

 
Sunday, August 27, 2006

Butterfly Beach Sunset

 It was a nice sunset this evening. No clouds, but still a nice glow in the sky.

 
Thursday, August 24, 2006

Sunset Exercise

 I went to the doctor and, big surprise, I have to eat healthier and get more exercise! (should have seen that comin') On the plus side, walking is his recommended way to do that. And I figure, if you're gonna walk, you might as well do it someplace nice!

This is Butterfly Beach in Santa Barbara. It is one of the less traveled beaches around here. It is not in an area that you would normally stumble on. And it is our favorite beach. So after making one good pedometer out of two broken ones, we had a nice sunset walk. Oh, I mean... we went out and got some exercise!

 
Monday, April 17, 2006

Spring Evening

 The hound picked a nice time for a walk this evening. The light was beautiful. Finally a break from the rain and it actually felt like spring. For better or for worse the news anchors were excited about the fact that we should actually have three beautiful days in a row! Not exactly a long run for Southern California, but at this point I'll take what I can get!

 
Monday, December 26, 2005

Birthday Sunset

 This one was posted a little late. But, it is a belated birthday present for my best friend who is now (January 16th) my wife. Yesterday, she asked me what picture she got for her day. And, due to some major wedding preparations at that time I was getting behind on the photo of the day so she got to choose her own.

 
Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Santa Barbara Sunset

 This is the view from the stairway to my old office. It may not have been the most fun place to work, but it was a great place to watch our beautiful winter sunsets.

 
Saturday, November 19, 2005

Santa Barbara Sunset

 There is an artist in the Sunday Art walk on Cabrillo Blvd. (where this shot is taken) who does woodcut images, silhouettes with a gradient color in the background. These evenings, the beautiful cloudless sunsets remind me of those.

 
Friday, August 19, 2005

Sunset Tree Silhouettes

 Never a dull show!

 
Saturday, August 6, 2005

Sunset Silhouette

 We are having some unseasonably beautiful sunsets. Usually the real show is reserved for the wet winter season.

 
Sunday, July 17, 2005

Fire in the Sky

 Another sunset for the people at yesterday's show. The combination of beach fog and sunsets can do some amazing things for a camera.

This was a few days after yesterday's shot, at the same beach. You can see the flag in the other shot too, to give you an idea of the perspective.

 
Sunday, June 5, 2005

Ventura Mission Silhouette

 Unlike most of the missions, this one is right in the middle of downtown Ventura. It makes it convenient to get photos of it since I have been doing some coding for a company right down the street from it.

 
Sunday, May 29, 2005

Hummingbird Silhouette

 If I really wanted to, I could tweak this and get some detail out of the Hummingbird. But I like him completely in silhouette. They seem so thoughtful when they are perched like this.

 
Sunday, May 22, 2005

Butterfly Beach Sunset

 The weather around here in June is known as "June Gloom." The fog comes in over the water before dawn and we usually don't see the sun until about 4:00 in the afternoon. Sometimes the beach is totally covered all day. There can be a wall of fog right by the beach that looks thick enough to touch.

The fog in this image is not quite that crazy. It was an amazing evening. I had to wade pretty far out in the water to get the angle of the sun behind the trees. And, I was not really dressed for swimming at the time.

 
Saturday, April 30, 2005

Sunset Run

 This was taken from above, on Stearns Wharf, which gave it the interesting perspective.

 
Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Sunset Cloud Shadows

 More sky shadows. Like the shot from yesterday, this was a particularly interesting sky, and I was happy to have my camera with me. :-)

 
Monday, April 25, 2005

Moring Cloud Trails

 This was a particularly interesting sunrise. One of the times I was really happy I was carrying my camera with me everywhere.

This photo made me think quite a bit about the position of the clouds in the atmosphere. If you take a look at the contrails, they appear to be casting shadows up on the clouds. This is a result of an optical illusion.

The contrails are at a higher level than the clouds. They appear closer because they are much denser than the high altitude Cirrus clouds. The clouds are made of ice crystals, blown in the wind like grains of sand. And, being thin and wispy, you see more blue sky through them which contributes to the illusion.

All other things equal, your brain is wired to see a bluer object as being further away. Like a mountain in the distance, when there is more atmosphere between you and the object you are viewing, the object appears bluer.

There are actually two layers of clouds, one right below the trails and another, much thinner and hazier one, quite a bit lower. This accounts for the double shadow.

 
Saturday, April 9, 2005

Autumn Sunset

 I was just flipping through some older scans when I found this image. It reminded me that I have about a thousand rolls of slides that I would like to poke through and see if there is anything else interesting lurking in the files. (I'll do that in all my spare time) :0)

 
Thursday, April 7, 2005

Sunset Reflection

 This was taken from East Beach in Santa Barbara. The strings of lights are Christmas decorations on Stearns Wharf.

 
Friday, March 11, 2005

Sunset Palms

 I guess this is why they call it Palm Desert!

The bright thing in the sky is a sliver of the moon. It appears small in the photo because it was taken with a wide angle lens.

 
Thursday, January 27, 2005

Sunset Gull

 Here are two different croppings of the same image.

I love trying to catch birds in flight and this one was very cooperative! This was during a walk on Leadbetter Beach (one of the main tourist beaches in Santa Barbara, by the Harbor) at sunset right after feeding the seagulls a little bread. (Hey, I have to pay my models! And these guys are smart enough to get payment up front)

The poles sticking up in the air are the masts of small rental catamarans on the beach. And, if your monitor is bright enough to see it, the rectangle on the pole at the right of the smaller image is an array of lights over the sports field at Santa Barbara City College.
 
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