Sunset Photos

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Saturday, April 26, 2008

San Simeon Sunset

This was taken the evening before my VR Highway 1 Sunset, just a little further up Highway 1. If you turned around from where we were standing you could almost see the top of Hearst Castle in the hills.

Of course if you looked to the left... and I apologize in advance for ruining the tranquil California sunset day dream you're having right now... there were a bunch of Elephant Seals. And they were quite loud and very comical. I'm sure I have a few shots of them to get on-line soon.

Now back to the regularly scheduled day dream... Right up the road, a little closer to the lighthouse is a scenic point that has less seals, and when we were there they were just laying enjoying the evening sea breeze. One had her flipper over her baby like she was hugging it. So if you'd rather picture yourself there that would work too. :-D

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Santa Barbara Harbor Sunset view from the Breakwater

Another beautiful sunset and another massive image. If you look closely you can see stearns wharf in the image off to the right. (if you have Flash 9 installed, you can use the up arrow to zoom in)

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!

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Highway 1 VR Sunset

If you have Flash installed in your browser, click and drag on the image once it loads, you should get a pleasant surprise.

This image has been quite a few days in the making. I had the good fortune to be in Cambria (north on the coast, 'bout half way to Monterey) last week around sunset and I just happened to have my new panoramic tripod head with me. Seeing as how I don't have a good fish-eye for my digital camera, I used my widest lens available. To get the whole image it took 36 shots. Of course, the difference shooting into the sun, and away was more than a single exposure setting could handle. So I had to take three separate exposures and combine them into a High Dynamic Range Image.

From that point, I just had to see how far I could push my computer. Rather than scale the images down I wanted to see just how big I could make the image. In the end the 108 images combined into a two gigabyte, 240 megapixel image. I figure it would print nicely at around twelve feet wide. I spared your internet connection the full size image. But as I mentioned above, users with Flash should be able to experience a nice point of view. I can tell you the VR interface gives the closest experience to actually standing there taking the photo I can imagine.

Enjoy, and please let me know if you experience any difficulties with the new interface.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Shorline Sunset Panorama

Click the main image for a larger view

As I have mentioned before, there are very few places you can see the sunset over the water in Santa Barbara. Our coast faces the south for the most part. But there are a few small sections that give you a glimpse of the setting sun.

This is a combination of thirteen shots covering more than 200°. My intention was to shoot an entire 360° image. In the end this particular set of images caught the best lighting to bring out the beautiful texture of the clouds. But it did not quite make the full circle.

If you like the panoramas, you should check back. My wife got me a couple of nice tripods, and one will be perfect for a panoramic head I have been drooling over... er, I mean carefully considering investing in. :-D

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

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Santa Barbara Hills

Happy New Year!

It's been a busy holiday season. This was from one of my many trips by the Mission to see if the animals were in the nativity scene yet. I had no luck there before things got too busy, but as long as I was out with my camera...

Saturday, December 15, 2007

CCSB in the Setting Sun

As I mentioned yesterday I was out taking some test shots for a new project. The intention was to check the lighting and get an idea what equipment I would need. But as the sky got prettier I decided to take a shot at getting some images to combine into a high dynamic range image. Normally, not a difficult task. But in this case I only had a monopod so that made keeping the camera perfectly still between shots a bit of a challenge. I might not use it for a poster size image but I'm pretty happy with the results.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Sunset at 1525 State

When the evening sun does beautiful things like this I find myself wishing I could drop everything and take pictures. Today I had a busy afternoon of meetings and appointments, fortunately one of them was with a new client so I just happened to have my camera handy. I think the wispy pink clouds really add a lot! Not to mention the cool bus tail lights that came through at just the right time.

This is a combination of five images in what is called a High Dynamic Range Image, mostly used in this case to pick out the details in the bright spots. One of the interesting things about one of those bright spots is the color of the sign. That lovely green is the way film (or in this case a digital sensor) sees fluorescent lights. As they ummm... "encourage" us in California to use the CFLs my evening shots are going to get a lot greener, supposedly in more ways than one.

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.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Sunset Wharf Walk

The clouds in the distance are actually our "Marine Layer" (fog) that rolls in to the beach in the evening. It was a good night for a walk on the Wharf.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Harbor Earth Shadow

I really love this shot and all the others I took along with it. It was a great evening right after a Photography show walking with my dad at the Santa Barbara harbor.

Aside from the beauty of the scene and the great memories it brings back (as most of my photos do for me), I like the science in this shot. If you poke around the photo of the day it's not hard to notice other evidence of the left side of my brain creeping into my photography. In this case, the dark blue near the horizon that slopes upward to the left is what intrigues me. It is actually the shadow of the Earth. As the sun was slipping further below the horizon behind me on my right side, it still lit the atmosphere above me. It is easiest to see this effect looking out over the ocean so there are no hills or even buildings and trees to block it.

BTW, I finally got back to the photo of the day thanks to a really nice post the other day from Mary Ann. Always wonderful to know people are enjoying my creativity. One of the many things I was doing in my absence was working on a new gallery site of my Santa Barbara photos... www.ImagesOfSantaBarbara.com.

Thanks again Mary Ann!

Thursday, August 23, 2007

California Sunset

Santa Barbara (where we live) is beautiful in general, don't get me wrong. And, I have heard people try to extol the virtues of our south facing beach. But you just don't get a sunset like this off of a south facing beach! Which is probably one of the main reasons I like exploring the rest of California.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Storke Sunset

This is an older image, from the building I used to work in at UCSB. My office was on the first floor but in the winter I liked to watch the sunset from this spot.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Santa Barbara Sunset Clouds

Click for a bigger image

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

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Fisheye Sunset at Savoy

I have been preparing more photos from an old shoot for one of my favorite clients. This is a beautiful restaurant on Figueroa Street in Santa Barbara. It is run by a really nice couple who grew up around here. With all of the huge corporations setting their sights on Santa Barbara in recent years it is really nice to see a good local business thrive!

They have really nice photos on the walls too! :-D

Monday, March 5, 2007

Pismo Beach Sunset

Click for a bigger image

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.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Winter Sunset

A couple of days ago The Hound decided it was time for me to take a break from my computer right around sunset. I think she can sniff out a good photo opportunity.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Mesa Sunset

There are few places in Santa Barbara where you can watch the sun set over the ocean. Most of the beaches face south. But if you look around you can find a few spots with a nice view.

We have to enjoy the sunsets while they last, this is about the time of year the show is over for about nine months. During the spring and summer there's not usually enough clouds to make a spectacle like this.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Foggy Gull

This is actually an older shot. I was surprised when I looked and found that I had never used it on the photo of the day. The poles in the background are masts of small catamarans that are on the beach for rent. They were not far from where I was standing to take the picture, that gives you an idea how fast and heavy the evening fog was rolling in.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Carmel Sunset

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. I was looking through some images to put a few online and this one seemed appropriate. This was on the next to last day of one of our last trips to Carmel. And I'm feeling like I need a vacation.

Of course, I think I have said that enough times that I could make that a category on the Photo of the Day!

Carmel ₁₆ | Carmel by the Sea ₁₁ | fog ₄ | sunset ₇₅

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Sunset at the Mission Rose Garden

(click to see a bigger version)

More experimentation! This image was created from about 11 shots of the sunset. I could not get exactly what I wanted from one shot from any one lens. The only thing I had that was wide enough to get the whole sunset was a fish eye. I like my fish eye, but in this case I wanted to give more of the feeling of standing there in the rose garden watching the sunset. The distortion of the fish eye detracted from that too much.

The sheer scale of things caused some interesting problems. The full scale image could be printed easily 4 and a half feet at high resolution. And as long as I am building this kind of thing I figure why not go for full scale!?

I think I need more ram... and more hard drives.

Sunday, October 8, 2006

Harbor Light

Another sunset shot from the harbor. The evenings have been really beautiful lately. This is a good time of year to be a photographer. In fact, the only bad thing is I did so much photography work last week I did not get other things done. I hope to have many more weeks like that. :-D

Friday, September 29, 2006

Breakwater Sunset

This evening we took a nice sunset walk on the breakwater around the Santa Barbara Harbor. The clouds were beautiful and the lights on the water made for some great photos. It's finally getting to that time of year where we have enough moisture in the air to make some interesting clouds.

'Course the huge wild fire doesn't hurt the sunsets either. It's about 35 miles from us, but it still looked like it was snowing here one day from all of the ash.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Butterfly Beach Sunset

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