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.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Butterfly Beach Stone Wall Sunset Landscape

We're having a wonderful run of beautiful sunsets right now. But this is actually from a beautiful evening walk along Butterfly Beach back in October. I had a request to use the image, but they needed a horizontal layout. Fortunately I usually shoot both horizontal and vertical if I can frame a nice composition both ways for just this reason.

Sunday, January 10, 2010
Montecito Sunset

Yesterday was a bit overcast during the day. We had some things to do around town and later in the day found ourselves in a beautiful little nursury in Carpenteria. As the sun was getting low it started to break through the clouds so we found a nice spot in the Montecito hills on the way home to watch the show. What followed was one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. It was truly one of those times you wish you had your camera! Fortunately I did!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Shipwrecked After Dark on Butterfly Beach

The clouds were beautiful the other evening at Butterfly beach. Just after sunset they looked almost like an aurora. This was an extremely long exposure, the last of a particularly beautiful day.

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!

Friday, October 23, 2009
Nojoqui Falls Rock Shelter

This little cave-like formation is common at the bottom of a waterfall. The churning of the water easily erodes the rock more quickly than the falling water down the face of the waterfall. I would imagine it would be a much more violent and dangerous place in the middle of a rain storm. But I'll bet it's a spectacular sight!

Monday, July 20, 2009
Stearns Wharf Sunset

Click the main image for a larger view.

Last Friday was a beautiful day to sit and watch the clouds. They really catch my attention this time of year since we usually don't have many of them. I took the opportunity to wander out on the wharf where I could get a wide open view of the evening sky. It was a perfect start for a relxing weekend!

Sunday, February 15, 2009
Santa Barbara Harbor Sailboats

Whenever I feel like wandering around aimlessly with my camera the Harbor is one of my favorite spots for a stroll. This was an image I took a couple of months ago around the same time I shot a massive panorama of the harbor. Sometimes the individual images wait around until I get all the huge projects done. It's times like now that I enjoy going back and seeing what else I may have missed. Especially because I have a bit of a cold so I thought better of running around in the cool weather with my camera this weekend. I have to get healthy since we are supposed to have the storm to end all storms sometime starting in the next day or so and I want to be well enough to go play in the snow. It's really important to never grow up too much!

Sunday, February 1, 2009
Secluded Cove

Today we took a drive down Highway 1 to look for a place called Jade cove. It is always a beautiful drive and we usually stop at various parks in Big Sur but this time we found everything on the east side of Highway 1 closed. They had some massive fires last year and they still have not reopened the parks.

Luckily all the vista points on the beach side were still open. This is just south of Big Sur at a vista point looking south along the coast.

Probably good we did not stop that often anyway, Jade cove was a lot further than we expected, almost twenty miles further. And if you have ever been on Highway 1, twenty miles can be a long way especially this time of year when they are just barely keeping parts of it passable.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Stearns Wharf in the Distance

This is the shot I was looking for when I got yesterday's photo of the day. Well sort of anyway. I was thinking this might be a nice angle a little later in the evening once the lights are on in the buildings on Stearns Wharf. Maybe next time I'll get out there a little later. And as I type this the evening news is calling for more clouds next week. I better start making some space on my hard drive for more photos!

Monday, January 26, 2009
SBCC Stearns Wharf View

Saturday was a beautiful day. We had the opportunity to wander around and enjoy the sunset. Which is one of the things I like to do as much as possible this time of year. This was the view from Santa Barbara City College just a bit before sunset. Sometimes my images are totally controlled and I have a plan for exactly what I'm looking for. In this case I stared with a shot from the pathway that you see. The streetlights were not very interesting looking. But after I got what I was looking for I took a walk around to see what I might be missing. I thought the path looked nice so I got a few shots, but even then I did not notice that the lights were already on. It was only after I got home and looked through the pictures that I saw the glow in the lights and decided this was one of my favorite images.

Sunday, January 25, 2009
High Speed Fountain

Today was a day of relaxation. Well, after the morning of spring cleaning it was anyway. (Yeah, spring comes early in California and it's not always a good thing.) One of our stops today was at Terra Sol Nursery on Patterson Avenue. We spend a LOT of time there for people who live in a place with a 10' x 25' back yard. But there is always room for one more plant. And there is always room for quite a few more cool plant photos.

We were trying to think of something nice to put in a newly cleaned space hoping it would discourage us from collecting junk... er, I mean, important things that have yet to find a permanent home. Today it was the fountains that caught our eyes. But those are more of an outside thing so we left uncharacteristically empty handed. Well other than for a few really cool shots of the water flowing from the fountains. This one is particularly interesting because just looking at the fountain the stream was a perfect column of water. But at 1/640th of a second you can clearly see individual pulses of the motor driving the pump. Usually the pumps pulse at 60hz (60 times per second) same as the electricity that supplies them.

In the spirit of simplifying things, and since the photo of the day has been a little behind lately, I have created a new category on the site: "unretouched". This image is just as it came out of the camera. Not to say that all the other images are heavily altered. But I am far from a purist when it comes to either recreating the scene as I remember it, or just having fun with a creative image. And recently I have been working with some massive panoramas that take days to get just right. So it will be nice to take some more spontaneous shots.

Sunday, December 28, 2008
Pacific Grove Sunset

This is from a couple of nights ago. It was a beautiful evening. Of course right at this very spot the wind was almost strong enough to knock me over at one point. But it was still very beautiful. I'm posing it a bit late (it's not actually the 28th anymore I know!) but I do have a bunch of trip shots to get online. Unfortunately the trip was too short with too many cool things to do. With a couple of projects going now that we are back in town, I'm keeping my system busy processing photos. But I'll get new things online as fast as possible.

Saturday, December 27, 2008
Monterey Wave

Yesterday was a fun day. We ate good food and cruised around Monterey. There was just enough wind to make the waves interesting. But not enough to make you feel like you were going to have your skin removed if you stood outside for more than a minute. That's the way it's been in the past when we have been there. A couple of years ago they even lost some trees and had other serious trouble.

Monday, November 3, 2008
Santa Barbara Lights

Click the main image for a larger view.

This is the third and last shot from our walk on the breakwater the other evening. (Actually it's 48 shots but who's counting?)

It was an amazingly beautiful evening. And I was happy to get out to the breakwater this late since I have been pondering a shot like this for a while.

If you would like a quick tour of our beautiful home, read on... The water on the left is the inside of the Harbor. The buildings from yesterday's photo of the day and the day before are just on the other side of the harbor at the left. You can see the tall white flood lights of the Santa Barbara City College field. The field of view in this image is 248° so the flags that you see at the left and the very right are acutally (more or less) in a straight line. Straight out the rock breakwater in the middle of the shot is the entrance to the harbor. And, some of the bright lights on the other side of the entrance are along Stearn's Wharf. The large bright white light further to the right is another ball field. The glow going up the mountain is the lights of the city, and you can see our evening fog rolling in especially at the right over the bright white light.

Sunday, November 2, 2008
Sunset at the Yacht Club

This was taken just a couple minutes after yesterday's photo of the day. The Santa Barbara Yacht Club has a great spot on the beach and a beautiful building. I have walked past it often and pondered a sunset shot. But I never had the timing just right until now.

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

Click the main image for a larger view.

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.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Tentacles in the Sand

This is one of the first shots with my underwater housing for my camera. I've had it for a while and have not had a chance to use it. The extremely low tides this week were a good opportunity to go wading through the tidal pools taking pictures. 'Course, the water was so shallow they were all extreme close ups, but that's just fine with me.

These guys are really beautiful, they are related to jelly fish, but they stay on the bottom, usually anchored to a rock under the sand. The pretty colors come from a symbiotic algae living in their translucent tissues.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Streams in the Sand

Been trying to get more exercise. The best place to do that is the beach of course. (I feel like we are wasting the beautiful place we live when we don't spend enough time on the beach.) This week has been particularly fun because the low tides have been extremely low and at a good time in the afternoon to get there after the heat and for the good evening light.

I'm starting to experiment with an underwater housing for my camera and I'll get some of the shots from that online in the next couple of days. But there was something interesting going on that did not require any special equipment. The tide was so low, that ground water or just extra sea water was flowing from the sand for about four feet up from the water line. That slow flow lined most of the beach with these beautiful patterns.

Sunday, September 21, 2008
Nice Hat!

I really enjoyed the Monterey Bay Aquarium, so I had to drag my wife to the closest thing we have in Santa Barbara, the Ty Warner Sea Center. The scale is not really comparable, but the people there are really nice and they have some cool hands on things you can do. Since they are out on Stearns Wharf, they can actually drop experiments down through a big hole in the floor.

Right now the Sea Center has a "Camouflage" display including all kinds of critters that are good at hiding. I don't think this guy was actually part of that display, but he was doing his best with that nice collection of sea-weed. The nice blue background was my wife's idea. She offered to stand behind the aquarium in her nice blue shirt.

Friday, September 12, 2008
Santa Barbara Harbor Sunset

Well, Monterey was amazing, but it is always good to be home. This is one of my favorite places for an evening walk in Santa Barbara. Walking out the breakwater is one of the best places to enjoy the sunset. And if you turn around from where I took this photo you can see Stearns Wharf across the opening of the harbor, and watch the sailboats come and go. Of course if you have Flash installed you can see for yourself here. Just use the "up arrow" to zoom in.

Sunday, June 29, 2008
Theresa Ann

Another shot from our recent wanderings at the Santa Barbara harbor. It's a nice peaceful scene, but just to my left was a popular restaurant on a balcony overlooking the harbor. There were lots of people around waiting to get in and having a good time. Next time I'll get an image that includes the restaurants.

Thursday, June 19, 2008
Santa Barbara Sunset Harbor

We spent a couple of evenings walking around the Harbor watching the sun set this week. I think I could take a walk at the Harbor and the Wharf every night with my camera and never get bored. Every evening when I get home each photo that I love gives me the ideas for three more next time.

This one was partially inspired by another vertical panorama I took at the harbor almost two years ago. It was later in the evening when I took that one, and you can see the stars. But at the time I wondered what it would look like from the other direction with the sunset sky. Now I have my answer!

Monday, June 9, 2008
Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens Gazebo VR

When I posted the image of the day on the sixth there was a little disapponintment that it was not a 360° image. Well here it is! Takes a little more time to build this kind of image.

Of course, this is across the lake from the other shot, in the gazebo. This is one of my favorite spots in Santa Barbara. If you are new to the site and like the 3D images be sure to check out another one of my favorite Santa Barbara spots.