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.

Friday, June 6, 2008
Alice Keck Panorama

Click the main image for a larger view.

A couple days ago I was working on a particularly difficult statistics problem. (mmm math what a concept.) In the midst of my preparations to fling my computer out the window my wife suggested a nice walk at Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens. Or as we like to call it... Alice Keck Park Park.

The clouds were beautiful and it was a wonderful evening. I wish I could say I came home and solved the problem right away, but at least I got a lot of really beautiful shots out of it. And I was much happier continuing on my statistics project.

Oh yeah, I've also been tinkering with some other images that are not my own. I have not been able to figure out how to get my own camera there yet so I had to work with what was available.

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

Saturday, April 5, 2008
Cottage Inn

So in the process of stitching the images together to make the panorama of yesterday's image there are a nuber of stages along the way. (Or, to be technical for the cartographers out there, different projections). Taking the flat images to represent a spherical view of the world and then projecting them back on to your flat monitor is not unlike making a flat map out of the round globe. Of course, along the way there is room for a little bit of creativity.

Friday, April 4, 2008
Cottage Inn

Well, there were some technical difficulties with publishing to the site so I'm sorry for the wait! I have quite a few images that should be posted in the near future, but with several big projects and tax day (what fun!) it has been hard to get to the maintenance of my site.

A few days ago we were in Pismo Beach for a project. When I went out to get breakfast the morning fog was just breaking up. I thought about skipping breakfast to take pictures, but I finally thought better of it so I would have some energy for the drive home. (Besides they have REALLY good waffles.) The timing was perfect though. This was right after breakfast. All of the clouds in this shot are actually wispy remnants of the morning costal fog. They are almost close enough that you could reach out and touch them. Not 20 minutes later the fog was back thicker than ever.

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)

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, 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.

Saturday, August 18, 2007
Wispy Jelly

I was in the mood for something a little different today when I was looking through some older images. I realized that none of my jelly photos from our last trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium made it to the Photo of the Day so it is time to fix that.

Of course, as with most photos, the lighting makes all the difference. Without it this guy would be virtually invisible. However unlike most of the photos on my site that are artificially lit I can't take credit for the lighting on this one. The Aquarium has a wonderful display that is designed to perfectly light the critters so you can appreciate their delicate beauty.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Lotus & Lily Pads

Seems like a fitting image. As I upload this it is raining like crazy.

I love the way the water beads on the lily pads, and the ruffled edges of the pads themselves.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Shoreline Access

One of the many beautiful images that are a result of an early morning hound walk during our last trip to Monterey. As I have said before, that was not really my idea of a relaxing trip but the hound sure 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.

Saturday, February 17, 2007
Egret in Flight

This image was taken at the same time as the happy seals. The seals were just to the left of this guy. It was a fun day to be out with my camera!

Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Curiosity

If you only see the Otter take a closer look. In the water you can see the reflection of a small boy that just loved the playful otters. This otter seems to be taking a break from his antics to show a little curiosity in the strange creatures on the other side of the glass. The moment only lasted a second, then it was back to play time!

Monday, January 15, 2007
Quiet Spot

This is a nice relaxing spot right along Highway 1 in Big Sur. I love the color of the water here. The beautiful blue-green makes me want to grab my Scuba gear. Of course, even though you can't really see it in this shot the waves this day would have made a dive more of an adventure than I'm lookin' for.