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.

Monday, January 1, 2007
Egret in the Wind

The last couple of days have had some amazing winds. Wild weather always makes for great photo opportunities. The backdrop of this image looks almost like a painting, but the gusty wind made these beautiful ripples on top of the bigger waves near the beach. The timing of the heavy gust was perfect too, just at the right time when this beautiful Egret looked up from foraging in the tidal pools.

Saturday, December 30, 2006
Happy Seals

The guy in the center looks really happy! Nice whiskers too.

The swirls in the water at the left really make this photo interesting to me.

Friday, December 8, 2006
Stone Fountain

I ran into this fountain while wandering through a local nursery. I was chasing hummingbirds at the time, but the fountain had some nice shadows on it so it grabbed my attention for a bit.

Saturday, November 25, 2006
A Cloudy Day in Santa Barbara

Ok, not all the cloudy days are this pretty here. But yesterday was!

I like these vertical panoramas. I think they play especially well with the format of the site.

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, October 6, 2006
Starlight Harbor

It was a full moon tonight, a really full moon. My wife read online that the moon was going to look as much as 12% bigger than other times. (The reason for this is the fact that it is near the low point in it's slightly elliptical orbit.) So we thought it would be a good evening for some evening shots.

The sun was gone when I took this, just a faint glow behind me. The glow to the left of the photo is from the full moon. And the stars are clearly visible.

This is not a new type of shot for me. But it is just about a first with my digital camera. I can usually pull this off pretty well with film, but the digital was a little more temperamental. Actually, it is just what you get used to. Now that I know how it likes to be treated, I think I'll be using it a lot more this way.

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.

Friday, June 9, 2006
Duck Taking Flight

I think these are the same ducks from our last trip to the gardens! I think she said something to insult the Koi. Because the Koi jumped out of the water near her and made her take off like this. Of course I can't say I blame her. The Koi was twice her size!

Thursday, May 18, 2006
Nojoqui Falls

Sometimes I like to play with Photoshop a bit!

It has been really hazy this year, not very conducive to scenery and architecture photos of Santa Barbara. (although I have been thinking about some cool evening photos through the fog).

But the wet weather has it\'s benefits. Nojoqui Falls, just up 101 from Santa Barbara, is only a trickle in the summer and on dry years. This is a photo I took a few years ago, but all the greyness in Santa Barbara has been making me think about the need for a trip somewhere north of here. Not that I really need much of an excuse to go exploring with my camera! :-D

Oh, by the way, there is some debate as to how you pronounce "Nojoqui". Some people insist it is na-ho-KEY or no-ho-KEY, but most locals pronounce it nah-WHO-wee and that is how I learned to say it.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Happy Beach Hound

This guy was having a really good time! 'Course who wouldn't have a good time running on the beach in Santa Barbara at sunset?

Saturday, April 15, 2006
Alice's Ducks

We had another nice walk through Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens today. (Commonly mistaken as just Alice Keck Park. As in Alice Keck's park, but her name was Alice Keck Park, and it is her Memorial Garden.) I only point this out because it was not entirely clear to me until today. Actually, I guess I just never thought about it before today.

So, on to the Ducks. They were chasing each other around the pond the whole time we were there. Ahhh, spring is here! :-D

Saturday, February 18, 2006
San Fernando Fountain

This is an interesting mission. It is at a bit of an unexpected place right in the middle of a city, just north of LA.

Friday, February 17, 2006
Santa Barbara Mission Twilight

This was a long exposure. The exposure time made the reflection much more interesting. it gave the effect of the sharpness near the bottom of the image getting blurry near the top where the water was falling from the top of the fountain.

Sunday, January 22, 2006
San Diego Water Fall

This is a shot from a couple of years ago. We used to celebrate my best friend's birthday in La Jolla (pronounced Lah-HOY-ya. It is right outside of San Diego for all you non-Californians.)

On this particular birthday she wanted to go to a botanical garden we had heard about, and it was beautiful!

Saturday, December 24, 2005
Santa Barbara Beach Panorama

(click to see a bigger version)

Ok I got a new toy! This is actually seven images stitched together in a panorama by a cool little tool named PTGui. Actually it is quite powerful. I am a bit fanatical about image quality and size. I usually work with 16 bit originals from my scanner and the this tool can work with them which is rare.

To truly appreciate this image you have to realize the full resolution version is over 500 megabytes and could easily be printed almost nine feet wide.

Thursday, October 20, 2005
Old Sea Center

Just went to the new Sea Center recently, it is very cool. This one burned down but they had been planning on remodeling anyway. If you are ever in the Santa Barbara area this is a great place to learn about the Ocean, especially if you bring kids!

This shot was taken the same evening as this one.

Monday, October 17, 2005
Bounding Beach Vizsla

Dogs are wonderful creatures. And, it's hard to take a bad picture of one of them. This is a Vizsla doing what they do best. They are a tracker, retriever, pointer kind of huntin' dog and they are extremely high energy.

Of course you would never see my hound dog doing something like this. She would explain that she is far too dignified for that. She would continue to explain that she is a scent hound. So once she leads you to where the tennis ball is, it is YOUR job to go and get it. Besides, she has not been excited about the water at the beach since she realized someone ruined the recipe with too much salt. We have been known to have some high energy romps on the beach though.

Sunday, August 28, 2005
Stearns Sunset

Ahhh, the end of summer. I don't have to go to school tomorrow, but I can't believe it's over already.