Thursday, December 25, 2014
Stearns Christmas Sunset

Stearns Wharf is a wonderful destination any time of year. If you're looking for a spot to get away from the warm summer temperatures or just a beautiful place to watch the boats go by while eating an ice-cream cone. But this time of year the amazing sunsets and the Christmas decorations make it even more beautiful.

Saturday, December 22, 2012
Christmastime in Santa Barbara

Ahh Christmastime in Santa Barbara, when everyone decorates their... umm.. rigging? Which of course makes the beautiful Santa Barbara Harbor even more enjoyable than usual.

Sunday, December 16, 2012
Candlelight Christmas Carols at the Santa Barbara Mission

The candlelight service on the Saturday before Christmas at the Santa Barbara Mission is one of the most beautiful events of the Christmas Season.

Monday, November 19, 2012
La Arcada Christmas Panorama

Walking on State Street at Christmas time.

Sunday, April 8, 2012
Santa Barbara Mission Chapel

Happy Easter!!

Ok, I know the decorations are from Christmas, but the Santa Barbara Mission Chapel is still a nice spot to share for Easter.

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Sunday, December 18, 2011
Christmas Carols At The Old Mission

Every year on the Saturday a week before Christmas, Saint Barbara's Parish has candle-light Christmas carols on the steps of the mission. At the end of the carols they bless the creche (nativity scene). This is one of the few times that the mission is even more beautiful than usual.

Monday, December 5, 2011
Amaryllis Christmas Flower

Blooming amaryllis flower. This is the biggest Amaryllis I have ever seen. The bulb is amazing, and as the first bud started to work it's way out I could see there were going to be quite a few blossoms. I loved the curves of the blossoms as they opened, and my timing was perfect. A few minutes after this shot was taken the inflorescence was completely open and the five buds were all pointing in different directions.

Saturday, December 25, 2010
Santa Barbara Mission Nativity

The nativity scene at the Santa Barbara Mission early in the morning.

Monday, December 29, 2008
The Good Shepard

This is another shot from our Christmas Eve Day shoot at Saint Angela's in Pacific Grove.

This is a nearly impossible shot. If you look at the previous shot you can see that there is a balcony area in front of the very bottom of the mural. This small alter is behind the wall under that balcony. It was actually taken from the foot of the mural as a panorama of nine shots and perspective corrected after the fact.

While we were there we heard the story of how this was supposed to be another stained glass window to match the others around the church. But the Pastor who was working on the project passed away unexpectedly in a traffic accident. I think the end result is very beautiful nonetheless. The artist is a member of the church, Jean M. Maynard. Sometimes you can be surprised what amazing talent is lurking right in the seat (pew?) next to you.

Friday, December 26, 2008
Candelight Blessing of the Creche

About a week ago (the 20th) we were lucky enough to happen by the Mission at just the right time. My wife had reminded me to go check to see if the Creche (Nativity Scene) had been set up. When we got there we saw that the animals were there, but we also saw a large parade of unlit luminaries. (lanterns made of candles in a paper bag with a little sand to hold them in place.) So after a quick trip home for an unsuccessful scouring of the Internet to try to see what the occasion was and to get my camera (D'OH! Should always have that with me!) we headed back. We were lucky enough to get there just as the congregation of the Saint Barbara Parish (The church that calls the Mission home) were starting to sing christmas carols around the steps of the mission. It turns out it was the Blessing of the Creche ceremony. Ahhh, what perfect timing my wife has!!

Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!

This is a beautiful little shopping center in Carmel, called The Barnyard. After dinner at our favorite restaurant in Carmel we spent the evening wandering around and checking out Christmas lights. On the right is a great place called Succulent Gardens. If you can't tell from the Epi photos on the site, a place like that is a real magnet for me. In fact a few of our Epis even came from there. On the left is a great little candy shop. (Try the grasshopper bark and the caramel cashew turtles if you stop there!)

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Christmas Eve at Saint Angela's

Well the holidays are over for the most part. Too quickly as usual! But maybe it will give me a chance to share a few of the thousands of images I've taken in the last few months.

A couple of days before Christmas we were taking pictures outside of this beautiful little church in Pacific Grove. They have a nice nativity scene and we have stopped here on previous trips this time of year. This time, however there were still people inside getting ready for Christmas. When they saw us outside they invited us in. They were obviously working hard on the Christmas preparations. Much like the elves in our church, it seemed like there was always someone there working on a project. Unfortunately they were not quite done with the Christmas decorations. So they invited us to come back Christmas Eve day when there would be light coming through the stained glass too.

This is one of the images from our return trip. There are many more to come!

Monday, December 17, 2007
Mission Christmas Trees

Merry Christmas!

Some of the Christmas decorations at the Mission Santa Barbara. They don't usually do a lot in a flashy way, but I like the Christmas trees. They put them up really early too so you have lots of time to enjoy them!

Thursday, December 6, 2007
Mission Nativity

By request! This is actually a little older shot, I still have not seen if they are doing the nativity this year. I'll have to go check it out. This is one of my favorite Christmas attractions in Santa Barbara too.

Thursday, December 28, 2006
Christmas Tree

Here is another shot of our Christmas tree in the middle of our dining room table. Again, I love the shadows!

Monday, December 18, 2006
Quilling Snow Man

This is our Christmas tree this year. The holidays have been a little crazy this year so our decorating has been on a rather small scale. This is a little juniper bonsai tree that is on our dining room table. We had some small ornaments and the snowman from last year and it all seemed to go together. I particularly like the snowman's shadow.

Thursday, January 26, 2006
Christmas Bears

And I thought bears hibernated in the winter! Must be those California bears.

Friday, January 6, 2006
Christmas Tree

I was really trying to get a nice photo of the Christmas tree. I was experimenting to get the angle I wanted, I knew it was too late to get the glow in the sky I wanted. But, the thing I like about this photo is the turn signal of the car that was going around the corner. The yellow dashed line was created by that moving blinking light. It made for an interesting (if not terribly beautiful) photo.

This tree has been the Christmas Tree in Santa Barbara for many years. During the Christmas parade they put a huge cut tree in the middle of state street too. But this is the one that is the most impressive. We were a little worried about it, the parking lot that it used to sit on was changed into a Ralph's Grocery store a couple of years ago. But, they made a really nice garden around the tree and kept a nice space for it. Seems like that would not be a problem in California, but our local government seems to hate large trees even though the people who pay them want to keep them.

Sunday, December 25, 2005
Pelican Christmas

You have any idea how many fish I had to give him to get him to pose like that? He drove an especially hard bargain when it came to wearing the hat!

Merry Christmas!

Thursday, December 15, 2005
Jolly ole Saint Nick

This evening was a lot of fun! I had the honor of helping with a fund raiser at the new Pascuccis Restaurant in Goleta. It was organized by some amazing High School students from San Marcos High to benefit the Unity Shoppe. This is a yearly event that started as a penny drive and has grown into a serious fund raiser organized by students.

My job was to help Santa and his elf by taking pictures. It was the first time I had done something like this and I packed along enough equipment to light half the restaurant, but hey, I'd rather take too much than not enough!

My friend rented a Canon EOS 20D from Samy's Camera since I thought that would hook up to my Canon printer easily so we could try to give immediate prints to the kids. I had never tested the "Pict Bridge" before (Canon's voodoo to hook directly to the printer with no computer) but it worked great! Had to reduce the resolution a bit, and mess with the order that I powered the printer and camera on to get things to sync nicely but all in all I was pretty happy with the results.

Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Festive Bird House

I like to think these birds were really in the Christmas spirit. The alternative is they are getting a lot of sleepless nights because of their neighbors' lights!

For Christmas my friend and I went to Laguna Beach. Right behind our hotel was a building that was totally decked out for Christmas. Their trees were amazing, after taking a few pictures of the overall scene I noticed the bird houses.

Wednesday, January 5, 2005
State Street Christmas

Just before Christmas I took a walk down State street with my new toy, a fish eye lens (courtesy of eBay). For several years I have wanted to take some shots of the Christmas decorations on State street, this is one of my first.