Friday, August 23, 2013
Greek Orthodox Dome Mountain View

View of the mountains in the distance from the Santa Barbara Greek Orthodox Church, in the foothills by Goleta. This beautiful church has some beautiful architectural details. And it's a great place to go if you're looking for a little refreshing change from red tile roofs.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Blue Moonrise

Once in a blue moon... The full moonrise is quite a sight to see in itself, the moon on the horizon looks so large and beautiful. But on an evening like this there is actually enough light reflected by the amazing moon to photograph our beautiful landscapes and beaches. The cool lighting gives the beach a completely different feel from only an hour before when the sunset glow bathed it in warmth.

Sunday, May 19, 2013
Blueberries on the Hoof

Yesterday we went to Buelton to pick Blueberries at a great little spot, Santa Barbara Blueberries. They have a wide variety of bushes so you can find your favorite ones. It's just the beginning of their season and they are only open limited hours, so be sure to check out their Facebook page for updates.

Thursday, August 12, 2010
Starry Night Over Butterfly Beach

This is an extremely long exposure just after dark at Butterfly Beach. Even by moonlight our beaches are beautiful, but most of the details of the rocks and the sand were not even visible to the naked eye.

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!

Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Somebody's Watchin'

This is a closer crop of one of my shots of the dragon from a couple of weeks ago. (Sorry to any Entophobics out there!) I like this shot not only because you can actually make out the hexagonal segments of his eyes. Which is pretty cool, but also because of the shadows of the hairs. There are hairs between his eyes, you cant see them, they are pointing straight at the camera. But you can see the shadows on his eye.

Friday, November 3, 2006
Blue-eyed Darner

We spent the last couple of days in Pismo Beach, it was a nice place to spend a few days.

One of the places we wandered into after lunch was a garden store that had all kinds of interesting plants and things. The most interesting of them was this Dragonfly that buzzed me when I was looking at a fountain (his fountain?) Of course he froze when I found his perch which gave me a great opportunity to get some nice shots of him.

His eyes are extremely beautiful, you can see the hexagonal structure of the segments of his eyes in the shape of the highlight on his left eye.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Glorious Morning

Actually, it was in the afternoon. But it was a really nice day!

This was on a recent "escape the heat" trip to San Luis Obispo. Not that it was that much cooler there. But the hotel had air conditioning. :-D

Monday, January 23, 2006
Peacock, Hammin' It Up

Sometimes you have to coax your subjects to do something interesting. This guy was more than happy to show off for me. They were actually quite friendly (and loud!)

Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Evening Fog

The thing that looks like a large cloud on the ground between the palm trees and the mountain is our evening fog. It is caused by the marine layer. A warm cushion of air from further out in the Pacific that slides in across the cool coastal waters. The water is cool here because it follows the pacific currents down the coast from cold places in the north.

Given the right conditions, the fog slides in as the sun goes down and will not leave the beach till around ten in the morning. Of course, in June, the fog covers the whole city and only leaves for about ten minutes in the afternoon. We call that "June Gloom".

As long as you can stay back from, or above it, it is actually very beautiful. My office at UCSB used to sit at the perfect point at the limit of the fog. I could watch it swirl outside my window, but it never really got to my office.

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.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Rancho Super

I like taking photos at night and this was a great subject.

This guy lives at a carwash off of highway 111 in Palm Desert near Palm Springs, CA.

Thursday, November 17, 2005
Backlit Poppy

I had fun getting this image. I actually had to lay on the ground to get this perspective. (and it was a very HOT day to lay on the sidewalk)

This is one of my favorite subjects, in fact it was the subject of the first image on this site.

Monday, March 21, 2005
First Blossom of Spring

I thought this was a fitting image for the beginning of spring. Of course, with the crazy weather we have had, it looks more like the middle of spring here. Most things are already in full bloom.

Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Pool Whirl

Love those close-ups!