Monday, August 17, 2015
Santa Barbara Courthouse Mountain Sunset

A beautiful evening at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse. It's hard to match the beauty of the Santa Barbara Courthouse, but then again, from the right view on an evening like this it just fits right into its amazing surroundings.

Sunday, May 4, 2014
La Purisima Mission Bells

This week I visited La Purisima mission. If you havent been there in a while it's a great place to visit. They are always working on some creative example of how life must have been for the inhabitants of the mission. If you wander behind the main building of the mission, where this shot was taken you'll actually find some displays of the mission store, a spot where people working and visiting the mission could trade their goods. And a mill where you can get up close to a mill stone that looks like it's ready to grind flour. All it needs are the burros. Of course don't ask the guys out front, them and their beautiful Ox friend are retired. They just spend time entertaining the visitors and absorbing as much love as they can.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Santa Barbara Courthouse Figueroa Arch Wide View

A long exposure after dark of the Figueroa side of the Santa Barbara Courthouse

Monday, January 20, 2014
Queen of the Missions Sunset

The end to another beautiful day, yesterday at the Santa Barbara Mission. The sunset this evening was absolutely amazing. The clouds were putting on a beautiful show long before the sun neared the horizon. It promised to be another amazing show, and when the colors really started it did not disappoint. The brightest glow like this only lasted for a few moments, but it was a fitting backdrop for such a beautiful example of historic architecture.

Monday, August 19, 2013
Evening at Mount Carmel

One of my favorite local landmarks, Our Lady of Mount Carmel church in Montecito. There are many well known sights to see in Santa Barbara, but this is one of the little local gems that is more tucked away off the beaten path.

Sunday, June 9, 2013
Harrys

Harry's Plaza Cafe, a local landmark. Many locals have spent a lot of time in Harry's. This was taken as a gift for someone who's father was a long time patron. Something to remind her of fun days and her fathers favorte place.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Courthouse Sunken Garden Clouds

The sunken gardens at the Santa Barbara County Court House is the location of many community events and festivals. There are few places more recognizable as a local Santa Barbara landmark.

Friday, December 14, 2012
Temple Rays

Sunset from the front stairs of the Vednata Temple in Montecito. This little temple out in the hilss above Montecito has some of the best views anywhere. In the winter the sun sets in the area of the Santa Barbara Harbor and the wharf. But closer to the temple the beautiful grounds make for a very peaceful place to spend the evening.

Thursday, November 29, 2012
Clocktower Compass View

Another angle on the view from the Courthouse Cocktower

Sunday, November 18, 2012
Ye Cold Spring Tavern vertical

A beautiful little spot on the way to Santa Ynez along the San Marcos pass. Cold Spring Tavern is a great place to stop for lunch, and a little bit of history.

From the plaque in the stone...

Sunday, November 11, 2012
Clocktower View Center stereographic corner vertical 02

A view from the center of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse Clocktower.

Friday, November 2, 2012
Santa Barbara Courthouse Clocktower

One of the best places in Santa Barbara to sepnd the day is the Santa Barbara County Courthouse. One of the most amazing architectural experiences around, and it costs absolutely nothing to enjoy the beauty and the view from the top. (Unless of course you have a photo shoot there and you have to pay for a permit, but this day was purely for the enjoyment.)

Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Courthouse Clockwork Closeup

This is a close-up of the gears at the top of the clockwork inside the Courthouse Clocktower. I find the gear box on the top as well as the cool looking universal joints on the four sides that allow the shafts to have a slight angle in them. I'm sure glad they were inspired to display the clockworks when they refurbished the clock.

Monday, October 8, 2012
Santa Barbara, City in the Hills

One of the most amazing views around is, of course, from the Courthouse clocktower. I love the perspective it gives you on the city, like a map laid out in front of you that not even Google can compete with. This is the view over Anapamy Street looking north. On the left you can just make out the towers of the Mission Santa Barbara.

Sunday, October 7, 2012
Santa Barbara

The classic view from the courthouse clocktower. I have been thinking about visiting the courthouse for a few months now. Yesterday the clouds were so beautiful I had to drop everything and go!

Friday, October 5, 2012
Courthouse Clockwork

Thanks to some dedicated volunteers, the Courthouse clocktower has a new attraction. As if the view from the top wasn't enough. Refurbishing the mechinsim of the clock was something that was overdue. But the dedicated caretakers of this local gem went above and beyond. Rather than just fix the clock and close it back up, they realized the intricate workings of this amazing device was something most visitors would love to see. With the backdrop of an amazing mural the wokrings of the clock are as beautiful and interesting as the exterior architecture that encloses it. I particularly like the gear at the top that distributes the movement of the clock to the four faces on the sides of the tower.

Thursday, October 4, 2012
Towering over Santa Barbara

A little bit different angle on the Santa Barbara County Courthouse Clocktower.

Thursday, August 30, 2012
Multnomath Falls, Oregon

When we started planning our trip to Oregon, Multomath Falls was the one thing that I definitely wanted to see. As you can see we definitely made it. This shot was handheld with a fast shutter, I have a few other creative shots I'll share in the near future, some nice long exposures. At around 620 feet tall the falls are beautiful to visit any time of year. And being only 30 minutes to the east of Portland they are easy to get to. Even in the dry days of summer... (yes Portland does have dry days, this was the end of August and they had not had any rain for the whole month.) even in summer, the falls are full and beautiful because they are fed by an underground spring. Still, I can't wait to go back and see what they are like in the rainy season.

Thursday, August 9, 2012
Ye Cold Spring Tavern

This is Ye Cold Spring Tavern just over the mountain pass from Santa Barbara. It is nothing short of a local landmark. And they make a great pulled-pork sandwhich. The day we were there we bumpped into the owner as we were leaving, it was a lot of fun talking to him and learning about the history. To say nothing of the great experience of having lunch in a place that has been there for almost 130 years.

The "Cold Spring" referrs to a natural artisian spring that comes out of the ground at the top of a rugged hill, the base of which is just to the left of the photo. The interesting thing that we learned from the owner is that water must come from a higher spot than that hill, which is near the top of our mountains here. So odds are the water flowing naturally from the top of our mountain traveled under the valley from the moutains on the other side.

From the plaque in the stone...

Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Golden Hour at the Mission Cross

The wispy high clouds made the sun glow a beautiful golden color on the mountains and the side of the mission with a beautiful result.

Thursday, July 12, 2012
Vedanta Temple View

The view from the Vedanta Temple steps in Montecito during a particularly amazing sunset. From this spot you can clearly see the Santa Barbara Harbor and Stearns Wharf in the distance. The evening this was taken the weather in the hills above Montecito was changing quickly and it looked like you could reach up and touch those clouds.

Saturday, June 9, 2012
Santa Barbara Mission Cross Sunset

The Santa Barbara Mission is one of my favorite places to experiment with my camera. It is such a beautiful location it almost guarantees a wonderful evening of photography. This evening I started early when I saw the beautiful cloud formations, but the trick was to predict just where the interesting clouds would be once the sunset really warmed up. When the clouds really put on their show I was glad I went with the really wide angle.

Sunday, April 29, 2012
Courthouse Clocktower Morning Colors

A beautiful view of an absolutely amazing example of local architecture, the Santa Barbara County Courthouse.

Thursday, March 29, 2012
Courthouse Clocktower Morning Colors

A beautiful view of an absolutely amazing example of local architecture, the Santa Barbara County Courthouse.

This is an older shot from a permit shoot of the Courthouse. There seems to be a lot of demand for Courthouse images lately, (not hard to see why,) so I have been trying to find some interesting unpublished images to add some variety.