Thursday, August 4, 2011
Mission San Miguel Fountain

On a recent trip home from Monterey we stopped along the 101 at the San Miguel Mission. It was a pretty hot day, but I was able to explore a bit. It was well worth the stop, and I will definitely be back again.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Queen of the Missions Fountain Test VR

This is the rest of the image from my lens test at the Mission Santa Barbara the other day. Actually, most of the recent photos of the day have full 360° panorams to go with them that I will get online soon. Usually the panoramas start out based around one nice shot. Of course the challenge is to find a point of view on that nice shot that also looks good in all directions.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Queen of the Missions Fountain Test Shot

Last evening I rented a lens to try out for some upcoming panorama work. I was pretty sure I knew what I wanted, but it was worth taking it for a spin first. When I'm trying out new equipment I like to go somewhere familiar. I couldn't think of anywhere better to start than the Santa Barbara Mission. This is only one part of the image. The final image is a full 360° panorama. But my computer is a little overworked at the moment, so I thought I would get this much online.

As for the lens, I was so happy with the results that I was ready to buy it before the rental was up but it turns out I'm not the only one who likes it, it's on backorder everywhere I called. Oh well, there is always the rental! And whenever I have rental equipment it motivates me to go out and get my money's worth.

Monday, September 1, 2008
Mission Rose Garden Sunset

Click the main image for a larger view

I really love the fountain by the Santa Barbara Mission. But most people don't realize there is another fountain across the street in the rose garden. It is really worth the little walk, especially at sunset.

If you have been around the site for a while you know that I really like the clouds in the winter around Santa Barbara. Mainly because we don't normally get much weather in the summer other than some very thick low fog in the mornings. Well, this summer has been a little different. Not much fog, I assume because it has not been very cool at night, but lots of humidity. On the plus side we have had some really nice winter-like sunsets. Of course there is one drawback. The night before last was so warm and humid I almost could not breathe. Fortunately it looks like we are starting to get a break from the heat.

Monday, March 6, 2006
Twilight Mission

By request!

I had someone leave feed back who was interested in photos of the Mission Santa Barbara. (see August 12, '05)

I am developing a tool that will allow everyone to browse the previous photos of the day by keyword and various other tools to allow easy navigation. I do have the calendar, if you have not seen that, be sure to click on the link on the upper right of the screen. That will allow you to see thumbnails of the photo of the day a month at a time.

Now, on to the Mission. This is the Mission Santa Barbara "Queen of the Missions." It was founded on December 4, 1786 by Father Fermin Lasuen. It was the tenth of 21 Franciscan missions in California. It holds the distinction of being the only one to remain in continuous use since the day it was founded. Named for Saint Barbara, and founded on the day of her annual memorial feast, it continues to operate as home of the Saint Barbara Parish. And it is a place that always makes me happy to be a photographer! Here is a list of my other images of the Mission Santa Barbara and her grounds on the photo of the day.

• September 7, 2005: Mission Sunset
• February 17, 2006: Santa Barbara Mission Twilight
• April 17, 2005: Nighttime at the Mission
• May 1, 2005: Mission Gardens
• May 5, 2005: Mission Storm
• June 13, 2005: Mission Arches
• June 22, 2005: Mission Kitchen
• June 29, 2005: Mission Palms at Night
• July 8, 2005: Mission Doorway
• July 11, 2005: Nighttime Mission
• August 12, 2005: A View from the Mission

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.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Mission Lily

There are a million photos of the Mission Santa Barbara out there. Which is all the more reason to look around while you are there to see if there might be something you would miss with the standard "Visitors Bureau" shot.

Monday, July 11, 2005
Nighttime Mission

The cool thing about this long exposure is that fact that it made the surface of the water look like glass. If you look closely you can see that there are blurry areas near the center of the fountain where the water was running down. But most of the waves that moved slowly across the surface disappeared. I thought the motion of the ripples across the water would blur a larger part of the reflection but sometimes you get a pleasant surprise.

Sunday, May 1, 2005
Mission Gardens

There are quite a few images of the front of the Santa Barbara Mission. And for good reason, it is a beautiful place. But it's beauty is much more than skin deep.

Sunday, April 17, 2005
Nighttime at the Mission

I almost lost this image. It was on a roll of film in a camera that I had not used in a few weeks. Assuming it was empty I opened the back of the camera. Luckily the best shots seemed to be early on the roll and deep enough in the camera to not be affected.

This was a long exposure from the edge of the fountain. the blurry area in the water is the affect of the water on the surface over the length of the exposure.

Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Mission Lily

One of the things I like most about this photo is the small ring of ripples to the left of the flower.