Saturday, March 10, 2012
Spirit of the Ocean

A sunset view of the "Spirit of the Ocean" fountain at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse. The fountain recently underwent a major restoration. The original sculpture (seen in this photo) now resides in the Courthouse basement. A new sculpture was lovingly carved from massive blocks of stone to match the weather worn original.

Friday, March 9, 2012
Courthouse Clocktower from the Garden Balcony

Another in a series of Santa Barbara Courthouse images I have been preparing for an upcoming project.

This is the view from the balcony above the Courthouse Sunken Gardens looking toward the Clocktower. The evening was early enough to still get all the beautiful details of the architecture, but late enough to see the beautiful landscape lighting.

Thursday, March 8, 2012
Santa Barbara County Courthouse Anacapa Archway

One of the most famous views in Santa Barbara, the County Courthouse from the Anacapa side offers veiws of the beautiful archway and clock tower. The tower is the location of many weddings and is just an amazing place to see a panoramic view of the city.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Bridge of Sighs

The Santa Barbara County Courthouse is one of the most beautiful buildings in California. This wing, unlike the others, is much more beautiful on the outside. The tower and the rest of the wing on the right of this photo were the former county jail. The bridge connecting the main part of the courthouse to the Jail wing is called the "Bridge of Sighs" after a bridge (Ponte dei Sospiri) in Venice, Italy. It was the bridge that was said to be the last view prisoners would have of beautiful Venice before they were led to their cells, and so they would sigh as they saw the last glimpse of the beautiful city. The Santa Barbara County Courthouse is a California Historical Landmark NO. 1037.

Thursday, February 5, 2009
Quatrefoil and Clocktower

The Courthouse is one of the most photographed buildings in Santa Barbara. Still, the building itself sits on two sides of a city block. If you take a closer look the details could keep you busy for weeks with a camera. I can't imagine the effort that went into creating them.

The small window beneath the clocktower on the Garden side is one of those details that you might easily miss. If you look around you can find these Quatrefoil or "four leafed" windows all throughout the architecture of our city but I think this is the most ornate and beautiful example you'll find.

Monday, December 15, 2008
State Street Spiral Stairway 360° VR

Well it's been a busy holiday season. The photo of the day has been the photo of the month lately. That's not to say I have not been working on the site at all. There has been a lot of behind the scenes work one of the results of which is the new "browse" link at the upper right. And, at least I have been pretty happy with the few images that I have been working on. Most of them have been massive 100+ image panoramas like this one. It takes my computer more than a day to stitch them together after I do my work. But no more excuses!

This is a shot that I got one night when I was taking a break from the Joe's Cafe shoot. My wife and I were wandering on State Street a few blocks up from Joe's when we passed this cool entryway.

Monday, October 3, 2005
Twilight Clocktower

This was a long exposure on a breezy evening. You can tell by the softness of the trees. But, that actually made the bright clocktower more visible through the tree than it would have been in a daylight shot.

I had to find a nice Santa Barbara architecture image today for a fellow photographer from the area who now lives in Texas.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Courthouse Sunset

It was a great evening for taking pictures.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Courthouse Archway

In keeping with my recent architectural theme! I'm really enjoying those night shots!

Thursday, March 17, 2005
Santa Barbara Courthouse Sunset

The Spanish Style of the Santa Barbara Courthouse makes a beautiful subject at any time. But in the evening the lighting makes it spectacular.

Friday, February 11, 2005
Lucky Window

I really love these windows. They are common enough around California that I realized there must be something behind the design. This one is from a church in La Jolla, near San Diego.

After a little poking around Google I found out that this four sided circle design has a long history in Moorish Architecture and Celtic design. It is called a Quatrefoil. [Quatre: "Four" in French, foil: Old English meaning "leaf"]. Not a large leap then, once you know the root of the word, to realize why these designs are common.