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.

Friday, April 6, 2012
Santa Ynez Oak Tree

One of the things I enjoy when driving out to Santa Ynez Valley is all of the beautiful Oak trees. This one is beautiful, but relativly tame compared to some of the wild shapes they take.

Thursday, April 5, 2012
Mission San Miguel Bell Tower

View of the bells at the Mission San Miguel. The red tiles in the foreground are on the top of the low wall that surrounds the mission. As with many of the California Missions, this mission has had a troubled life. But the people who care for it now are doing an excellent job restoring it to the thing of beauty it deserves to be. The Mission San Miguel is California Historical Landmark No. 326.

Monday, March 26, 2012
The Great Wall

...of Santa Ynez. I've driven by this beautiful wall a number of times in the past, but the timing was never right to get a nice shot. There is a rather large hill across the street, and the sun sets pretty early at this particular spot. But Saturday I was fortunate enough to be in the neighborhood right before the sun slipped behind the hill and I was able to catch some nice golden light.

Sunday, June 26, 2011
Knapps Arch Sunset

Time lapse of the clouds over Knapp's Castle at sunset. Santa Barbara, California. Recently I had the opportunity to visit Knapp's castle in the mountains above Santa Barbara. The day I was free to go, the mountain was completely socked in. We call it June Gloom in Santa Barbara. But it makes the sunsets anything but gloomy. By the time the golden hour rolled around, the fog had turned into beautiful clouds and just enough haze in the air to make the light beautiful and golden.

Sunday, June 19, 2011
Cachuma Lake Sunset

Yesterday I had the good fortune to have the combination of a client who needed a good shot of Knapp's Castle and a wonderful "June Gloom" sunset. Our june fog always makes for the most amazing displays if you look for them. The fog itself is very beautiful especially when it is rolling in and out. But the sunsets can be spectacular. I actually thought I might not get much of an opp

Friday, August 14, 2009
Knapp's Castle 360 VR

This is one of the most beautiful spots I can think of in the Santa Barbara area. Knapp's Castle was a beautiful mansion in the early 1900's. But even the impressive construction from those days could not stand up to the wild fires we have in the mountains here. A few arches and stone walls are all that remains of the mansion. Fortunately the panoramic view of the Santa Ynez Valley is as breathtaking as ever.

Part of this image was on the photo of the day before, Storybook Castle Sunset. But I recently had a chance to work on the high resolution image again when I was working on my 2010 Santa Barbara Calendar. This is the September image. In the process I was also able to finish the whole 360° view.

Thursday, April 30, 2009
Storybook Castle Sunset

Click on the main image for a larger view.

One more shot from the mountains. And, if I had to choose, I think this would be my favorite. I really like the way the wall frames the stairway.

Update: If you have Flash installed, the full 360° view virtual reality image of Knapp's Castle is now available online, here.

Monday, April 27, 2009
Sunset over Knapp's Castle

This was one of the last shots as we were starting our walk back to the car from Knapp's Castle. I had put most of my camera gear away at this point and just looked back as I was walking away.

For a test shoot I ended up with quite a few images that I'm really happy with.

Sunday, April 26, 2009
Knapp's Castle Sunset Panorama

Click main image for a larger view

This is another one of the "test" shots from the hike up the mountain the other day. Well, OK, actually more of a drive up the mountain followed by a half-mile hike on a nice trail. Regardless, it was a beautiful evening! These two shots were exactly what I had in mind before I got there. I still have some ideas for a later evening shot or two, but I'm going to have to find some warmer clothing before I go back up for that.

Friday, April 24, 2009
Knapp's Arch Sunset

For the last couple of months I have been contributing a "Photo of the Week" to a local news site, Santa Barbara's Blog. Yesterday a request came through them for a shot of Knapp's Castle, the ruins of an old mansion that burned in the forties. It is just over the peak of the mountain north of Santa Barbara overlooking the Santa Ynez valley and Cachuma Lake. For the last year I had been trying to get up there to get some photos, so I was happy to get up there and take some test shots. The intention was to just check out the location and plan for equipment and timing. But, I'm pretty happy with the test shots. I'm still going to try to get up there again soon, but it's hard to beat a couple of nice shots on the first pass.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Figueroa Arch

This was one of the last few shots I took at the end of a very long day of shooting at the Courthouse. It was almost completely dark on the Figureoa side, so this was an extremely long exposure. Actually it was three long exposures combined to pick up the bright archway, the wall lit by the passing car headlights, and the near darkness of the sky. Today was a great day of shooting!

Sunday, October 21, 2007
Courthouse Glow

Sometimes its nice to take a closer look at something beautiful. This is a gateway into the Santa Barbara Courthouse. The building as a whole is amazing, but as I am so fond of pointing out I really like the details. There is some incredible craftsmanship there that I don't think you would find very easily today. Perhaps the only thing that will make me stop sounding like my grandfather now (WHYYYY, IN MY DAY... !) is to point out that it was probably pretty rare to EVER find this kind of creativity!

(Unless of course, it was actually one of my perfectionist German grandfathers doing it! :-D At least I come by it honestly!)

Monday, June 6, 2005
Succulent on a Brick Wall

I have gotten in the habit of scanning most of my images. Rather than picking out my favorites. This is an image I found in a roll from a recent trip to Carmel that I had overlooked at first.

I was talking to another Photographer that is also in the Santa Barbara Arts and Crafts Show. He said he had made the "Switch" to digital. Now he goes out and takes hundreds of pictures at a time. Then, when he gets home he deletes all that he does not want.

Now, I realize that everyone has their own way of doing things, that is just the way it is. But, I think I would miss out on a lot of cool images if I edited them so quickly and ruthlessly. I go to the other extreme, I keep way too much.

And, one other thing... Why is it always a "SWITCH"? While I can imagine getting a high quality digital camera I can not imagine totally giving up my AE-1 and Fuji Velvia.

Saturday, March 26, 2005
Mission Gate

This is a gate in a wall around La Purisima Mission in Lompoc California. You can see another of my images of this mission here and read more about the mission itself. I really like the archways and shapes of this Mission.