Friday, December 21, 2012
Sunset at the Santa Barbara Farmers Market Vertical Panorama

A couple of weeks ago I was wandering around the Santa Barbara Farmers' Market during a beautiful sunset. It was the perfect opportunity for a glimpse of downtown Santa Barbara life.

Friday, September 23, 2011
Toro de Oro Pepper Reflection

The Golden Bull pepper... or Toro de Oro. This amazing beauty is from the Santa Barbara Farmers' Market. I picked it out on State Street this Tuesday for a photo shoot for a couple of upcoming Fine Art food photography shows. One show will be part of First Thursdays in Santa Barbara. The show will be displayed at the office of Casa Magazine in downtown Santa Barbara and the reception will be First Thursday (of course) the sixth of October at 5 to 8pm and is open to the public. Hope to see you there!

Thursday, September 22, 2011
Listada de Gandia Reflection

A beautiful Heirloom Eggplant from the Santa Barbara Farmers Market. This beauty was purchased for my upcoming food photography art show, part of First Thursdays in Santa Barbara. The show will be displayed at the office of Casa Magazine in downtown Santa Barbara and the reception will be First Thursday (of course) the sixth of October at 5 to 8pm and is open to the public. Casa will also be having a Flan contest judging at the same time.

Thursday, November 6, 2008
Joe's Cafe

This is from Tuesday night. Tuesdays are farmers' market nights on lower State Street. You can see the booths at the left. The street is closed so it makes it safer, and more interesting, to be down there with my camera. This is about my fourth attempt to get the image I was looking for. There is a large tree (at the left) in front of Joe's. The tree makes for nice pictures, but it makes it a little hard to get a full shot of the front of the building where you can see the whole logo. But, I love a challenge. And this Tuesday my art director (my wife) went with me so that always helps!

Friday, September 5, 2008
Curvy Pepper

So we are trying to eat a little better. We stopped at the Farmers' market today to see if they had any good fruit. (The grocery stores have been a little weak lately.) We found some good peaches and strawberries then we found the cool peppers. My wife and I were looking for really interesting ones which caught the eye of one of the guys behind the counter. He started telling us that people even used to take these really nice black and white photos of these kinds of peppers. Like he was reading my mind. Well, except for the black and white part. But maybe tomorrow!

Sunday, November 25, 2007
Orange Gerbera Closeup

More beauty courtesy the Santa Barbara Farmers' Market.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Paradise at the Farmers' Market

This is another shot from last night at the Farmers' Market. I actually spent less time taking pictures than driving the few miles to get there, but I had a good time once I did. Maybe next time I'll get there a little earlier.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Tuesday Night Farmers' Market

It's been a busy couple of months but last night the fog was so beautiful I thought I would try to get some sunset fog shots at the Farmers' Market. (Then I could get a little Thanksgiving shopping done too! :) Unfortunately, the fog was much lighter tonight and I was a little late for the sunset (still have not adjusted to that time change!) but it was still a fun night with my camera.

Sunday, June 17, 2007
Rose in the Studio

We stopped at the Farmers' Market again this afternoon. I always love the multi colored petals, but this was my wife's pick. She has good taste!

Friday, June 8, 2007
Glowing Gerbera

This is another Gerbera from last week's farmers' market. They are still beautiful, maybe we'll have to see if they have anything else interesting this weekend.

Sunday, June 3, 2007
Studio Daisy

Usually I like to take pictures of nature where I find it and leave it for others to enjoy. (My neighbors have told me repeatedly to take some of their flowers but I just can't bring myself to cut them.) The trouble is, I have never seen a Gerbera growing that looked quite like this.

There was one cool one that I wish I had gone back to the Nursery for, but it was not variegated. So I had to bring this one home from the farmers' market and set up a little studio shoot.

Of course, he had friends. So you'll probably see more in the next few days.

Saturday, April 8, 2006
Palm Saturday Roses

Today we went to the Santa Barbara Farmers' Market to find Palm Fronds to decorate our church for Palm Sunday. We didn't find much in the way of palms, but there are always fun things to look at anyway!

Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Pink Roses

December 31st... ahh it was a beautiful day!

These are some of the roses we had at our wedding. The others were Dolce Vita, a nice combination but they pale in comparison to my beautiful wife.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Wedding Roses

I was still getting used to this camera (Canon 20D) so these are a little brighter than I had intended. Still, I like the effect. And, these are special for another reason. On Saturday I will experience the indescribable pleasure of marrying my best friend, and these are the roses we picked to celebrate the occasion!

(I think it's particularly fitting that the name of these roses means "Sweet Life" in Italian.)

Sunday, December 18, 2005
Farmers' Roses

The Farmers' Market is a great place to play with a camera. Most of the people are nice there (as long as you don't get in the way of paying customers.) Of course, we were actually looking to order roses for a big event on the 31st!

Wednesday, February 9, 2005
The Orchid Cactus

Another in the "Photos I Grew Myself" series!

This plant is the reason I moved out of my previous home. The vertical bars in the photo are part of the railing on the patio of our old apartment. At the time of this photo this cactus had over sixty blossoms, each about three inches in diameter. Only a small part of the plant is actually in the picture. Our neighbors complemented us all the time on our plants.

Why did I have to move? The management of the property thought that the plants were a little disorderly hanging through the bars like this. So they wanted us to trim this one in particular.

Now we live in a much nicer place where my plants have a lot more room, and I was able to get a Basset Hound!

I have always loved Cacti, and this has got to be one of my favorite types. I have several of them, but this one is by far the happiest. I got it as a small start at the Santa Barbara Farmers' Market.

This Cactus is known as The Orchid Cactus, but the similarities between this beauty and the tropical flowers go much deeper than just the impressive blossoms. These Cacti are indigenous to the jungles of South and Central America where they live in the tree tops. Just like most orchids, they depend upon their host plant for access to the jungle canopy so they can reach sunlight, but they are not parasites. Their nutrition comes from decaying vegetation and other things trapped in the pockets of the trees where they live. This type of plant is called an epiphyte, as opposed to a parasite which draws nutrition directly from it's host. Orchids and Bromeliads are the most recognizable members of this group, but it includes a vast array of plants from ferns to mosses, and lichens.

Update...

This plant is a "day bloomer" hybrid, whose blooms last for several days. Most naturally occurring Epiphyllum species bloom only in the evening creating enormous fragrant white blossoms that only last for one night. I guess you have to do this when your "bee" is as big as a bird, only comes out at night, and is as blind as... well... a bat. Which, incidentally, is exactly what pollinates these plants in the wild, along with the occasional large moth.

• Ecology.org.
  Information on may different types of Epiphyllum.
• The San Diego Epiphyllum Society.
  Care and feeding of a wonderful plant.