Sunday, July 13, 2014
Cypress Super Moon

The view from last night above Butterfly Beach. At the time I did not realize this was a "supermoon". A full moon that coincides with the moon's perigee, the closest part of the moon's orbit to Earth. But the crowds of people out along the beach watching seemed to suggest something was up. Of course the moon needs to be very close to the horizon to really notice a difference in size, but then every moonrise is beautiful here.

Saturday, November 16, 2013
Twilight Bluff

An early evening long exposure from Butterfly Beach. The glow in the distance is the reflection of the city lights on the evening marine layer, and the last light of the setting sun. This is about half an hour after sunset while there was still a little color in the sky. Of course these days a long exposure like this is 3.2 seconds. Once upon a time I would have been standing there for minutes with a stopwatch.

Friday, September 6, 2013
Moonlit Butterfly Beach

Buterfly Beach by the light of the full moon.

Monday, May 13, 2013
Santa Barbara Courthouse Anapamu Garden

A panoramic view of one of the most beautiful buildings in Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara County Courthouse. The sunken garden in the center is used for a wide range of creative things throughout the year. It's an amazing spot right in the middle of the city.

Sunday, October 28, 2012
Heavens Above

This view of the Milky Way Galaxy over the Santa Barbara Greek Orthodox Church is a long exposure taken in almost total darkness. The light inside the greek orthodox church is the smallest flicker of light from a very small bulb. The lighting of the thin clouds and shadows on the wall were cast by the glow from the horizon of the just past full Moon, which had not risen yet. Although long by normal photo standards, at 30 seconds the stars are still points of light rather than trails. This much detail in the stars would have been nearly impossible just a few years ago without a motorized tripod head to track the movement of the stars which, of course would make the objects on the ground blur.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Tualatin Commons Evening Lake Reflections

We recently spent some time in Tualatin, Oregon, just south of Portland. We stayed at a beautiful hotel, (The Century Hotel, the Building on the left) that backed up to Tualatin Commons Park. Most evenings we took a walk around this beautiful lake and watched the change of the guards. It seems the Geese take the day shift, and leave with quite a bit of fanfare an hour or two before sunset. Starting around that time, the ducks start to come in for a very entertaining waterskiing landing.

Monday, August 6, 2012
The Law Offices of Buynak and Fauver Evening Mountain View

This is another shot from my recent work at the offices of Buynak and Fauver. This one is an outtake. It was taken later in the evening and although I really love the view, it didn't fit well in the final tour. But you can see it here. The rest of the tour, including an Easter Egg, which no one has found without being told where to look, can be seen here... their site: http://www.buynakfauver.com/virtual-tour/.

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Sunday, August 5, 2012
The Law Offices of Buynak and Fauver

An evening view overlooking Santa Barbara from the El Paseo Building overlooking De La Guerra Plaza. This is the view from the patio of the Law Offices of Buynak and Fauver. They have an amazing office, and it's not just because of the view. Their workplace is one of the greenest offices in Santa Barbara. Because of their efforts their employees and clients have an incredibly safe work environment and they have greatly reduced their building's impact on the environment. If you would like to take the full tour be sure to stop by their site: http://www.buynakfauver.com/virtual-tour/.

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Sunday, July 29, 2012
The Santa Barbara Unitarian Society in VR

The courtyard behind the El Paseo restaurant in Santa Barbara is one of thoes little jewels just off the beaten path in Santa Barbara that most people walk within 50 feet of without ever knowing it's there. This is actually an older shot that was originally published as a still image because the fountain itself was so beautiful. But sometimes it's fun to go back and play with the images a little and make something new.

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Thursday, July 26, 2012
Twin Cities Community Hospital Founder Pavilion in VR

This is a shot from Twin Cities Hospital in Templeton, California. This tour was completed early in the year, but I just realized I never had time to put it on my own site. This was a really fun trip, and the tour was especially interesting because we produced an HD television spot as well as the online tour. The HD video looks very smooth in a way that flash can't quite match yet. I'll share a bit of that in the near future.

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Wednesday, July 25, 2012
El Paseo Fountain

The courtyard behind the El Paseo restaurant in Santa Barbara is one of thoes little jewels just off the beaten path in Santa Barbara that most people walk within 50 feet of without ever knowing it's there. This is actually an older shot that was originally published as a still image because the fountain itself was so beautiful. But sometimes it's fun to go back and play with the images a little and make something new.

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Sunday, February 19, 2012
Santa Barbara Historical Museum Panorama

In the middle of downtown Santa Barbara there are some amazing spots. The Santa Barbara Historical Musuem is a place where you can see the classic spanish architecture that our city is famous for right in the middle of the city.

Friday, July 8, 2011
Mission Sunset Time Lapse

Time lapse of the sunset over the Santa Barbara Mission from the Mission rose garden. The Mission is my favorite place to try out a new technique, so after an evening of driving around trying to find an interesting spot that might have some interesting clouds I ended up here. And I wasn't disappointed.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Mission Sunset Glow

The Santa Barbara Mission is an amazing local gem. It is one of the places I go just to play with my camera. The evening I took this however, I was on a mission to get a nice long exposure, evening shot of the mission. I almost turned around when I saw how thick the fog was getting, but the light coming through the fog can do some interesting things. Once I got to the mission I could see that the fog was cooperating nicely rolling in behind the mission but still giving me a clear view, with the beautiful sunset colors filtering through in the background.

Monday, October 4, 2010
Santa Barbara County Courthouse Anapamu Garden at Night

This is another angle on the Santa Barbara County Courthouse. There has been a great deal of interest in my courthouse images in the last month, so I thought I would add a few more.

Saturday, October 24, 2009
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Courtyard

This is a beautiful little church out in Montecito. It's one of my favorite places to wander in the evenings with my camera. The architecture is really something special and the people are really nice too! This was actually taken the same night as a previous photo of the day which is now part of my Santa Barbara Calendar.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Mission Sunset Fog

Click on the main image for a larger view.

Once again we are having a fire in the area. Fortunately for us here in the city it's a little further away this time. Of course that's not much consolation to the over-worked firefighters on the front lines.

As always, the fire is making for some nice sunsets. And I had a project specifically looking for a nice wide straight shot of the mission. This looked like my opportunity, but I thought the fog was going to roll in too thick to get the photo. In the end the fog swirled right behind the mission with the beautiful colors of the sunset making for an amazing backdrop.

Saturday, July 25, 2009
Grand Finale Over Santa Barbara

So there I was thinking "If only I had a flash powerful enough to light up the whole city," and then...

Saturday, July 4, 2009
Fourth of July Over Santa Barbara

We usually try to avoid the crowds when there is some sort of celebration in town. (The exception being the Solstice Parade.) This year however, I was looking for a nice Independence Day Photograph for a project I'm working on. The thing is I would not really have been interested in the normal looking-up-from-the-crowd shot anyway. So earlier in the day we spent some time scoping out a nice angle that would include the Wharf and a more interesting Santa Barbara view and this is the result. It always helps to scout your locations ahead of time.

You can click on the main image for a larger view.

Happy Independence Day!! And thank you to all the brave people in uniform who make this day possible.

Sunday, June 21, 2009
Sunset Over the Rose Garden Bench

Usually when I'm in the Mission rose garden I'm focusing on the Mission, or even the roses. But this time was something special. I was there to get an image for an anniversary gift. You see, one of the rose garden benches is where he chose to propose to her. He came to me looking for just the right image and had just about selected one of my older panoramic Mission Photographs. But listening to his story, I thought I could create something a little more fitting. Of course, it's not all up to me. I had to hope for just the right backdrop. Wednesday evening I saw my chance!

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.

Saturday, April 25, 2009
Sanctuary at the Mission Santa Barbara

Another image from the new lens I was trying out the other day. This is another one that is just a slice of a 360° image. I'll get the whole thing online when time permits, but I really liked the colors I was able to pick up especially in this part of the image. So I thought a tighter crop would be nice too.

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.

Thursday, April 23, 2009
El Paseo Courtyard

So after the Mission the other day I was pretty happy with the new lens I was considering. But I like to get my money's worth out of a rental. I had it for two evenings, and when I went out last night I was a little disappointed by the overcast sky. It looked like it was going to be a very grey evening with low fog. But I figured it was worth a try. Fortunatly, my art director (my wonderful wife) suggested going to the El Paseo restaurant. As the sky got a darker blue there were a few minutes where the sunset colors mixed with the blue sky and the reflected city lights on the low fog to creat a wonderful purple color.