Sunday, October 6, 2013
UCSB Labyrinth

Another peaceful spot. This is the stone Labyrinth at UCSB. If you follow the path around the Lagoon toward the southern most point of UCSB you come to a beautiful bluff overlooking, well, no end of amazing views. At this spot the students at UCSB have constructed this Labyrinth from stones and gravel. In the evening like this it's an absolutely amazing spot to be.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Courthouse Sunken Garden Clouds

The sunken gardens at the Santa Barbara County Court House is the location of many community events and festivals. There are few places more recognizable as a local Santa Barbara landmark.

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.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Santa Barbara Mission Millstone

I'm always wandering around the Santa Barbara Mission looking for a new angle or a veiw that I have not noticed before. This was at the end of a long day of shooting, as the last glow of the sunset was slipping behind the mission. These pepper trees are a beautiful part of the look of the mission and they are prominent in many of my photos. The interesting details I love about this shot are the old millstone and the stone bench under the pepper tree.

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.

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.

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.

Sunday, January 29, 2012
Santa Barbara Courthouse Sunken Gardens, Virtual Reality

The sunken gardens at the Santa Barbara County Court House is the location of many community events and festivals. There are few places more recognizable as a local Santa Barbara landmark.

Controls from left to right:
+ Zoom in;
- Zoom out;
change the way the view moves when you drag;
toggle full screen

Sunday, August 14, 2011
Knapps Arch Golden Hour

This is a shot from my recent trip to Knapps Castle. Although there is a lot of construction going on, it is still the most beautiful place I know to watch the sunset. This is about forty five minutes before sunset, but the sky was beautiful until late in the evening. If you decide to make the trip, take some warm clothing! As soon as the sun goes down it can get really chilly and windy, even this time of year.

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!)

Friday, March 17, 2006
Playin' With My Food (AKA This Little Piggy)

I am really enjoying the food photography thing. Two of my favorite things, how could it be wrong!?

It doesn't hurt that we have a variety of very cool props around. This little piggy has been on our cool stone table for a while and I decided that it was time for his photo shoot! ('Course, the coffee table is not usually that clean :)

Friday, January 13, 2006
Courthouse Detail

I always appreciate the kind feedback I have received when I have displayed my photos. I particularly love the stories I get from people when my images make them think of something near to their hearts. Many times I leave with a much deeper appreciation for my subjects.

I was looking through my recent images for a good Santa Barbara image for Mary Ann, and this is what I came up with. The day I took this was a bit overcast so the wider "city" images are not as exciting, They are more "ideas" that I am building on for future images. But the detail in this image reminds me of another person that stopped by the La Cumbre Art Walk a couple of times. She told me about her Grandfather who worked on the stone detail at the base of the Courthouse. If I remember correctly, some of his work is near the fountain. I have always loved taking detail shots of the courthouse especially since there's already a wide variety of angles on the bigger views out there. Now, every time I look at these details, I think about the incredible talent that went into creating them, especially by one particular grandfather.

Saturday, July 9, 2005
Lotusland Walkway

The patterns on the sides of this walkway are actually rounded stones. From this angle it looks like the center of a Labyrinth.

Hmm... I wonder where the Minotaur is...