Other posts related to santa-barbara

A Santa Barbara Picture Weekend

December 19, 2011 11:08 am
Santa Barbara 171 128x85 A Santa Barbara Picture Weekend

SB Sunset from Cliff Drive overlook

Since I brought the good camera equipment from home for the Christmas holiday, and had a weekend to hang around Santa Barbara, I decided to do a little photography on the side. For the first day, I drove up to East Camino Cielo, back through Solvang/Buelton to Nojoqui Falls, then back down the 101 into Santa Barbara for the sunset.

I had read about a new technique for “Polar Planets” I wanted to try out. I went and took some pictures of the Santa Barbara Mission and West Beach to see how they’d turn out. You can try out this technique yourself, but I will say that I’ve learned that having the bottom 10-25% of the entire panorama (vertically) be a fairly boring, consistent texture (i.e., grass, sand, concrete, etc) makes for a better picture.

On the second day, I just walked around town. Up to the Mission, down to the Harbor, then back home for some rest and to watch the Patriots smack the Broncos back into reality (which was really needed) while I processed pictures.

I’m also posting a “post-processing” cut at the two polar planet pictures I uploaded earlier. Those were experiments, as are these, but I’m learning fast….

All in all, a nice, relaxing weekend.

The photo gallery is below the break.

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Santa Barbara Polar Pictures

December 18, 2011 4:25 pm
SBMission1 128x128 Santa Barbara Polar Pictures

Santa Barbara Mission - #1

I’m starting to play around with a new technique that maps panorama pictures into polar coordinates. I’m still learning “what” to do in both the original shots and the process to make them look good. I have a GREAT idea for a Christmas picture this year that should be a lot of fun.

Basically I take 12 pictures, then stitch them together. If anybody’s interested in trying this, send me a note and I’ll point you at the links that walked me through doing this.

In the mean time, here’s the “experiments”…

Sunrise over Laguna Blanca

May 5, 2010 7:45 pm
Laguna Blanca 59 128x85 Sunrise over Laguna Blanca

Laguna Blanca 59

Sounds like a western movie… Right?!?  No trains or dusty gunfights between cowboys and indians here though. Just ducks, herons, geese, fog, and a sunrise. Oh yeah, and palm trees on a beautiful golf course.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve driven by this location over the last couple decades, thinking to myself “I wish I had my camera gear here today”. Well, today I finally did. I got up a little earlier than normal this morning (about 5:40am) and jumped in the rental car to head down to the corner of Las Palmas and Lago Drive (in Hope Ranch in Santa Barbara). Then I just waited for mother nature to flex a little…

Since words can’t do the pictures justice. I really don’t have to do much more to add, other than “I love scenes like this!”.

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“Who’s your Patty?” Party

April 28, 2010 10:20 pm
Pattys Birthday 44 128x96 Whos your Patty? Party

The fire drill. 29 candles...

Patty’s birthday was last Tuesday, and over the weekend, Jeff threw a fantastic party for her. It was a catered party with fresh sushi and a professional chef from one of the local sushi restaurants. After a late Friday night dinner and Karaoke at the Tib until 2am (another story which will remain untold), Jeff, Jim, Sam and I were pretty tired, but pulled it together for the birthday party. That also ran to 2am.

Thank goodness I had to go back to work on Monday so I could get some sleep  icon smile Whos your Patty? Party

More pictures are below the break.

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A Tesla. Yes, a Tesla

April 26, 2010 9:33 pm
Tesla 11 128x96 A Tesla. Yes, a Tesla

The Tesla sitting pretty

After Jeff let me take his Ferrari 360 Spider out for a spin a while back, I was talking with Charlie. Charlie has a friend with a lot of nice cars. One of which is a Tesla. All electric. Yes, doing their part for the environment.

Charlie really wanted to see the Ferrari and I really wanted to see the Tesla. So did Jeff. So last Saturday, Charlie brought the Tesla by Jeff’s house.

Our friend Jim was in town that weekend, so we all got to play with both the Tesla and the Ferrari.

Tesla 2 128x96 A Tesla. Yes, a Tesla

Taking the Tesla to pick up my rental car

Right off the bat, I got to drive it down to pick up my rental car, sitting in front of “the Tib” from the night before (the Tib is a local Karaoke bar, but that is an entirely different story for an entirely different audience). My first impressions: The Tesla is fast. Very, very fast. And quick! Like neck snapping quick. I’m pretty sure it could take the Ferrari from a dead start up to maybe a quarter mile. But with the Tesla’s top speed of 125, the Ferrari would smoke it after that.

The rest of the story and more pictures are below

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