Santa Barbara Farmers Market

One of the best things about living in California is the year round fresh fruits and vegetables. Local farmers set up stands in Santa Barbara on Tuesdays and Saturdays to sell a variety of goods ranging from fruits, vegetables, cheese, nuts, breads, meats and flowers. While shopping for fresh goods to enjoy later at home you can often enjoy local musicians playing music.

Mulholland Drive

This is one of the spectacular views  you can see while driving along  Mulholland Drive in California. Mulholland Drive is a road that runs along the Santa Monica Mountains over looking various parts of Los Angeles. Many of the homes set back off this road are the most exclusive and most expensive homes in the world.

Pelican

• The great white pelican catches about 1.2 kg of fish a day in its large throat pouch.
• The brown pelican dives from a height of 15 m above the water to catch fish below below the surface. 
• There are seven species of pelican. Most live and feed around fresh water, but the brown pelican is a seabird.
• A great white pelican comes in to land on the water.
• One of the largest pelicans is the Australian pelican, which is up to 180 cm long and weighs about 15 kg.
• The white pelican lays 1-2 eggs in a nest mound on the ground. Both parents help to incubate the eggs and care for the young.
• Pelican chicks are able to stand at 3 weeks old and can fly at 7-10 weeks old.
• White pelicans work as a group to herd fish into a shoal by swimming around them in a horseshoe formation. 
• In flight, a pelican flaps its wings 1.3 times a second. This is one of the slowest wingbeat speeds, when actively flying, of any bird.

Spanish Entryway

This entry way and foyer was designed by the home owners and contractor Mark Hemming. The inspiration for this room and house was from years of traveling to Mexico. This spanish style home is filled with authentic mexican art work, furniture, and souvenir collected over the numerous visits to mexico by the home owners. 

Pizza Oven

This is a pizza oven that is part of an outdoor kitchen located at a home in Ballard, California. The entire home was great to photograph my group and myself could not have asked for a better experience. The owners were great to us as well, making us pizza for lunch and much more.

Family Roots

Family like branches on a tree, we all grow in different directions yet our roots remain as one. 

-Anonymous 

Union Hotel Details

These are several detail photographs I took while shooting at the Union Hotel. The decretive wood design is a close up of a headboard, the intricate wood carving and stunning wood stain just called my name. One of the other detail photographs is of an arm chair and the last photograph is a close up of the hardwood floor that is through out the hotel. 

Union Hotel

This is one of the rooms inside the Union Hotel located in Los Alamos, Ca. I photographed this hotel with fellow photographer and friend Kim Gehr.This room is the majestic room; other rooms include family room, governors suite, and many more. Each room had its own style and characteristics. The hotel and town take you back in time to a simper and slower way of life, surrounded by farms and local stores you will find your visit welcoming. 

Architecture Detail

This is a beautiful detail photograph from a house I recently shot with my group for an architecture class.
This house was well planed out by the homeowners and contractor to create a genuine spanish feel throughout the home. The house was filled with unique architectural details to authentic mexican art pieces. 

Hearst Castle at Sunset

This is part of the magnificent Hearst Castle; the view to the right overlooks the beautiful rocky coastline of California. This photograph was taken just after a rainfall as the clouds opened up revealing the blue sky and allowing for a great sunset. As the sunset it cast this warm golden glow on this building just making it come alive and the wet tiles allowed for some interesting reflections of the fountain and building. 

Twilight UCSB

This is part of the UCSB campus at twilight. Twilight occurs after sunset as the sky begins to turn dark shades of blue. The darker the blue sky the more dramatic the architectural photograph could look.  

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church

This is Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church located in Montecito, California. This Catholic church is great place for weddings; its premises offers great locations for photographs. The court yard is filled with flowers and trees that offer great backgrounds for wedding photographs. The inside of the church is very unique as it has a native american feel to it. The churches interior consists of wooden beams, carved wood, and monochromatic color scheme. 

Rust

The weathered and warn metal oil tank shows its age as it sits in ruins among many other abandon oil tanks. The rust color overwhelms the photograph only allowing hints of blue and white graffiti to shine through. The paint cracked and faded with time falls off as gust of wind blow past.

Walt Disney Concert Hall

The Walt Disney Concert Hall was designed by architect Frank Gehry. This internationally known architectural landmark was designed to provide the best acoustic quality and be visually appealing. The curves of the stainless steel structure attracts masses to view this state of the art architecture. 

Detail

This is a detail of a high rise building in Los Angeles, California. Architectural detail photographs can be very abstract, like this one shown. The graphic appeal to the building is shown here by zooming into the side of the building and using the lighting to emphasizing the windows. 

In Motion

"Everyone who's serious about what they're doing must be in constant motion forward."

Ed O'Brien

Cattle

This photograph is of two cowboys that ran over to hold down the calf after he was roped and brought to the ground by two cowboys on horses. The squeals from the calf is the first sign the branding has begun, but as you watch, white smoke begins to thicken turing into a distinct yellow color as the branding continues. The enthusiasm is in the air as the calves run around and the cowboys work together to  effortlessly lasso them. 

Cowboys

Roping just seems to come naturally to these cowboys. They effortlessly rope the young calves as they run in all directions trying to escape. The first rope catches the calves head, the second goes around their hind-legs and, from there the calf is brought down and ready to be branded. 

Roping

The ropes swirling through the air creating a whooshing sound, the cries and squeals of the calfs as they are lassoed and branded are all common sounds that are hear as you observe the branding. This is an all day event that starts with herding all the cattle and bringing them in, running the adult cows, roping the calves, branding and then a BBQ with all the cowboys.  

Los Alamos Cattle Branding

I attended a cattle branding in Los Alamos, California; this is one of the images I captured of Blaine roping a calf. This was the first time I had been to such an event, the experience was awesome. The atmosphere was amazing, the people were welcoming, food was great, and the cattle branding and roping was like nothing I have ever seen before. I would just like to thank everyone involved for this great opportunity and more images will be posted for the next few days of this event. Hope you enjoy