My good friend Nicole came up with the idea of walking on the beach from Coal Oil Point at the end of Goleta, all the way to downtown Santa Barbara. Lots of people seemed very excited about this idea, but in the end, only three of us showed up. (Though some people had very legitimate excuses.) They missed out, because it was awesome! The day started out foggy and grey, but the sun came out for quite a while in the middle of the day. The tide was also pretty low throughout the walk. The photo below is a tree at Goleta Beach that Nicole fell in love with. I like that I accidentally framed Paul between the tree trunks. The fifth photo is of Nicole and Paul on a giant driftwood teeter totter that we found. In the end, we didn't make it all the way on the beach to downtown, but most of the way. I had to quit early and get a ride home, while the others continued on sidewalks to downtown. Turns out that walking on sand is exhausting.
I've definitely been waiting for these flower to bloom. They are huge, cone shaped flowers that are all over Santa Barbara. The main reason I have been looking forward to these flowers is because I wanted to get some good close-up shots. I love that this one flower is a composition of a bunch of smaller flowers.
These are Nell's latest two knitting projects. For some reason they were extremely hard to photograph. I tried to show the patterns in the knitting as well as I could.
I've been waiting for these to bloom again. This is the flower of a fennel plant. I think I posted some side shots of these way back in my blog. I love how they look like fireworks going off.
I am pretty fascinated by the center of flowers. Sometimes they look so alien. Plus, they make for cool photos.
This is a closeup of a somewhat new prickly pear cactus pad. The scientific name is opuntia cactus. It is growing new cactus spikes. More importantly, this is not a flower photo.
Since we are rat sitting for some friends, I decided to try to get a fun shot of the rat. That mostly worked. Rats are super active and don't like to stay still for photos. Oh well, at least I got a fun shot of Nell. Oh, and we also went out for my birthday, but I didn't take my camera. Happy Birthday to me!
We had big hopes of climbing outdoors today, but the weather did not cooperate. We were so hopeful that we even drove up into the mountains to the trail head, but it was super misty and icky. I took the opportunity to get my camera out for about 3 minutes before we decided to spend the day climbing indoors. This is the best shot from the 3 minutes with the camera.
Another trip to the garden and I found some new flowers! I've photographed these before without much luck, so today I decided to do a super close-up shot.
Today I took Zoe, Monica, and Susan for a hike in the mountains above Santa Barbara. It was a pretty nice day for a hike. Behind them, and just to the right, is a trickle of a waterfall, behind them even farther is Tangerine Falls, which was also a trickle. It was a fun hike though.
My sister Monica, and my niece Zoe visited us this week. Today I took them up into the mountains above Santa Barbara for a picnic on the rocks at a place called Lizard's Mouth. It was pretty awesome to get to show them around Santa Barbara, and the first stop was to show them the views from the mountains. The second stop was the beach near our apartment. Monica found a nice rock to sit on to look out over the ocean.
A few days ago, I posted a photo of a sun lit pink flower. Today I noticed that those flowers have a pretty cool looking center, so I set about trying to get a good shot. I'm pretty happy with how both of these came out. I like how the pollen is scattered about.
So, there are a ton of calla lilies in the garden, and I'm still trying to capture the beauty of their curves. Since I said I wanted to do some in black and white, here they are. I put the bottom photo in for comparison. Calla lilies have so much depth, that I'm finding it hard to get all of the flower in focus, but I'm pretty happy with these photos.
It snowed in the mountains above Santa Barbara. Since I knew that my friend Maxine had never really seen snow in her life, I took her up into the mountains for some fun in the snow. She had an absolute blast! She threw snowballs, made a snow angel, and she built and eviscerated a snowman. Oh, and a very nice man loaned us a sled, so she got to sled for the very first time in her life. It was awesome. We didn't have our cameras out for very long because we were afraid of getting them wet, but I got a few good shots. The shot below shows how excited the locals were to see snow. There were quite a lot of people up there just for the snow. 
I failed to take my photo during the day today, but I took my camera to a pot-luck at our friend's house in hopes of getting a good candid photo. I succeeded, but the candid I got was of Joey. He's a pretty good sport, but doesn't really like to sit still for photos, so this is the only photo of 30 or so that was in focus.
Today I tried to not take a picture of flowers. I noticed this yellow lichen on a fence rail, so I spent the next twenty minutes or so photographing it. I like how it looks like a bunch of tiny mushrooms.
I finally got a decent macro shot of the center of a California Poppy. The center has kind of an alien look. There were several poppies, so I got quite a few good shots. I love how California Poppies seem to glow in the sun.
While walking in the garden area today, I came around a corner and frightened a great blue heron. Although, I think he frightened me just as much. He flew away about 30 feet or so to the middle of the street, then walked back up into the garden area. I had my camera in hand, so I snapped of a few shots.
This is my latest ceramic piece to come out of the kiln. I'm really happy with how this one came out, though I wish the stripes that I put on it had come out more distinct. Next time. This one was particularly hard to photograph. It is a matte finish, but still shiny enough to show off a lot of reflected light. Eventually I had to turn off most of the lights and use a really long exposure. I also like the background in this one. It's taken me a while to figure out how to get a simple background that still has depth.
Besides being a flower, this is a pretty typical flower shot for me. But I really like how the sun lights up the flower petals. Oh, and I like the little bug on the right side of the flower.
Today, Maxine and I went photographerin at El Capitan State Beach, just north of Santa Barbara. We found some unexpectedly beautiful trails and views. The four calla lilies above were in a mostly shaded, tiny little meadow surrounded by huge trees with big branches that curved down to the ground. I took about 40 shots of these, trying to get the right photo. I had to use my external flash to light them up, which was super challenging, along with lining up the sun so it just peaked through. Then I repeated that technique for the shot below. The last two photos are rivulets formed on the beach from retreating water. Both photos look completely different if you rotate them 90 or 180 degrees.
Today I went out to the Ellwood bluffs with my friends Maxine and Carey to hopefully see the school of leopard sharks that Carey had seen the day before. They were still there! It was really cool to be able to see them, and to see so many. Unfortunately the best photo that I got of them is the one below. But, you can sort of see the leopard coloration on one of them. I also got this great shot of Joey pouncing on something in the tall grass. I love that shot. And I'm surprised that the shot of the vulture below came out so clear.
Tonight we went bowling. I tried desperately to get a good photo of people bowling, because the lighting was very colorful and cool, but this is the best I could come up with. Oh, and this is Paul, he's been on this blog several times now.
Tonight, Maxine and I were on a mission to get a shot of the moon reflecting on the ocean at night. That did not entirely happen. It was super hazy out, and the moon was crazy bright. But once we decided to leave the moon out of the picture, the photo turned out great. I used my flash to light Maxine up a bit, but most of the light was coming from downtown Santa Barbara.
Tonight we went out to eat with some friends. I hadn't taken my photo for the day, so I brought my camera along. I tried to get some candid shots, but the lighting was pretty horrible, so I failed. But I did have some yummy doughnuts for desert!
This was our last day in Utah. Nell and I had some time before our flight, so we went for a nice hike. It was a pretty grey day, so the lighting wasn't the best, but it made for some nice black and white photos. Oh, and I love the cute smile I got out of Nell.
We woke up early today and skied all day. I hadn't skied in forever, so I was thoroughly exhausted. After dinner, and just before I lost consciousness, I realized that I hadn't taken my photo, so I looked around the hotel room kitchen and found an onion. Then I went to bed.
