http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/ Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:04:57 -0800 http://www.BillHeller.com/images/logo.gif http://www.BillHeller.com/ (c) Copyright 2005-2009 Bill Heller, BillHeller.com http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/June_21_2009/
Bill Heller's Photo of the Day for June 21, 2009
Panoramic photo of the Rose Garden at the Mission Santa Barbara (Queen of the Missions) Santa Barbara, California

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!
]]> Bill Heller RSS@GlobalStudios.com Sun, 21 Jun 2009 07:00:00 -0800 http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/June_21_2009/ http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/May_16_2009/
Bill Heller's Photo of the Day for May 16, 2009
Cooper the Basset Hound looking cool at the 12th annual Basset Spring Games

Today we went to the 12th Annual Basset Spring Games. The games are a fund raiser for the Basset Hound Rescue of Southern California. We do their newsletter, the Basseteer so we took the opportunity to get some nice photos for the next issue. But really I just wanted to go to play with the hounds!

This is Cooper, he was looking extremely cool just enjoying a nice day in the park. Aside from just being around a bunch of other hounds and the crazy hound people that love them. The dogs and their food slaves could compete in a number of fun competitions including drooling contests, synchronized swimming, kissing contests and Marathon Napping.

It's hard to take a bad picture of a Basset Hound, and I have about 18 gigabytes of photos to prove it. It was a really nice day!
]]> Bill Heller RSS@GlobalStudios.com Sat, 16 May 2009 07:00:00 -0800 http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/May_16_2009/ http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_30_2009/
Bill Heller's Photo of the Day for April 30, 2009
Golden sunset light on Knapp's Castle arch and stairs in the mountains above Santa Ynez

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.
]]> Bill Heller RSS@GlobalStudios.com Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:00:00 -0800 http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_30_2009/ http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_29_2009/
Bill Heller's Photo of the Day for April 29, 2009
360 degree panorama of the fountain at the Mission Santa Barbara (Queen of the Missions) Santa Barbara, California

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.
]]> Bill Heller RSS@GlobalStudios.com Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:00:00 -0800 http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_29_2009/ http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_28_2009/
Bill Heller's Photo of the Day for April 28, 2009
Church of the Wayfarer, Carmel by the Sea, CA

We spent a couple days in Monterey and Carmel this week. Like the Mission here in Santa Barbara, I have my favorite spots in Carmel to tinker with new camera equipment. This is the Church of the Wayfarer in Carmel by the Sea. This beautiful little church and a bakery on Ocean street where you can get some of the biggest Coconut Macroons you can imagine are two of our regular stops as soon as we get to the Monterey area.
]]> Bill Heller RSS@GlobalStudios.com Tue, 28 Apr 2009 07:00:00 -0800 http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_28_2009/ http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_27_2009/
Bill Heller's Photo of the Day for April 27, 2009
Sun setting over Knapp's Castle Ruins

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.
]]> Bill Heller RSS@GlobalStudios.com Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:00:00 -0800 http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_27_2009/ http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_26_2009/
Bill Heller's Photo of the Day for April 26, 2009
Sun setting behind the stone arch at Knapp's Castle in the mountains above Santa Ynez

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.
]]> Bill Heller RSS@GlobalStudios.com Sun, 26 Apr 2009 07:00:00 -0800 http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_26_2009/ http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_25_2009/
Bill Heller's Photo of the Day for April 25, 2009
Front of the Mission Santa Barbara Chapel, Santa Barbara, CA

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.
]]> Bill Heller RSS@GlobalStudios.com Sat, 25 Apr 2009 07:00:00 -0800 http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_25_2009/ http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_24_2009/
Bill Heller's Photo of the Day for April 24, 2009
Stone Arch at Knapp's Castle in the mountains above Santa Ynez

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.
]]> Bill Heller RSS@GlobalStudios.com Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:00:00 -0800 http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_24_2009/ http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_23_2009/
Bill Heller's Photo of the Day for April 23, 2009
Fountain in the courtyard of the El Paseo Center on State Street in Santa Barbara

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.
]]> Bill Heller RSS@GlobalStudios.com Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:00:00 -0800 http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_23_2009/ http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_22_2009/
Bill Heller's Photo of the Day for April 22, 2009
Front entrance to the Santa Barbara Historical Museum

I was looking through some old shots for some photos that I remembered taking, but did not remember how they turned out. (Sometimes I take more photos than I have time to process.) This was one of the ones I was looking for. It's always a nice surprise to wander back through my photos and try to find cool things that fell through the cracks.

This was just after a particularly beautiful winter sunset. The wispy clouds are still reflecting the glow of the sunset and the lights of the city making the beautiful colors in the sky.
]]> Bill Heller RSS@GlobalStudios.com Wed, 22 Apr 2009 07:00:00 -0800 http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_22_2009/ http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_21_2009/
Bill Heller's Photo of the Day for April 21, 2009
Fountain at the Mission Santa Barbara (Queen of the Missions) Santa Barbara, California

Last evening I rented a lens to try out for some upcoming panorama work. I was pretty sure I knew what I wanted, but it was worth taking it for a spin first. When I'm trying out new equipment I like to go somewhere familiar. I couldn't think of anywhere better to start than the Santa Barbara Mission. This is only one part of the image. The final image is a full 360° panorama. But my computer is a little overworked at the moment, so I thought I would get this much online.

As for the lens, I was so happy with the results that I was ready to buy it before the rental was up but it turns out I'm not the only one who likes it, it's on backorder everywhere I called. Oh well, there is always the rental! And whenever I have rental equipment it motivates me to go out and get my money's worth.
]]> Bill Heller RSS@GlobalStudios.com Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:00:00 -0800 http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_21_2009/ http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_20_2009/
Bill Heller's Photo of the Day for April 20, 2009
Our Lady of Mount Carmel church in Montecito, California

After an unseasonably hot day my intention was to go down to Stearns Wharf to both take some evening pictures and enjoy the cool sea breeze. Unfortunately, the day had been too much for the power grid and there was a strange intermittant power outage down by the beach including the wharf.

After cruising around for a while and enjoying the cool evening we ended up at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Montecito. There was just enough blue left in the sky to get a few nice shots. And, in the end, it was an even nicer place to spend the evening.
]]> Bill Heller RSS@GlobalStudios.com Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:00:00 -0800 http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/April_20_2009/ http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/March_23_2009/
Bill Heller's Photo of the Day for March 23, 2009
Charlie the Basset Hound

This is one of the reasons I have been a little behind lately. His name is Charlie. Through a really bad chain of events he ended up in the Ventura animal shelter with no hope of adoption. It was our job to go pick him up and take him to one of the Basset Hound Rescues that we volunteer at. As always happens on these trips I was totally attached to him by the time we got there.

They said he was five or six years old, but he played like a puppy. I work really hard at a lot of different things, but I can't help feeling that this is one of the few things I do on a regular basis that really matters.
]]> Bill Heller RSS@GlobalStudios.com Mon, 23 Mar 2009 07:00:00 -0800 http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/March_23_2009/ http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/March_15_2009/
Bill Heller's Photo of the Day for March 15, 2009
Courthouse clocktower in the early morning fog, Santa Barbara, CA

This is another image from my recent Courthouse shoot. When I posted my previous courthouse shot I thought that was the one the client chose. But they are leaning toward this one now. A massive panorama taken in the first glow of the morning. The fog was so thick when I was driving there I thought I would not be able to get the shot. But it actually made for some interesting lighting. The light on the left cast shadows up from the building through the fog.

A few projects have been taking a lot of my time lately. To top it off, my main backup drive crashed. With just under a Terabyte of images on there I'm feeling pretty lucky at this point to have everything safe with the exception of one large image that I was working on at the time of the crash.

I did find an interesting thing though. When your backup drive crashes it is very nerve racking until you find a way to get everything backed up again. Of course, the only way to backup a terabyte of data fast is to put it anywhere and everywhere there is space.

I started posting this image on the fifteenth, but it's taken me a week since the full size image is 2.6 gigabytes. But I finally got things moved off onto new hard drives so I actually have some scratch disk space. TWO terabyte backup drives so everything is double backed up. With every drive crash I get more paranoid. But it's a healthy paranoia that keeps my favorite images safe.
]]> Bill Heller RSS@GlobalStudios.com Sun, 15 Mar 2009 07:00:00 -0800 http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/March_15_2009/ http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/February_22_2009/
Bill Heller's Photo of the Day for February 22, 2009
Courthouse clocktower just after sunset, Santa Barbara, CA

This is another image from my recent Courthouse shoot. In fact, it's looking like this will be THE shot that the client likes. They were only looking for one cover shot, but since I was going through all the paperwork to get the permit I made it a day long event. Good thing too, this is not really what the client was asking for in the beginning, but they decided they liked this one even better than the requested image.

These were some of the first shots with my new camera, and so far I am very happy with the results. It's not like me to buy camera equipment anywhere but eBay, but once in a while it's nice to have a shiny new toy... oh I mean shiny new piece of business equipment. Besides, my 20D took it's 40,000th shot just before this project. So it's time it had some reinforcements just in case that shutter decides to give out in the middle of an important shoot.


]]> Bill Heller RSS@GlobalStudios.com Sun, 22 Feb 2009 08:00:00 -0800 http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/February_22_2009/ http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/February_15_2009/
Bill Heller's Photo of the Day for February 15, 2009
Sailboats at the Santa Barbara Harbor at Twilight

Whenever I feel like wandering around aimlessly with my camera the Harbor is one of my favorite spots for a stroll. This was an image I took a couple of months ago around the same time I shot a massive panorama of the harbor. Sometimes the individual images wait around until I get all the huge projects done. It's times like now that I enjoy going back and seeing what else I may have missed. Especially because I have a bit of a cold so I thought better of running around in the cool weather with my camera this weekend. I have to get healthy since we are supposed to have the storm to end all storms sometime starting in the next day or so and I want to be well enough to go play in the snow. It's really important to never grow up too much!
]]> Bill Heller RSS@GlobalStudios.com Sun, 15 Feb 2009 08:00:00 -0800 http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/February_15_2009/ http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/February_13_2009/
Bill Heller's Photo of the Day for February 13, 2009
Portico at the Mission Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA

This is an image that took a while to process. One slice of it was a previous photo of the day. But I wanted to finish the whole view. This is standing on the portico (long patio behind the archways) at the Mission Santa Barbara. This is a series of long exposures just after sunset. It was a beautiful evening to get a little different perspective on the Mission. With a little luck I'll get some time in the next week or two to spend some more time in the mission gardens to get some shots for an upcoming project. If I do you'll see them here first!
]]> Bill Heller RSS@GlobalStudios.com Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:00:00 -0800 http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/February_13_2009/ http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/February_5_2009/
Bill Heller's Photo of the Day for February 5, 2009
Quatrefoil window and Clock Tower at the Santa Barbara Courthouse

The Courthouse is one of hte most photographed buildings in Santa Barbara. Still, the building itself sits on two sides of a city block. If you take a closer look the details could keep you busy for weeks with a camera. I can't imagine the effort that went into creating them.

The small window beneath the clocktower on the Garden side is one of those details that you might easily miss. If you look around you can find these Quatrefoil or "four leafed" windows all throughout the architecture of our city but I think this is the most ornate and beautiful example you'll find.
]]> Bill Heller RSS@GlobalStudios.com Thu, 05 Feb 2009 08:00:00 -0800 http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/February_5_2009/ http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/February_4_2009/
Bill Heller's Photo of the Day for February 4, 2009
Path to the Archway on the Figueroa side of the Santa Barbara Courthouse

The 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!
]]> Bill Heller RSS@GlobalStudios.com Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:00:00 -0800 http://www.BillsPhotoOfTheDay.com/February_4_2009/