Santa Barbara News, Views, & Hyperlocal Information
Santa Barbara photo of the week by Bill Heller, click to enlarge.
Hanging around the Santa Barbara Harbor in the evenings this time of year is not only a wonderful for photography, but it’s a nice cool place. Literally! We’ve had quite a few hot days lately, and the harbor and wharf are my favorite places on a hot day.
-Bill Heller
Santa Barbara photo of the week by Bill Heller, click to enlarge.
On any day Sandpiper Golf Course in Goleta is an amazing spot to chase a little white ball around or to just enjoy some of the most beautiful views the Santa Barbara area has to offer. Then there are the really spectacular days, the ones with clouds that have so much texture in the clear air that you’re sure you could reach out and touch them. The days with sunsets that stretch color from horizon to horizon. This was absolutely one of those days.
-Bill Heller
Here’s a vintage view of the waterfront. Some fascinating subjects in this photo, click to enlarge, but the details of the image are unknown… can Viewers fill in the blanks?
Santa Barbara Photo of the Week by Bill Heller.
Last week as the high tides were coming in right at sunset the waves really picked up. The tide was so high there wasn’t much beach left, but it was great to watch from the sidewalk. Of course there are always the adventurous ones.
-Bill Heller
Santa Barbara Photo of the Week by Bill Heller, click to enlarge.
I was out for a beach walk the other evening. As the sun got closer to the horizon the waves kicked up some beautiful sea mist giving just a few moments of absolutely beautiful light.
-Bill Heller
Santa Barbara photo of the week by Bill Heller, (click to enlarge photo).
The breakwater at the Santa Barbara Harbor is a great place for an evening walk. Of course you have to be willing to risk a rouge wave making you a little wet, but usually it’s possible to navigate without getting too much of a shower. Last night it looked like there was potential for a nice sunset, initially the clouds didn’t get as much color as I’d hoped for. But a little patience and some long exposures a little later paid off with some evening shots of the beautiful crafts waiting for their next outing. Taxi Dancer (in the foreground) in particular looks like it would make for a fun (and fast) sail up the coast.
-Bill Heller
Santa Barbara photo of the week by Bill Heller, click to enlarge photo.
Cachuma Lake is a beautiful place to spend the day. Even more so at this time of day. The sun was able to peek under the clouds the last few moments before sunset and light up the mountains. – Bill Heller
Santa Barbara photo of the week by Bill Heller, click to enlarge.
Santa Barbara is always beautiful, to the point that some people think we don’t hardly have seasons here. But maybe you just have to look at them a little differently. Winter sunset season just ended, at the beginning of that was butterfly season, when the Monarchs come home to roost. We’re now entering fog season. Locals have lots of names for it, most commonly “June Gloom”, or before that “May Gray” but the fog is rarely solid and complete as those names make it sound. It’s beautiful and wispy, it dances beautifully as it rolls in and out. Sometimes it hugs the coast and the ocean where from inside it may seem grey. But get above or beside it like this and it’s an amazing soft blanket hugging the city.
-Bill Heller
Santa Barbara Photo of the Week by Bill Heller, click to enlarge.
View of Santa Barbara overlooking State Street toward the last glow of the setting sun.
-Bill Heller
On this date in 1845, Robert F. Winchester was born in Brewer, Maine. Winchester would become the second practicing physician in Santa Barbara.
Winchester served in the Civil War as a surgeon for the Union Army. After the war, he was drawn by the wanderlust of the West coast and moved to San Francisco. He began his practice when the smallpox epidemic drew him to San Juan Bautista and his fateful meeting with Colonel Hollister. According to Walker A. Tomkins, “when Colonel Hollister was preparing to move his family to Santa Barbara, a devastating epidemic of smallpox broke out in the San Juan Bautista area near his sheep ranch. A young doctor, Robert Fulton Winchester, volunteered to leave his practice near San Francisco to come to the aid of the stricken community… Hollister was so impressed that he hired him to serve as the family’s personal physician and eventually set him up for business in Santa Barbara.” Continue Reading →
Santa Barbara Photo of the Week by Bill Heller.
This angle over the city is one of my favorite views of Santa Barbara. But I usually wait for just the right combination of weather and clear air to make the sky beautiful, and the islands sharp. Usually the islands are shrouded in mist at this time of the evening if there are good sunset clouds, and you can’t truly appreciate how large they actually are since they just poke out of the fog with their bases hidden. After my last shot at this location I knew I wanted to focus on the harbor and the wharf when I returned. This evening everything finally fell into place to get the image I was looking for.
-Bill Heller
On this date in Santa Barbara history the magnificent Potter Hotel was destroyed by a fire. Crowds watched as flames destroyed the Potter Hotel on April 13, 1921.
100+ guests were safely evacuated, but with winds gusting from fifty to eighty miles per hour, the fire spread quickly and burnt the hotel to the ground within three hours. Flying debris even set fire to Stearns Wharf and to the tall palms that line the boulevard along West Beach. Only few chimneys were left of what had been one of the finest hotels on the West Coast.
Faulty wiring was found to be the cause, although many historians suspect it was arson caused. Several attempts were purportedly made to burn down the hotel which had been heavily insured and was steadily losing money, and the fire department reportedly believed that all the fires they extinguished has been deliberately set. Although Arson was suspected, it was never confirmed.
Santa Barbara Photo of the Week by Bill Heller. (Click to enlarge photo)
Happy California Poppy Day! “The golden poppy (Eschscholzia) is the official State Flower. April 6 of each year is hereby designated California Poppy Day.”
This beauty was found in one of my favorite local nurseries, Terra Sol. There are a lot of beautiful poppies around this time of year, but the advantage of taking my camera to Terra Sol is they have them up on shelves which makes it a lot easier to get nice angles like this. Of course I have been known to lay down on the ground with my camera when necissary to get these beauties, but it’s nice to have a variety of subjects all in one place. – Bill Heller
{ I wonder now if those other vagrants who I see giving "money" to their fellow vagrants, are not in fact doing a fast pass drug... } – Jun 19, 10:17 PM { As a business owner with a downtown shop I'd definitely put up a sign. I know a lot of shop owners on the first floor... } – Jun 19, 4:44 PM { Coffee...talk about a straw man. } – Jun 19, 1:12 PM { If some stranger asks me to buy them a cup of coffee, I will tell them NO. Why enable bad behavior? } – Jun 19, 1:00 PM { Don't distort the argument Walt. This is about conduct; not people. We have a right to expect certain conduct and prohibit certain conduct. That is... } – Jun 19, 12:59 PM
{ Giving meters may not convince people to give, unless the ADDED benefit is convincing. Would the donation just be substituted for taxes? Why not enable... } – Jun 19, 12:47 PM
{ I intentionally did not write about the homeless, but rather panhandlers, who may indeed be homeless, or just passing through. Homelessness has a myriad of... } – Jun 19, 12:34 PM
{ How dare the homeless be homeless in Santa Barbara. Don't they know we are entitled to not have to look at them on State Street,... } – Jun 19, 11:47 AM
{ Why are we asking the government to solve these problems? If it concerned so many people, why cant citizens ban together in numbers and take... } – Jun 19, 11:14 AM { Emergency call kiosks need to be installed on every block of downtown Santa Barbara. See something; say something. UCSB and SBCC use them and we... } – Jun 19, 10:59 AM
{ I just want to be able to go downtown with my family and not have to be hit on by multi.panhandlers....To say nothing of the... } – Jun 19, 10:52 AM { Put the emphasis on what is unacceptable conduct on our streets; not unacceptable people. } – Jun 19, 10:34 AM { Wife and I just got a Sonos and its really the coolest thing. Found out they are here in SB too. Get a bridge and... } – Jun 19, 2:09 PM { Detox? Poison? Cocaine? The junk science is ovewhelming. Just eat well and enjoy life and you'll be a lot happier than folks like this. } – Jun 19, 1:19 PM { Seriously. "Molecular structure akin to cocaine" shows a complete misunderstanding of science. While the two substances have almost no chemical similarities at all, the way... } – Jun 19, 1:18 PM
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