The inspiration behind the Santa Barbara 2026 calendar is of course, Local Santa Barbara Photography. It's always about being in the right place at the right time to capture the beautiful images of Santa Barbara and this year calendar size choice was driven by my interest in the Cinematic 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio.
A little back story here, after leaving Brooks Institute of Photography I began a career in motion pictures special effects. The aspect ratio we use for everything was 16:9 and this is a frame size that just feels good and right to me. Today, the 16:9 widescreen format has now become the standard for modern high-definition screens. This custom size frame required a custom print to make Santa Barbara 2026 Calendar in the 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio.
Title; Harbor Walk C#0963
Capture Date; January 10th, 2025
Location; Breakwater at Point Castillo
Camera Notes: 500mm lens shot designed to pull in East Beach and Santa Ynez mountains in with the breakwater and Point Castillo. The trick with this photo is selecting a focus point and using hyper-focus (based on Lens length and aperture setting) to carry to focus deep enough to keep most of the flags sharp and far enough to carry East beach.
Title; Goleta Slough Sand Spit C#5252
Capture Date; February 2nd, 2022
Location; Goleta Slough.
Camera Note; Sunrise over Santa Barbara for the Goleta Slough. This is a 500mm shot designed to capture sunrise over Santa Barbara with and the fresh water of the Goleta Slough entering the Pacific Ocean. Note the number of birds along the sandpit in this transition zone of freshwater to saltwater.
Title; Clocktower Sunrise C#0088
Capture Date; December 19th, 2020
Location; Santa Barbara County Courthouse
Camera Notes; Sunrise Santa Barbara Courthouse Clocktower. Drone, close in. The trick with this photograph was being there on a clear day and avoiding any small, nearly invisible wires extending from the courthouse. In helicopter aerial photography, we are always looking out for poles because we can seldom see the wire between the poles.
Title; The Meadow C#8306
Capture Date; April 10th, 2025
Location; Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
Camera Notes; Spring flowers in the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden meadow. 24mm, first daylight. The trick with this shot was focus and stabilization. In addition to the basic capture, the camera was also on a geared head, which allowed me to make very precise movements to create a panoramic of this scene.
Title; Santa Barbara Harbor C#0098
Capture Date; March 30th, 2020
Location; Santa Barbara Harbor
Camera Notes; Drone, daylight. The focus of this shot was to capture all of the Santa Barbara Harbor and tie in the broad sandy beaches of Leadbetter and West Beach.
Title; Saarloos Vineyard From Above C#0018
Capture Date; March 27th, 2021
Location; Saarloos Vineyard Ballard Canyon
Camera Notes; Drone, Daylight. The challenge with this shot was flying the drone into position were all the converging lines pointing straight to that single tree at the end of the valley.
Title; Carpinteria City Beach C#8572
Capture Date; January 5th, 2025
Location; Carpinteria, CA
Camera Notes; Capture the Carpinteria Beach at Sunset. 24mm, from the 3rd floor balcony of the Carpinteria Shores building. A spectacular sunset from a high vantage point, how can you go wrong?
Title; Butterfly Beach C#2020
Capture Date; March 26th, 2020
Location; Montecito, CA
Camera Notes; Capture butterfly beach. 24mm, pole-aerial-photography to capture the sea wall and grid iron work that identifies the image as butterfly beach.
Title; Sunrise off Stearns Wharf C#5331
Capture Date; April 4th, 2025
Location; Stearns Wharf
Camera Notes; Sunrise east of Stearns Wharf. 24mm, low-light photography. The trick with this shot was getting sharp focus in low light. It can be difficult trying to focus on small moving lines, and sharp manual focus is required. The next requirement is to have the camera rock steady during the long exposures.
Title; West Campus Beach Sunrise C#9392
Capture Date; January 9th, 2025
Location; Devereux Beach
Camera Notes; Capture Devereux beach at sunrise. 24mm, civil dawn, taken from the east side of Coal Oil Point Reserve. The challenge once again in capturing this image is focus and stability. In this low light situation, I was able to focus on the specular highlights of Isla Vista during pre-dawn.
Title; Sunrise over Santa Barbara Harbor C#8793
Capture Date; February 4th, 2024
Location; Santa Barbara Harbor
Camera Notes; Sunrise over Santa Barbara Harbor Marina #1 and Breakwater. 24mm, pole-aerial-photography. The trick with this shot was getting the camera squared off to Marina #1 and up high enough to see the breakwater and beyond.
Title; Stearns Wharf Sunrise C#6179
Capture Date; December 15th, 2024
Location; Stearns Wharf
Camera Notes; Civil Dawn, Stearns Wharf. 24mm, pole-aerial-photography. The challenge with this shot is all the usual low light photography issues, further complicated by unstable nature of having a camera on a polethe Wharf, and have your camera way up on pole.