On Sunday of this weekend, we decided to check out the famous Santa Barbara Mission. It’s pretty easy to find. Off the 101, just take the Mission Street exit and turn towards the mountains. Follow Mission all the way up and you’ll see it on the left. Can’t miss it.

There’s a lot of history behind this Mission. I won’t go into it here because, well, this isn’t a blog about the Mission. You can read about it here. All I can really say about it is that I think it’s worth checking out. Especially if you’re not from the area or if you’re just passing through. It’ll set you back $5 per adult to the non-guided tour. Throw in another $3 if you want a docent to give you some insider information.

4,000 people buried here? Where?

While on the self-guided tour, we walked through the cemetery where there is an incredibly large fig tree. Near the fig tree, there was a sign saying there were 4,000 people buried in this cemetery. I can’t even imagine where they buried them all. Regardless, I thought I tried to take an HDR photo handheld. I haven’t really tried to do much of this type of photography either handheld or with a tripod. If I’m objective about it, the above photo really isn’t all that great. I’ll file it under “you’ve got to start somewhere”, but I processed it with Nik Software’s HDR efex Pro 2 and while this isn’t a software review, it’s one of the more intuitive HDR applications I’ve tried–and I’ve tried them all.

Super Rica Taqueria

After the Old Mission, we hit La Super Rica Tacqueria on Milpas Street. Great food, but I prefer Los Agaves just down the street. While we were waiting, I grabbed a couple of pictures of Nathan and Devyn. I’ve been shooting primarily with my 50mm lens to push myself to get more creative in how I frame pictures without the ease of just turning the zoom ring. Shooting with just a prime has been a lot of fun and something I used to think wouldn’t be of interest to me, but now that the kids really aren’t playing a lot of sports, a zoom may not be in my future.

 

 

Which way to the beach?

After lunch, it was time to hit the beach. We drove down to the harbor, got lucky with some parking near a bunch of wine tasting shops (note to self: find a baby sitter!) and then walked along the beach for a while and let the kids play.