Itsuki’s Japanese Restaurant

Itsuki's Japanese Restaurant

  Japanese food has its own aesthetic. A simple combination of rice, seaweed and raw fish is elevated to a structure of complimentary shapes and colors. Design and composition are often as essential as taste and texture. Gleaming lacquerware and earthy stoneware create a proper setting for this very visual cuisine. Itsuki’s Japanese Restaurant, in … Read more

Fly Fishing the Salt

fly fishing in the Surf of Santa Barbara

It was a good shoot. The models were great, the weather cooperated, the fish were biting, none of my cameras got wet and I only got hooked once. Like I said, it was a good shoot. Of course, this was only the first of four scheduled photo shoots for a an article on fly fishing … Read more

Elegant Cielito

Cielito Restaurant

Mix Santa Barbara’s traditional Mediterranean-style architecture of light stucco, red tile roof, big fountain and palm trees with a glitzy, big city interior and you have the new Cielito Restaurant at the back of historic La Arcada Plaza. The place is stunning. Chef Ramon Velazquez has produced a range of dishes that reflect Mexican and … Read more

Tupelo Junction

Tupelo Junction Restaurant

My wife and I recently had friends and relatives visiting from Chicago. In addition to dragging them all around Santa Barbara, we took them to Ojai and then the Santa Ynez Valley. In each location, we ate in one, or more, of our favorite restaurants and finished the week with dinner at Tupelo Junction, located … Read more

Focus On The Funk Zone

Laura Inks and work by artist Wallace, Artists Making A Street Scene mural, The Funk Zone, Santa Barbara, California

Art needs a home, an area where studio space, and even gallery space, is reasonably priced and artists can congregate. In Santa Barbara, that area is known as the Funk Zone. A mix of old buildings, hidden just inland of Santa Barbara’s famous beachfront, provide large spaces at cheap prices. Change is inevitable, and with … Read more

Chuck Place Photo Workshops

Vineyard in the Santa Ynez Valley

For a number of years now, students in my basic travel photography workshops, sponsored by Brooks Institute, and my general photo workshops, sponsored by Panasonic, have asked me about teaching a more in-depth travel photography workshop on location. Join me for three and four fun-filled days shooting on location in Santa Barbara’s famous wine country, … Read more

Three Shooter Lunch

Brophy Brothers Oyster Shooters

How often do photographers get to eat their props? I finished photographing the cuisine of the Santa Barbara area for German publisher Kosmos a year ago and one of the last subjects I covered were the famous oyster shooters at Brophy Brothers, located at the base of the commercial fishing pier in Santa Barbara harbor. … Read more

Vegan Comfort Cuisine

Adama Vegan Comfort Food

For all you vegans and vegetarians out there that have suffered in silence through the meat dishes posted on this blog, I am uploading images from our first assignment covering a vegan restaurant. Adama Vegan Comfort Cuisine, located on lower Chapala Street in Santa Barbara, is a cozy, comfortable place serving entrees with names like KFC … Read more

No Greek Table Dancing

Petros Greek Restaurant

Many years ago, my wife and I visited a Greek restaurant here in Santa Barbara and were amazed to find the owner dancing around the center of the restaurant with a table in his mouth. I can’t remember what the food was like, but I was quite impressed with the man’s dental work. I suspected … Read more

Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone

tourists wine tasting at Kunin Wines, Funk Zone, Santa Barbara, California, United States of America

Few people think of Santa Barbara and funk zone in the same thought, but as Santa Barbara’s industrial area continues to disappear, the “Funk Zone” becomes more obvious. Unlike most coastal tourist destinations, the city’s industrial yards and storage areas have always been located down near the beachfront. With a mix of old brick structures … Read more

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