Known as the “Queen of the Missions”, Santa Barbara Mission is a primary tourist attraction in Santa Barbara, a Spanish style coastal town in Southern California. The parish church is still in use today.
The façade of the mission and the nearby rose garden are popular backgrounds for wedding photography, whereas the mission grounds and the architecture are the main subjects for travel photographers and tourists interested in early California history.
The location of the Santa Barbara Mission sets it apart from all other California Missions. It sits atop a small hill, exposing it to a cool breeze from the ocean. The nearby Santa Ynez Mountains provide a wonderful backdrop for panoramic images while the rose garden is a popular foreground motif for mission photographs.
I highly recommend spending some time around the waterfront to soak up the cool relaxed atmosphere of Santa Barbara before photographing the mission. Take advantage of the location.
How to get there
The mission is located on 2201 Laguna Street in Santa Barbara.
From Highway 101 take the Mission Street exit (99A for northbound traffic, 99 for southbound traffic). Turn north onto Mission Street (right if you came northbound, left if you came southbound). Drive about 1 mile, then turn left onto Laguna Street. The mission will be straight ahead.
GPS position
How to photograph Mission Santa Barbara
Fountain
One way to take advantage of the location is by including as much of the Santa Barbara feeling in your photographs. Use the nearby hills, white colored buildings, and palm trees of Santa Barbara to convey a sense of place and southern vacation town feeling.
The mission church is massive and tends to overwhelm photographs. Put it in the background by photographing at an angle, similar to the fountain photograph above, where the church is some distance away. Using a short focal length will further diminish the size of the church and give you enough field of view (how wide the shot is) to include the reflection of the church in the pond.
The rose garden that is located across E. Los Olivos Street is yet another good foreground choice for the mission. There you need to use a longer focal length and step back from the roses and fountain in order to prevent the mission from becoming too small in your picture.
Jug
Use high ISO and image stabilization for your indoor shots. A wide-angle lens will help you to achieve maximum depth of field, even with wide apertures required due to the low light. At the same time, the wider angle is useful to include more of the indoor scene. Try to hold your camera straight. If you angle it up or down, you will get distorted images (converging verticals). If you have no other choice, make sure you leave enough room around your main subject to allow distortion correction and cropping on the computer.
The courtyard has a fountain and several tall palm trees, all of which are difficult to fit into a compelling composition. Instead, I chose to focus on the colonnade (below) and other architectural elements (above). The authentic looking roof tiling (above) is indicative of these missions. Don’t forget to capture some detail shots with your telephoto lens.
Colonnade
Best Time of the Day and Best Season
The Mission is open between 9:00am to 5:00pm. If you come early, there will be less visitors and good light on the mission façade, including the fountain.
All seasons are good, but the garden will be most colorful in spring and early summer.
Time required
You should plan about 90 minutes for a visit. Anything less than one hour will be too rushed.
Equipment
- Wide-angle lens
- Zoom Lens
- IS lens (indoor shots)
I prefer to travel light in such locations. A small photo backpack contains only the necessary equipment. This allows me to stay mobile. I often do not even bring a tripod.
Fees
Adults pay $5, seniors pay $4 and children between 5-15 pay $1.
Close Locations
- Santa Barbara Presidio
- Santa Barbara Courthouse
- Santa Barbara Wharf
- Solvang
- Santa Ines Mission
- La Purisima Mission
- Nojoqui Falls Park
- Guadalupe Dunes
- Mission San Luis Obispo
- Shell Beach
- Mission San Buenaventura
- Ronald Reagan Library
Useful Resources
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9 Comments
Wow, your tips and photos are fantastic! I’m not a photographer myself but my dad is and he has been wanting to take a trip to Santa Barbara for awhile. I went there a few years ago and went on the Seven Falls hike by the Mission – it was beautiful. Sort of challenging but there were natural waterfalls and it was a really rewarding hike. We also managed to snag a pretty budget-friendly hotel, The Sandman Inn (www.thesandmaninn.com), and really enjoyed it. You should check out both those spots next time you’re in town. There’s also a great Mexican place, La Super Rica Taqueria, it’s said to be Oprah and Julia Child’s favorite. I’m sure you could get some great pictures there.
Don’t’ bother. Don’t go here with a tripod. They will not let you into the Mission with a tripod, or a “professional camera”, unlike other California missions.
I called ahead to ask abut bringing my tripod. I was immediately transferred to the Director of the Mission, who said that tripods were “discouraged” due to the heavy people traffic.
I told the Director that I was an amateur wanting to shoot for my own personal use. I asked if I could shoot without my tripod, then he said, “we discourage the use of professional cameras at the mission”. I again reminded him that photography was my hobby. He persisted in his statement that “the mission discourages the use of professional cameras.” How do you define a professional camera?
The DIrector then told me I could shoot the mission from across the street from the city park…but would probably need a permit from the city!
I told the Director that my wife and I would not be visiting his mission and that we would continue to shoot photos of Mission San Juan Capistrano, near our home, where we are dues paying members.
Mission San Juan Capistrano is beautifully restored and welcomes photographs for personal use, including tripods. Great HDR opportunities!
The Mission is so gorgeous but I feel they are a bit paranoid about flash photography inside because of how old everything is? I could be wrong. Doubtful you could get inside with a tripod either. I go to Santa Barbara all the time and I always visit the Mission; so gorgeous and the grounds are just as beautiful! I always stay at the South Coast Inn (www.santa-barbara-hotel.com) whenever I am in Santa Barbara. So elegant and affordable; it is the best place to escape all of the city noise!
As an art curator, I can tell you flash photography is extremely damaging to the art and artifacts at Mission Santa Barbara. If you take photograph of a painting using the built in flash it is like leaving the painting in the sun for 6-8 hours.
The Santa Barbara Mission is a beautiful thing to capture. The grounds and scenery are just lovely and visiting should be apart of every SB vacation. I go every time I am in town and just take a walk around the garden-so lovely. Was just there and stayed at the South Coast Inn (www.santa-barbara-hotel.com). So nice and the perfect place to call home while on vacation.
I had no idea there were so many different ways to photograph the mission and proper ways and so forth! It’s a great building to shoot and the craft and colors are out of this world, especially on the inside. I was just in Santa Barbara for a friends wedding at the Mission and it was a beautiful ceremony. The church, the gardens, just made for a perfect day. Stayed at the Sandman Inn (www.thesandmaninn.com). Affordable as well as in a great location.
The Mission in SB is one of the most beautiful places to visit in the area and possibly in Southern California. The art, the gardens, the surrounding neighborhood, all worth a walking tour. The I Mondarri festival just happened a few weeks back and the art was sensational. I took so many photos and had a blast! We stayed at the Sandman Inn (www.thesandmaninn.com). Well priced and great for the budget traveler with great taste!
I think it’s their right to restrict the use of professional camera inside the mission to maintain the solemnity of the place.
One of the favorite landmarks in the area, the Mission is stunning but I agree, they should restrict photography to maintain the art inside. Great to walk through though, the grounds are so lovely and to attend a mass there is such a privilege. Love traveling in Santa Barbara as well, classy and elegant with a lot to do. The Sandman Inn (www.thesandmaninn.com) is always my first choice to stay- affordable and well placed.