I will let the video speak for itself! Stop motion magic by Eli, voice by myself, Appstem by our partners at Appstem. This was a really fun project, the first voice work I’ve done for a long time…
In 2011 we took several photos of the new Salon St. Helena tasting room, which showcases the wines of both Harris Estate Vineyards and Jones Family Vineyards. We put these shots together for a very simple and functional WordPress page at salonsthelena.com, which includes a rotating gallery, custom theme design and all the relevant information for getting there or contacting them. The site makes for a good example of how photography can be used as the foundation of a site with very little else added!
(see more after the break)
We launched the site for Harris Estate Vineyards in 2011. More information on the site and Harris Estate Vineyards to follow soon!
"Estate" page - Harris Estate Vineyards
I’ve been doing a bit of work with LA-based fashion magazine Genlux; this sequence is from a rooftop shoot in San Francisco, shot by my friend and office-mate Gundolf Pfotenhauer. I shot time-lapse B-roll footage, and cut the content together into this short film.
I spent a few days last week in LA shooting more of this type of content, so stay tuned!
I returned last week from a fantastic Wetpixel trip to Isla Mujeres (a small island near Cancun), where we had the chance to be in the ocean with over 100 whale sharks at a time!
Close brush with a big tiburon ballena
Evelyn Conley and Marty Silveira with the friendly shark.
Lachlan Bursle gazing up at a smaller (juvenile) shark.
In addition to stills, I shot a fair amount of footage with the video option on the Nikon D300s. I put together a little montage of the trip (make sure to stick around for the rare rabid remora footage at after the credits at the end).
You can see more images and read more about this trip (along with great footage from other people on the trip) at the Wetpixel thread here.
Last week I did another shoot at Ubuntu’s wonderful biodynamic garden. I shot close to sunset, and I was feeling a bit frustrated with the images until the lack of light forced me to bring out my studio strobes (lugging those around along with the hundred foot extension cords was a lot of fun). With better control of the lighting situation I was able to create a few really nice images that felt much more painterly than the sunlit ones.
Artichoke in Ubuntu Garden
Squash Blossoms
Lavender drying in Ubuntu's barn
Last week I did a shoot with the executive chef of Ubuntu, Aaron London; we were shooting a bean soup recipe for the September 2010 issue of Food & Wine magazine, and managed to sneak in a few other shots destined for an update of the Ubuntu site, including a lovely salad and a vegetable “dragon” with poached-egg head.
Bean soup for Food & Wine article
Vegetable "dragon" with poached-egg head
When brainstorming ideas for Ubuntu Restaurant’s new website, I had the idea of using x-raying vegetables from Ubuntu’s biodynamic garden for icons. These shots, styled by Chef Jeremy Fox, were originally intended just to serve as style guides for the x-rays which I would take at the Palo Alto Imaging center with the help of my friend, radiologist Dr. Larry Chan.
Above, beets and radishes with Chef Fox’s “edible dirt;” below, squash and squash blossoms.
In the end, some of the above shots made it into the site, while the x-rays will be used in a future project.
Above, squash blossoms; below, radishes.
I’m not an adrenalin junkie. Really. I love being in the ocean for the experience of being surrounded by organisms that are perfectly adapted to their surroundings, some unchanged for millions of years. For the strangely calming feeling of stepping into a wilderness that might be located 50 yards away from an IMAX theater (in Monterey) or hundreds of miles from the nearest civilization (Fiji or Costa Rica). That said, there is nothing like potentially being on the menu to bring you into the moment, almost as efficiently as being an expert Zen practitioner.
I often attained this state of mind in the Bahamas in February of 2009, diving with large (i.e. head the size of a coffee table) tiger sharks. The smaller sharks (most lemon and Caribbean reef sharks) became mere distractions as we kept our eyes peeled for the big boys (and girls…mostly girls), tiger sharks measuring up to 16 feet in length or more. After a while though, I came back to that familiar feeling of wonder and excitement, when tiger sharks passed by within inches and looked at us with unmistakable intelligence. That lizard portion of my brain never completely let go however, and I’ve never got back on a boat as quickly as when exiting the water in the presence of these ancient giants.
Caribbean reef shark (Carcharhinus perezi)
Lemon sharks (Negaprion brevisrostris)
Tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier)
I used to shoot weddings a fair amount (the money was good, but dealing with bridezillas got old quickly). In 2007, I shot a wedding in Kent, outside of London (this particular bride was lovely, no bridezilla-ing whatsoever).
Bride getting ready, Kent, England
Groom & groomsmen after the ceremony.
After the wedding we traveled along with some friends to France & Spain; the town of St. Émilion was especially photogenic.
View of St. Émilion town; alleyway.
Dilapidated cathedral & garden, St. Émilion.
