Vineyard Silhouettes

Light - seeing, studying, chasing - its the reason photographers get up at ungodly hours to go make photographs. Early morning light is stunning.  A couple of weeks ago I shared a photo from my early morning shoot at Red Soles Winery (see that post here) but there were a few other photos from that morning that are also worth posting. It has taken me awhile to sort through and edit all of my images from that intense week of photography bliss also known as the California Photo Festival!

I love the contrast of the silhouetted vines against the intense colors of sunrise.

Have a wonderful week and don't forget that Thirty Days of Thanksgiving starts TOMORROW!!

Learning more about HDR

One of the things I learned the most about at the California Photo Festival was HDR (I talked a bit about HDR in this post last year).  I took classes from Rick Sammon and Hal Schmitt on the subject and came away with new (to me) ideas and techniques for improving my photos. Here are a few that really made a difference for me:

• Bracketing at -2, 0, +2 isn't usually adequate
• Manually bracket to get the right amount of frames for the given scene
• Watch the histogram so that the darkest shot isn't clipping any highlights and the brightest shot isn't clipping any shadows
• Photomatix Pro is what the pros use to process their HDR shots - and the technology has come a long way!

These photographs were taken at Kelsey See Canyon Vineyards. Their old rusty truck was just begging to be an HDR subject! The first photo is also my Photo of the Week (hosted by Jessica Rogers Photo).

HDR is so much fun! I'm really enjoying making more realistic looking images, although the painterly style is fun too, with the right subject. With this old truck I tried to strike a balance between real and surreal and I like the effect. What do you think?

By the way, Kelsey See Canyon has great wine! Their Black Box Zin was my favorite and their apple cider blends are unique.

Finally - don't forget that Thirty Days of Thanksgiving starts on November 1, 2011! I'd love if you'd join me in this challenge.  Click here for more info on how to participate.

Sunrise in the Vineyards

Just another quick Photo Fest post...I had to share a shot from this morning.  We did a sunrise shoot at Red Soles Winery near Paso Robles this morning and the sky and clouds were spectacular!

Wine Tasting in Paso Robles

Not long ago I had the pleasure of going wine tasting with my cousin, her husband, and my mom at Justin Winery in Paso Robles.  I took several photos that day, but its taken me a bit of time to to get around to editing & sharing.

Today's Photo of the Week (a feature hosted by Jessica Rogers Photography) was taken in the wine caves at Justin:

In the Cave

A few other shots from that day:

And two of my favorites:

That is Dexter - my cousin's Pekingese puppy.  He likes wine :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Around the Napa Valley

Its been nearly two weeks since I was in the Napa Valley.  My hubbie & I spent a week up there, visiting family, eating fabulous food, and I even got to sneak off for awhile and take a few pictures.  Here are a few of my favorites:

I'm glad that I got a chance to take off on my own to shoot at least one afternoon while I was there.  I had a blast driving the tiny roads that cross between the Napa Valley's two main arteries (Hwy 29 and Silverado Trail) It is such a beautiful place!