Vineyards Dressed for the Fall Ball

Last Wednesday I ventured out just before sunrise to capture the blazing fall colors of the vineyards near to where I live in Northern California. The night before I fastidiously set my alarm to go off at six so that I would have plenty of time to take a shower and get everything ready to go. Instead I lurched awake at six fifty seven realizing that somehow it was too late and the alarm didn't go off as expected. I groggily pulled my gear together and headed out the door without my shower. The cool fall air awoke me by the time I drove my pick up down our road to the main street. When I looked to the east there was a nice bank of clouds in the sky. This was going to be great for photography I thought to myself. About a half an hour later I arrived at some vineyards that looked really nice. The leaves were all reds, yellows and greens and the vines were heavy with over ripe grapes. At this point the sun was already a little ways above the horizon and there was very little time to photograph as the clouds had all disappeared! The soft warm light lasted little more than ten minutes before it started getting to harsh for photography. I drove around Redwood Valley looking for some good spots and came up empty handed. Finally I found some grapes in the shade. I created a few images of them and then I was pretty much done photographing vineyards for the day. Such a beautiful harvest of images. God bless, chris

From Winter White to Wine

This morning dawned bright and beautiful with about three inches of white snow on the ground around our house. It was a wonderful sight to awaken to. I had hoped for more snow so I could do a little deer and turkey photography in the snow. The key problem here is that we are one of the highest ridges around here so areas below us don't tend to get as much snow.

Lenore and I went to early church and listened to a great sermon on being thankful. Following that we headed to Redwood Valley to do some wine tasting. They were holding an event called "A Taste of Redwwod Valley". Talk about something to be thankful for!
The tasting is put on annually by nine listed wineries in Redwood valley. Wine tasting there is a lot of fun. It's how wine tasting used to be in Napa Valley before it got to big for itself. The smaller wineries set up temporary tasting rooms in their warehouses and offices. There are great snacks and no fees to pay for flights and the people are really friendly. Plus they offer a 35 percent discount during the tasting.One of the only things required of you is that you bring your own glass frowm home.

The day was really beautiful with a mixture of sun and clouds. The vineyards were in full fall color and we were constantly oooing and ahhhing at the various vineyards as we rolled on by.We saw the cutest puppy at the Graziano family winery. I was the DD for the day so I only did tasting at one winery and as it turned out it was one of the best. On our second stop we went to Robin Germain which is distillery. they make brandies,whiskeys and liquours plus a few other things. The tasting was held in the distillery itself and it was so cool to watch the still in operation as we tasted. I first tried the Grappa. Wow! That stuff will knock your socks off. My favorite was one of the last things we tasted and it was a Raspberry liquor.

Lenore and I had a wonderful time together.

God's blessings to all,

chris