Out and About

This morning I was up with the sunrise as I had an eight o'clock appointment in the big city of Ukiah. There was a pretty nice sunrise. After my appointment I stopped and photographed some of the vineyards along the way. Most of the leaves have fallen off and the blackbirds are picking off the grapes that were left behind and not harvested. I made it a point to drive by Centennial Reservoir to photograph the snag on the edge of the dam. I was hoping that there would be a Bald Eagle there today but I was out of luck. I then photographed some water droplets on the fence and headed home. God's light and precious love to all, chris All images were created with a Canon 7D mkII and a Tamron 18-200mm lens handheld. Exposures varied.

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

It's All About the Grapes

I started out the morning with good intentions to do some photography and then go to the bank in Ukiah. A phone call from Lenore straightened me out when she reminded me that it was Columbus day and all the banks would be closed. Wow, I thought to my self. That changes everything. Now I have more time for photographing than I thought.



I proceeded down to Redwood Valley which is a small grape growing area just south of here. I thought harvest was in progress as when I stopped at one vineyard I was watching two vineyard workers cutting grape clusters from the vines. Funny thing was though they were just dropping them on the ground. A truck pulled up a moment later and the foreman got out and began talking to the workers. I asked him if this was the harvest. He explained to me that harvests in this area were two to three weeks away. The workers were just pruning off unripe,small or rotted clusters to allow the remaining ones to sugar up faster for harvest in a couple of weeks.





I then spent the next half hour or so photographing the grape clusters that were hanging from the vines. I photographed until the lighting got too harsh to photograph in.

God's blessings to all,

chris

Parent,Taxicab,Harvest Time

This has been a mostly non photography week. The week seemed to have sped by without warning. I have been being the good Dad/parent and playing taxi cab and going to parent meetings and the orthodontist etc. This morning I was determined to go out and create some images. I browbeat the kids out the door this morning and dropped them off at school and headed off to the big city of Ukiah for an appointment of my own at the dermatologist. After the appointment I stopped off at a couple of vineyards on the way home and photographed the grapes that are just waiting to be harvested. Now it's off to do the recycling.

God's blessings to all,

chris