First of all, let me just say it's odd to be posting my own photos. Since most of the photos I take nowadays are for clients, I don't post them up for review. I also don't post photos of friends and family in public places. So it's a rare occassion when I have photos of my own to post in a public space. With that...let's proceed...
[If you're wondering about the title, just ask me...it's a play on a hip-hop lyric. Not witty at all, just something that came to my mind when starting this post]
Markham winery isn't amazing to look at but it was close to where we were so we stopped by. They were in the process of holiday decorating so it was a bit of a mess inside. Wine was good and so was the light outside. I love taking shots with narrow depth of field. The Japanese love it so much, they even have a term for it: Bokeh
They say we don't have seasons in California. Well here's proof that we do indeed get some color changing, season changing goodness. Of course, it's the end of November, not September and even then, the colors are sporadic. But hey, in the meantime we had an exceedingly long Indian Summer that we got to enjoy this year. One of these years, we definitely have to go to New England to experience the fall colors. Let's hope we can plan it sooner rather than later. [Taken at Beringer Winery]
The Leaning Oak of Beringer is famous. At least that's what the tour guide told us. While we enjoy wine, we're not total afficianados so we still take the touristy tours and we still learn new things that most afficianados wrinkle their noses at. In any case, this oak tree is obviously much bigger than than what you see here, but I like the junction of the main trunk with the limbs. Perhaps that's why it's so famous? The tour guide said it's 200 some years old, but that's not all that old considering the age of the sequoia & redwood trees throughout California. Well, whatever the situation, it's a nice looking tree and it has a wine label created in its honor.
Another shot specifically created for tourists: The original wine cellar at Beringer. The main reason I liked this shot and some others which I took in the cellars is the difficulty of taking good shots without a flash or tripod. Not only do you have to be verrrry steady, you've gotta know what you want out of the shot. In this case, I wanted to keep the shot looking old and dusty and as you can tell from the photo, it's exceedinly dusty, ain't it?
Merryvale Winery which we just happened along after lunch. They've got a nice dining room which would be an interesting venue at which to host an event. I loved the colors in here. You'll notice the bug zapper in the corner. I'm sure they take that away during dinners, but I think the blue color really adds to the ambience in the room. Speaking of bug zappers, Merryvale had a ton of fruit flies which wouldn't leave us alone. Again, a shot which is rather simple to take with a tripod, but without the tripod & flash, it's steady as she goes. The additional colors you get without the flash really add to the feel and are more similar to what the room actually feels like.
Ahh, Mother Nature doing her work. I'm not sure why there is such a clean break between the green & orange/brown leaves here, but I liked the juxtaposition so here it is.
This is Pasha, in San Francisco. After spending the day in Napa, we headed down to the City for dinner and a night out. The night ended rather early since we were all a bit tired, but it made for a good Saturday. Pasha's a fun, if expensive Middle Eastern restaurant. Decorations are great, just make sure you get there at a time to enjoy the entire show. We got there about 2/3 of the way through the show so we could have had much more fun if we had gotten there earlier. Regardless, the food was great and too abundant.
1 comment:
Great shots! Who says leaves don't change color in CA? You should def visit the E Coast or Seattle for the beautiful change in colors!
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