Mobile Holmes

The year started, and almost ended, with big waves at Point Lobos on the Central California coast just below Ansel Adam’s home, the first place I visited in North America when I stayed with Ansel in 1977.  Andrea Johnson captured me in action.

It’s turning out to be a year of living dangerously.  The Middle East was the next destination, specifically Israel and Jordan and it was a far more benign experience than the media would have us believe.  Apart from the continual maneuvers of fighter jets over the Negev  it was difficult to imagine that both Syria and Iran were an easy rocket launch away. Jerusalem will always be one of my favorite cities to photograph.  I last visited the city in 1996 for the book Jerusalem, In the Shadow of Heaven celebrating 3,000 years of history.  I was using film back then but the latest generation of digital cameras open up a whole new world of possibilites and old Jerusalem has a lot of very dark but very photogenic corners.

February in Jordan can be very cold and combined with a rare rainfall, Petra was wonderfully devoid of tourists.

March was equally cold but this time it was expected.  The Bugaboos in British Columbia provide some of the best powder skiing in the world and Canadian Mountain Holidays pioneered heli-skiing at their Bugaboo Lodge remotely situated in the heart of the Purcell range.  I was here with my old friend Fred Noble, a world class skier who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease last year and although he has lost the use of his legs it hasn’t stopped him hitting the slopes in a specially modifed sit ski.  I was here with Andrea Johnson to shoot a documentary on his amazing inspirational story.

Lighting for video production can be overwhelming, particularly as far far as budget is concerned.  Many of us love LED panels for the quality of their light and the fact that they stay cool but cost has been a major hurdle.  I have always loved continuous light sources for still photography as well as video and used Lowells for years but boy do they get hot.  Then along came big LEDs.

I was recently in a pro-video rental supply house in Portland and they showed me LED lights they were renting out for an unbelievably low price.  They bought them on eBay for under $200 each.  Apparently they are usually re-branded after import and sold for 3 to 4 times the price.  Sure enough I found them on eBay under video LED panels.  I paid $199.

Apart from the price, the pros are that as far as light quality is concerned they work as well as the $1000 models.  The cons are that they do not have a continuous dimming function.  Output is controlled by switching on and off four banks of LEDs and the maximum output is 500W which makes them pretty useless outdoors in the sun.  They need a mains power supply but as they are mainly indoor use this shouldn’t present a problem.  The color output can only be controlled by using gels.  I use a 1/4 CTO and a sheet of half spun to soften the light quality.

I use mine extensively for head shots, both still and video.  I can’t resist a bargain.

The International Pinot Noir Celebration has to be one of the very best wine parties of the year and this year, 2011, is the 25th anniversary.  Mark your calendars for July 29 – 31 when the winemakers, chefs, media and guests from the very first event in 1987 and the subsequent 24 events will be united at a grand reunion.  What a party this will be.  Take a look at last years celebration that was just a warm up for what is to come.

International Pinot Noir Celebration from Holmes & Johnson productions on Vimeo.

Experience Oregon’s legendary International Pinot Noir Celebration (IPNC) in an unique behind the scenes video including interviews with winemakers and chefs.

I was on the road at 5 o’clock this morning heading for Napa Valley.  Snow was forecast and I have never photographed the Napa vineyards under snow.  My car thermometer read 28 F. but the skies were clear and I’ve learned after years of dawn photography that even if conditions are not what I expect the odds are strongly in my favor of making good photographs.  This morning was no exception.

I passed Frog’s Leap Winery just before dawn.  This wasn’t in my plans but decided it was too good to miss so I made a quick u-turn to capture the building in the blue pre-dawn light with a single light providing the perfect contrast.

My goal was Somerston Vineyards sitting high above the valley which I thought stood the best chance of getting snow.  I was wrong.  However, the ground was covered in frost and with a new moon in the sky and pink tinged clouds from the imminent sunrise I couldn’t have been happier.

I was on the road back home by 8 pleased with the shots I had managed to capture even if the snow I had hoped for failed to materialize.  I was looking forward to coffee and a bagel and had no intention of stopping when I saw this spectacular blossom by the vineyards of Cline Cellars in Carneros.  The moral is get out early even if getting out of bed on a freezing morning is the last thing on your mind.

Rex Pickett on Oregon from Holmes Johnson productions on Vimeo.

Sideways author Rex Pickett talks about his new book, Vertical, and his love of Oregon wine country.

I recently spent a day with Rex Pickett at his home in Santa Monica.  I went down with Andrea Johnson to shoot a magazine cover for the Oregon Wine Press and make a short video on his new book, Vertical, which is a sequel to the hugely popular novel Sideways that became an Academy Award winning movie.

If anything in Santa Monica can be called modest, Pickett ‘s apartment can.  He lives very simply in a one-bedroom place a few blocks from the beach.

Pickett explains that the character Miles in Sideways is very much autobiographical although physically Pickett is a tall, attractive man with a full head of hair much closer in appearance to the movie portrayal of Jack than Paul Giamatti’s portrayal of Miles.  His personality also seems to be more Jack than Miles but Miles love of Pinot Noir is certainly all Pickett.  His new book is centered on the Willamette Valley, the heart of Oregon wine country and in our talk his love of everything Oregonian takes center stage.

Harvest is over, at last, and leaves are about to disappear from the vines.  This is wine country at its most colorful and where better to see it than from above.

True Sonoma Coast

I have been shooting aerial photographs for almost 30 years, sometimes from fixed wing aircraft but preferably from helicopters in anything from a tiny, 2-seater Robinson R22 to a massive French army Allouette.  A couple of years ago I persuaded a 747 pilot to take me on a few passes over the island of Kosrae in Micronesia for a story in Islands magazine. There were plenty of white knuckles and sweaty brows among the plane full of passengers on their way home from Guam who hadn’t a clue what was happening as we skimmed the water and mountains.  Unfortunately the windows didn’t open but I got the shots.

Raymond Vineyards, Napa Valley

DeLoach Vineyards, Russian River

For the past week I have been flying over Napa and Sonoma under less dramatic circumstances to capture both wineries and vineyards before winter sets in.   Nothing can beat a helicopter for aerial photography.  It is maneuverable, fast when necessary but can almost come to a standstill in the air and can fly high or low with ease.  I always fly with the doors off which can be both cold and scary but so far I haven’t lost any cameras!

Russian River, Sonoma County

True Sonoma Coast

The most difficult part of aerial vineyard photography is identifying vineyards.  I had the great pleasure of flying over Sonoma with Dan Goldfield who knows the county’s vineyards as well as anyone and even Dan found it difficult.

Dan Goldfield and me

The challenge. Napa Valley’s Chimney Rock winery needed new imagery for brochures and their website to convey a feeling of  a time honored, hand-crafted philosophy and dedication to excellence with the feeling of a unique sense of place and dedication to small production Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux-style blends.  The winery is housed in a dramatic Dutch Cape style building surrounded by estate vineyards in the heart of the famed Silverado District of Napa Valley.  How could I visually differentiate Chimney Rock from over 400 other wineries in Napa Valley?

The solution. The iconic architecture of Chimney Rock is unique in the valley and instantly recognizable.  I had to make photographs that clearly illustrated the architecture but had an element of drama that would read well when the photograph was reproduced in different sizes.  The secret to any location photography is looking at light and recognizing the potential.  I visited the winery several times under different weather conditions until I found the light I was looking for.  Shooting in black and white created a timeless elegance that fit the image of the winery and their style of wine.

I’ve photographed wine harvests all over the world and coming up with a new idea is next to impossible.  To emphasize the care that goes into Chimney Rock wines I concentrated on details, the hand-crafted attention from vine to bottle.

The sparkling silver envelope promised a wedding invitation.  I was wrong.  It was an invitation from Jean-Charles Boisset to an intimate private event at Raymond Vineyards for the unveiling of “The Crystal Cellar”.  I attend my fair share of media events at wineries and intimate usually means either that the room is too small or that the PR agency is worried it won’t be able to attract enough A-list wine writers.  However the Bubbles at Six  followed by a dinner prepared by Food Network star Tom Pizzica had me hooked.  I agreed to donate my time and endure whatever discomforts may lie in store.  It can be a tough life in this business.

Jean-Charles Boisset, the Burgundian president of Boisset Family Estates, new owners of Raymond Vineyards, is the consummate host and even with 100 guests the event had an intimate atmosphere.  Any group of partying Burgundians will spontaneously burst into a chorus of the Bon Bourguignon, the Burgundian national anthem accompanied by hand gestures – no not those!   This was certainly a party and at least one Burgundian was present  to lead the chorus causing an amusing look of confusion and flailing arms from anyone unaccustomed to Pinot Noir traditions – and this was Cabernet country but a few glasses of vintage Raymond Cabernets certainly helped with later renditions.

Raymond Vineyards have been around for a long time and although they have never had the high profile of some of their Napa Valley neighbors, I always liked their wines.  Then along came Japanese ownership and the winery seemed to drop right off the radar and languish for 10 years.  Their lower end wines were particularly lack-luster which  cast a pall over the whole brand.

In 2009, along comes the inimitable Jean-Charles Boisset and the property is transformed into an impressive showplace, the equal of any in Napa Valley.  Jean-Charles has already converted De Loach in Russian River into a power house of organic and biodynamic grape growing and he intends to do the same with Raymond.  He has big dreams and has the energy to realize them.

It would be easy to dismiss Jean-Charles as the P.T.Barnum of the wine industry but don’t be fooled.  He produces.  In a year, he has already established Raymond as a destination winery entering into a unique partnership with Baccarat Crystal to create the dazzling Crystal Cellar.  We have yet to see what winemaker Stephanie Putnam will do with Raymond wines but, with her pedigree from Far Niente, I expect great things.

But back to the event.  As if enduring a 5-course dinner wasn’t enough, we had to taste through 9 vintages of Raymond Generations and Private Reserve Cabernet including a 2009 barrel sample.  The 1978 to 1996 wines were everything I expected from the Raymond family and even the 2001 to 2006 wines under the Japanese regime were in general magnificent examples of Napa Valley cabs, well-balanced, elegant and perfect with food.

The last event I enjoyed as much as this was the black-tie banquet for the opening of Mondavi’s To Kalon facility with Bob Mondavi conducting the Napa Symphony Orchestra.  Even without the symphony orchestra, events of this quality are all too rare but I’ll bet Jean-Charles Boisset will keep them coming.

I got back from Burma two months ago and I still haven’t had time to unpack.  Usually, as soon as I get back from a big trip I look at my baggage to see what I can eliminate next time.  I’ve always travelled light.  In the prehistoric days of film I would carry four cameras, a handful of lenses, a few accessories – and a bag full of film.  Digital photography did away with the problems of carrying film but replaced it with a whole new headache.  Now I travel with only two cameras, that together cost more than quadruple the price of the four film cameras, and a Canon G10 point and shoot – just in case.  I carry the same assortment of lenses but I also need a laptop, portable hard drives, card readers, a mess of cables and more.  I need two of everything just in case a vital link in the chain breaks.

I flew from Bangkok to Yangon on Air Asia, a budget airline that charges for baggage by the pound, restricts hand baggage to 15 pounds and charges for water!  I had no intention of paying a penny more than absolutely necessary.  I paired down my checked baggage to the minimum but how could I avoid the hand baggage problem?  The ground crew are particularly vigilant and can spot a 16 pound bag with uncanny accuracy.  My basic hand baggage weighs in at over 35 lbs. and there’s nothing I can eliminate. The answer came with a remarkable piece of clothing designed by Scott Jordan and recommended to me by Amy Tan.  The ScotteVest www.scottevest.com is perhaps the best travel vest I have ever found.

The vest is deigned to carry a phenomenal amount of gear and still look sleek.  I’ve helped design a number of photographers vests from early Banana Republic prototypes to the Questvest but they always looked like … a photographers vest.   The Scottevest looks like a regular jacket, smart enough for respectable restaurants and if the temperature rises, the sleeves zip off.  Mine weighed in at over 30 lbs. and I had no problems with Air Asia.  This is one item I will never leave at home.

As far as photo gear is concerned, I always carry a tripod and use it far less often than I probably should but when you need it, you need it.  This goes into my checked bag.  If it goes missing I can survive.  The same applies to all my back-up gear; all the cables, card readers, batteries and chargers.  I also pack a 300mm lens that I can live without if necessary – I’m a wide angle kind of guy.

In my carry-on, or Scottevest, I carry both cameras, wide and medium-long lenses, an on-camera flash, a bunch of CF cards, card reader, laptop and two 320GB portable LaCie hard drives.  I also carry battery charges for my laptop and cameras.  I’m a firm believer in packing lists and check everything off as I pack.  One forgotten cable could be a disaster.

Sunday in Jenner up on California’s Sonoma Coast in mid-April.  We were supposed to be kayaking but the rain came pouring down, roads flooded, icy winds whipped across the Pacific but we still managed to pull in a bracing hike.  This time of year I expect blue skies, fields of wildflowers and temperatures that may drop down to the low 60′s.  Not this.  The weather was so bad I didn’t think it was a good idea to take my “real” camera with me.  $7,000 of equipment and heavy rain don’t mix too well so I just carried a small Canon G10 point and shoot.  Thank goodness I did.

The northern end of the Sonoma Coast State Park is a magnificently rugged stretch of cliffs and sea stacks and on stormy days the surf crashes ferociously against the rocks.  The hike along the bluff was pretty uninspiring and the grey light and constant rain did nothing to make me want to take my camera out but then we decided to hike down to the ocean, to Shell Beach.  The wasn’t a shell in sight but boy was it a dramatic scene.  It’s times like this that every landscape photographer prays for.  Dark stormy skies, white surf crashing onto black rocks, a true primal wilderness experience – and all within easy reach of a warm room at the Jenner Inn!  I cursed myself for not taking my big Nikon but to be fair, the Canon point and shoot performed wonderfully.  I zoomed into  the maximum telephoto setting to compress the scene and even in relatively low light and strong winds, the built-in image stabilization worked like a charm.

The moral, of course, is always carry a camera especially when the weather is at its worse – or best if you’re a photographer.