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Closing Time Sunset at Steinbeck Vineyards Paso Robles, California Every December for the last couple of years my friends and I had down to Paso Robles for a weekend of fun and celebration. ALthough my roommate has now graduated and moved down to Southern California we still celebrate her birthday by renting a giant hacienda, cooking great food and tasting a lot of wine. While researching wineries I came across Steinbeck Vineyards and their jeep tour of their vineyards. When I called to see if they could handle a group of 30 young adults they were more than happy to accommodate us! We split into 2 groups and I was in the group arriving second. Before we even arrived we heard from the first group that the tour was absolutely amazing and that we were going to have a blast. When we finally got to Steinbeck and hopped into a 1950's jeep we knew we were in for a treat. The ride was almost like a roller coaster, going up and down hills, around sharp bends and was an absolute blast! While on the tour we stopped on top of this hill (we weren't sure if they Jeep could make it, but it did!) and found out that it had been featured in a number of magazines, including wine spectator. Looking up at the clouds I had my hopes that sunset might produce some color and I knew that I wanted to come back here. After finally heading back to the tasting room and tasting some wine I asked if I might be allowed back into the vineyards. The owners dad was nice enough to hop in his pickup and drive me back out to the vineyards. Sure enough, as the sun set the entire sky exploded with pink, yellow, and red color. I think this sunset lasted for about 45 minutes. It was absolutely stunning! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 60mm, f/5, 0.6 sec, ISO 100
In front of Chateau Montelena's barrel's
Thomas Fog-erty Sunset above Thomas Fogarty Winery Woodside, California When people think of California wine they typically think of one of 2 (or 3) main areas: Napa Valley, Sonoma County, and the up-and-coming Paso Robles regions. Many people living in Silicon Valley might not realize that there's a whole slew of wonderful wineries right in their backyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains … places like Ridge Winery (one of my favorites and also one of my wine clubs), Picchetti, Hall Crest, and Thomas Fogarty Winery. Ridge and Fogarty sit on top of the Silicon Valley side of the Santa Cruz mountains and have absolutely *gorgeous* views of the entire Bay Area; on a clear day you can see all the way from San Francisco to San Jose. I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend a Friday evening event at Thomas Fogarty winery that happened to take place right during sunset. I brought my camera with me in case some clouds rolled in and sure enough I managed to sneak out and capture this surprise of a sunset. I hadn't expected there to be any color in the sky but as I looked out towards San Francisco I noticed both clouds and fog rolling in. To my delight the fog created a mystical feel to the beautiful sunset at the winery. I tried to keep the vineyard in my composition to give a better sense of where this place is and how lucky these people are to own a vineyard up here. I was really impressed by how quickly the fog rolled in. This is a single exposure brought into LR4 and Photoshop CS5 with some minor doging/burning, and some color/contrast alterations (removed the HiTech Reverse ND Grad color cast and then I spent a long time trying to make the green feel right and eventually gave up as the best I could do). Nikon D700 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 48mm, f/13, 3.0 sec, ISO 200 HiTech 0.9 Reverse ND Grad + HiTech 0.9 Soft ND Grad
Close up of the neat wood, granite, moss and brick of Chateau Montelena Chateau Montelena -- the winery that got napa on the map for Chardonnay. We didn't really like their wine, but their Chateau was pretty cool lookin'
Tasty Treats Lava Vine Winery Calistoga, California The persimmon tree at Lava Vine was in full bloom and the owners daughter brought in some persimmons for us to eat.
Barn at Rotta Winery Taken on December 11, 2010 in Templeton, CA near Paso Robles
Red Riding Hat Leemore F, Chateau Montelena Calistoga, California
Intentionally Gross Prager Winery and Port Works Napa Valley, California A couple friends and I spent a weekend in Napa and on our way back we stopped at Prager Winery and Port Works. They're known for their amazing dessert wines, and also because they've been sticking real and fake dollar bills to their walls since the 1980's. They also have a window that they haven't cleaned since prob. the 1980's, which you see here!
Scary Face: Before Starbucks/After Starbucks, Sasha MacDonald Taken on November 13, 2010 in Temecula, CA
Scary Face: Before Starbucks/After Starbucks, Sasha MacDonald
Taken on November 13, 2010 in Temecula, CA
Scary Face: Before Starbucks/After Starbucks, Sasha MacDonald Taken on November 13, 2010 in Temecula, CA
Scary Face: Before Starbucks/After Starbucks, Sasha MacDonald
Taken on November 13, 2010 in Temecula, CA
See photo in original gallery.
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