Off to Wine Country! (5 pics)

[mmroden]

Wine country is a short hop, skip, and a jump from LA (and a very weavy, defocused stumble back), taking about 2 hours to get there.

The sky is quite blue, and the ground is quite dry:
http://mmroden.smugmug.com/photos/99480756-M.jpg

With wine in abundance, of course:
http://mmroden.smugmug.com/photos/99480374-M.jpg

A peak inside the barrels reveals that sometimes, the grapes try to escape their fate:
http://mmroden.smugmug.com/photos/99481175-M.jpg

The rolling hills are quite peaceful as you roam from estate to estate:

http://mmroden.smugmug.com/photos/99482711-M.jpg

And on the way home, we were treated to a hazy, lazy sunset:
http://mmroden.smugmug.com/photos/99477600-M.jpg


Hope you enjoyed! We certainly did :D

(C&C always welcome)

[mushy]

Nice photo's, all of them but the black and white treatment on the second and the beautiful pano for the last were excellent

[mmroden]

Thanks! Yeah, those're my favorites as well.

The pano, interestingly, is just a crop-- shot with a macro lens out of the side of a car going 80 mph. Good thing there was enough light, because I was in no state to change camera settings.

[SpeshulEd]

Napa Valley is so beautiful. I was there in May and can't wait to go back again. It seems so peaceful there...that might have to do the large amounts of wine I drink when I'm there tho. :wink

[anwmn1]

I really like the black and white barrels.

I think the others are cropped too tight. I want to see more of the landscapes. What was your F stop for the grapes- they seem OOF on my screen. Once again I would like to see some more grapes and the rim of the barrel.

Nice job though.

Aaron

[mmroden]

Thanks!

SpeshulEd: This is actually Temecula, southeast of LA, not Napa. Turns out California has a lot of these places, which may be why so many people move out here.

anwmn1: Thanks-- yeah, I like the barrels too. The grapes were taken at f/8. The upper left side of the frame is out of focus kind of on purpose, to shift the eyes to the grapes (and the lone escaping grape). Is the whole frame out of focus for you, or just the upper left?

[SpeshulEd]

SpeshulEd: This is actually Temecula, southeast of LA, not Napa. Turns out California has a lot of these places, which may be why so many people move out here.


haha, I gotcha. Well, your pictures still make me thristy.

[mmroden]

glad I can have that effect :)

This may be a day trip I'll do with any out-of-town guests. It really doesn't get much better than that.

[photodoug]

Thanks!

SpeshulEd: This is actually Temecula, southeast of LA, not Napa. Turns out California has a lot of these places, which may be why so many people move out here.

anwmn1: Thanks-- yeah, I like the barrels too. The grapes were taken at f/8. The upper left side of the frame is out of focus kind of on purpose, to shift the eyes to the grapes (and the lone escaping grape). Is the whole frame out of focus for you, or just the upper left?


I thought that first shot was too desert looking for being in my neighborhood. The others could have been from here tho...nice perspectives.

[saurora]

Love that last shot!!! My parents retired in Temecula, so I've been there a gazillion times, but I've never seen the hills look quite like that. Really nice! :D

[mmroden]

Love that last shot!!! My parents retired in Temecula, so I've been there a gazillion times, but I've never seen the hills look quite like that. Really nice! :D

Thanks! The hills did look very weird, but it may also have been dirt on my wife's windshield that gave it that kind of... aura is the best word I can think of. A kind of makeshift filter, I guess.

[DanielB]

http://mmroden.smugmug.com/photos/99480374-M.jpg

amazing B&W treatment:barb care to share how you did it? this looks like it should be hanging on the walls of an italian restraunt. :)

thanks,
Daniel

[mmroden]

Hi DanielB,

Thanks! I'm glad you like it.

I used Lightroom for the conversion and the crop.

The final parameters were:
Greyscale conversion
+2.35 exposure
37 recovery
11 blacks
-22 brightness
+82 contrast
and the auto greyscale mixer

So essentially, I jacked up the exposure and then jacked up the contrast, and then brought up the blacks to get the shadows between the barrels. It doesn't have a fully stretched histogram, because then I would lose the detail on the barrels.