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New Still-Life Series: Found Objects

A collection of handcrafted spoons from around the globe. 

Photography Info:

Shot with a Phase One Medium Format Digital Camera with a small depth-of-field for maximum sharpness. The image was lit with small grids from the sides and slightly below set - to create edge lighting.

Gear:

Phase One Digital Camera + Comet Strobe System + 7 Inch Reflectors with 10 Degree Grids

#VisualJourney #MakeSimpleBeautiful #NewWork #FoundObjects #Spoons #WoodenSpoons #SpooningAround #PhaseOne #StillLife #StillLifePhotography #FoodPhotography #AdvertisingPhotography #EditorialPhotography #LeoGongPhotography #GongStock

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New Still-Life Series: Found Objects

A bottle of Huile d’Olive purchased from a local farmer in Drome while on a road trip from Paris to Aix-en-Provence, France.

Photography Info:

Shot with a View Camera + Digital Back with shallow depth-of-field to create a feeling of timelessness. The image was lit with a Arrisun 5 and Cucoloris scrim to recreate dapple late afternoon window light.

Gear:

Sinar View Camera + Hasselbad Digital Back + Cucoloris

#VisualJourney #MakeSimpleBeautiful #Huiled'Olive #Olives #OliveOil #ViewCamera #SinarViewCamera #Hasselblad #HasselbladOfficial #StillLife #StillLifePhotography #FoodPhotography #AdvertisingPhotography #EditorialPhotography #LeoGongPhotography #GongStock

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New Still-Life Series: Found Objects

Vintage champagne glasses found at the Alameda Point Antiques Faire.

Photography Info:

I shot this with a View Camera + Digital Back to create more of an artistic still life image. It was back lit and diffused to create a nice glow, then black cards were used to add shape to the glassware. In post production, the image was processed as a black + white, then given a slight cool tone for a split toning effect.

Gear:

Sinar View Camera + Hasselblad Digital Back. Arri HMI Lighting.

#VisualJourney #Champagne #ChampagneGlasses #VintageChampagneGlasses #ViewCamera #SinarViewCamera #Hasselblad #HasselbladOfficial #StillLife #StillLifePhotography #FoodPhotography #AdvertisingPhotography #EditorialPhotography #LeoGongPhotography #GongStock #MakeSimpleBeautiful

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Artist Christine Lando

My friend and artist Christine Lando was commissioned by the Society of Mount Carmel to create a stained glass window for the dining room at the Church of St.Teresa of Avila in San Francisco, CA.

During her initial meeting with the committee, one of the pastors started to sing as they discussed the project. The singing was so beautiful and touching, Christine invited the pastor to sing at her studio, which gave her inspiration while sketching the stained glass window design.

I had the opportunity to capture the process of this beautiful creation that took 8 months to complete. It was amazing to watch the love given to every little detail. In the world of instant gratification, this is exactly the opposite - since she was using techniques from centuries ago.

Prepping window for soldering.

Soldering detail is part of the art.

Cementing the window.

The joy of creating.

Cleaning the window.

Flipping window to repeat process for other side.

Christine with her creation “In Celebration of Pure Event” at the Church of St. Teresa of Avila in San Francisco, CA.

Photography Info:

Available light was used for all the shots in Christine’s studio. This meant overhead green fluorescent lighting, which was later white balanced during processing in Capture One Pro. Camera ISO was pushed to the max, so I could hand hold and capture shots from various angles.

The dining hall was very dark, so additional lighting was needed. A beauty dish + grid + diffusion was used for the face, and a strip light was used over the shoulder to create separation from the background. A diffused umbrella was then added for a front fill light. We shot later in the afternoon, so we could burn-in the western daylight for the stained glass window.

Gear: Canon 5D Mark 2 with various lenses. Profoto AcuteB2 + Beauty Dish. Comet CX-244 + Strip Light + Umbrella.

#VisualJourney #Canon #CanonUSA #Profoto #ProfotoGlobal #COMET #ChristineLando #Artist #StainedGlassWindow #AdvertisingPhotography #EditorialPhotography #LeoGongPhotography

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Food Photography Lighting Tip

Here’s some insight on food photography with natural light.

3 simple tools to alter your photography lighting:

1. Diffusion Material, 2. White Card, 3. Black Card

Key ingredient for placement depends on the types of highlights and shadows you want for illustrating your concept.

For the above image - diffusion material helped soften the western sunlight, while a white card bounced light back into the subject. A black card was added to the absorb some of the light to create deeper shadows for more contrast.

Simply play with the distance of each tool in relationship to your subject to create the type of light + shadow you want for your image.

#VisualJourney #FoodPhotography #AdvertisingPhotography #EditiorialPhotography #PhotoTips #PhotoLighting #Lighting101 #QualityOfLight #LeoGongPhotography #GongStock

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Intention Tremor

I had the opportunity to capture my friend Gabe Osorio and his band rehearse for an upcoming gig. The thought was to do a blur/motion with speed lights, but I forgot the radio slave transmitter, so we just winged it by balancing the fluorescent lights. Shooting tethered to a laptop let me play around with capturing different shutter speeds to get just the right amount of blurred motion. I wanted the blurred motion to illustrate the passion in their movements that created the music.

#VisualJourney #IntentionTremor #IntentionTremorBand #RockNRoll #RockBand #MusicIsLife #LeoGongPhotography #AdvertisingPhotography #EditorialPhotography #MusicPhotography

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The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen, Second Edition: Nourishing, Big-Flavor Recipes for Cancer Treatment and Recover

New images for Rebecca Katz’s new and revised edition of the IACP award-winning cookbook that brings the healing power of delicious, nutritious foods to those whose hearts and bodies crave a revitalizing meal.

#VisualJourney #TheCancerFightingKitchen #LeoGongPhotography #AdvertisingPhotography #EditorialPhotography #FoodPhotography #LifestylePhotography

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Harvest-to-Harvest: Trip Nine + Ten

During my last trip, I got a text from my friend Paul that he was going to be harvesting his lot of Barbera grapes from the vineyard, so I made the trek back up to meet him. It has been very interesting and educational to learn about wine from Paul and Chris. My sense of taste for different elements in a glass of wine has dramatically matured. 

These are some of the Barbera grapes being picked by Antonia and her crew at the vineyard.

Paul sorting through each bin of grapes.

Antonia and her husband.

________________________________________________ A couple of months has passed since the last trip. The Cabernet grapes were finally ready to be harvested at the winery, and it was exactly one year since I started the project. The first journey up to the winery, Antonia and her crew was harvesting the last rows of the Cabernet grapes. I knew I wanted to do portraits of everyone, but it was too early in the beginning. I didn’t want to impose myself on anyone. Throughout the year it was more about building a relationship and getting to know everyone. In the beginning I was the outsider looking in, but eventually through everyone’s kindness, I became part of the family.

Chris Barnum

Sensei Bill helped Chris and his partners get started in the wine world.

Sapriano

Antonia

Antonia’s husband

Chris and crew

Chris with his family at the vineyard. From left to right: Theo, Natasha, Delia, Chris, and Eli.

It has been an exciting photographic journey. The beauty of photography is that you’re always learning something new, and at the same time you meet wonderful people. I cannot thank everyone enough for letting me into their lives. My next step is to create beautiful prints for the winery and the family, then off to the next project - stay tuned!

#VisualJourney #Wine #WineCountry #BarnumVineyards #GraniteSpringsWinery #Harvest #Harvest-to-Harvest #Travel #Canon #LeoGongPhotography

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Harvest-to-Harvest: Trip Eight

Harvest Day!

Timing is everything.

The Barbera grapes were not quite ready, and the Cabernet grapes would need a few more weeks before harvesting.

The Sauvignon Blanc grapes were ready, so Antonia and her crew would start at first light to harvest the grapes until it got too hot.

This meant they had to be fast and efficient - like ninja’s.

#VisualJourney #Wine #WineCountry #BarnumVineyards #GraniteSpringsWinery #Harvest #Harvest-to-Harvest #Travel #Canon #LeoGongPhotography

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Harvest-to-Harvest: Trip Six + Seven

The vines seemed like they were dormant for an eternity. Finally in May the vineyard became lush green and the vines started to develop buds and flower.

In June, the grapes started to develop beautifully. 

#VisualJourney #Wine #WineCountry #BarnumVineyards #GraniteSpringsWinery #Harvest #Harvest-to-Harvest #Travel #Canon #LeoGongPhotography

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Harvest-to-Harvest: Trip Five

The Slaughter

Every animal on the vineyard serves its purpose until their time is up - whether or not it’s by natures calling. Recently the sheep leader was killed by a mountain lion, and hawks have swooped down attacking the other livestock. This is life in El Dorado County, CA.

Today was a premeditated kill. Every 6 months a sheep or 2 are slaughtered for food that supplies a couple of families for half a year. Recently 2 sheep were born, which continues this cycle of life and death.

When I arrived at the vineyard, Chris and his son Theo was trying to corral the flock of sheep into the upper pen. All of the sheep had ran off, so we decided to herd them down to the lower pen area. Yes, I was a shepherd for a few hours 😃

The idea was to get them all into one pen, and then separate the 2 to be slaughtered from the group.

As we were separating them, the buck got stuck in the pen and freaked out. He bolted through a barbed wire fence like lightning. It’s like a 300 pound motorcycle going from 0-60 in less than a second. Scary fast, and would’ve killed anything standing in its way.

Anyway, we finally got the 2 sheep separated, but to our amazement they escaped! They kept body slamming the gate that enclosed the pen area and eventually popped it open to get free. Crazy!!!

We herded them back up the hill, where Chris lured them into the upper pen area and finally got the 2 chosen ones separated.

Gary showed up with his onsite butchering truck. He shot them in the head, slit their throats (for them to bleed out), and proceeded with the rest of the slaughtering process.

It’s not the most beautiful thing in the world to witness, but truly amazing.

Afterwards, the carcasses are taken to the butcher shop where the “butchery” is performed.

___________________________________________________________________

The following day was all about wine bottling. This was quite a change from slaughtering sheep.

The process starts with hooking up the wine bottling machine to the wine tank, and then cases of empty bottles are unloaded onto a conveyor belt.

The bottles make their way into an area where they are cleaned.

They then get filled with with wine, corked, and slapped with a label. The finished bottles come out on the other side where they get repacked and stored.

It’s a pretty cool piece of machinery.

This wasn’t as exciting as the first day, but was just as educational.

#VisualJourney #Wine #WineCountry #BarnumVineyards #GraniteSpringsWinery #Harvest #Harves-to-Harvest #Travel #Canon #LeoGongPhotography

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Harvest-to-Harvest: Trip Four

Not much happening.

The first day was at the winery scouting a location to eventually do portraits.

The next day I hung out at the vineyard.

Walking through the vineyard is like moving meditation. Being in nature has a truly calming effect on the soul.

#VisualJourney #Wine #WineCountry #BarnumVineyards #GraniteSpringsWinery #Harvest #Harvest-to-Harvest #Travel #Canon #LeoGongPhotography

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Harvest-to-Harvest: Trip Three

A change in the weather.

There were drastic changes from Trip Two to Trip Three.

All the beautiful falls colors had washed away from the rain that Northern California desperately needed. The vines were now dormant and would stay this way for the next few months.

These are the Cabernet vines at Granite Springs Winery.

The Barbera vines at Barnum Vineyard.

Everything was pretty mellow at both the winery and vineyard.

Chris was busy tending to the land.

Both boys were home hanging out with dad.

Ezu and friends were out and about grazing the land.

Slowly but surely, everyone was getting acclimated to me visiting for a couple of days every month.

Although, activity in the upcoming month’s would be kinda’ slow.

#VisualJourney #Wine #WineCountry #BarnumVineyards #GraniteSpringsWinery #Harvest-to-Harvest #Travel #Canon #LeoGongPhotography

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Harvest-to-Harvest: Trip Two

The second trip was pretty quiet at Granite Springs Winery. Notable changes from the previous month was the beautiful fall colors throughout the county.

Here are a few shots of the winery.

While wandering through the vineyard at Granite Springs, I ran into Ruggero who owns Mastroserio Winery next to Granite Springs Winery.

Ruggero showed me around the property and gave me a little history lesson about the area. As we walked to his property, he shared his story on becoming a winemaker. It’s always great to meet people and listen to their stories. Life is fascinating.

This is his vineyard on the other side of Granite Springs Winery.

Later in the afternoon I headed over to Barnum Vineyard to hang out with Chris and his family, and to shoot the sun setting. It was a fun evening with great food, and laughter at my expense. This city boy would eventually get accustomed to the wine country way of life.

The next morning as I headed out, the vineyard was socked in with a beautiful blanket of fog.

Even though there was not much winery or vineyard activity happening, it was fun to learn about viticulture, and enjoy the beautiful landscape.

#VisualJourney #Wine #WineCountry #BarnumVineyards #GraniteSpringsWinery #MastroserioWinery #Harvest #Harvest-to-Harvest #Travel #Canon #LeoGongPhotography

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Harvest-to-Harvest: Trip One

One of the great things about being a photographer is all the wonderful people you meet throughout your journey’s.

I happen to be lucky to know a pretty well known San Francisco sommelier, that was kind enough to introduce me to the vineyard owner that produces the Barbera grapes he uses for one of his wine labels.

I wanted to capture life on a vineyard from harvest to harvest. The owner of the vineyard/winery agreed to let me hang out for a couple of days each month to capture the daily life and monthly changes of the land.

Trip One

Prior to heading over to the vineyard (see City Slicker), I spent the morning at the winery where I first met Chris (owner) and crew. One of the first things I noticed were the beakers and tools sitting on the shelf, it reminded me of the days of photo printing + processing in the darkroom, but also made me realize that wine making has a very scientific processing approach.

Above are grapes that have a little of “this + that”, and will be aged for about 5 years.

Last of the Cabernet grapes harvested from the winery - October 2014.

Sapriano working on the wine press.

Barbera grapevines at the vineyard. The grapevines were planted in the 1970’s.

#VisualJourney #Wine #WineCountry #BarnumVineyards #GraniteSpringsWinery #Harvest #Harvest-to-Harvest #Travel #Canon #LeoGongPhotography

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City Slicker

On the first day of my self-appointed assignment capturing the life of a vineyard/winery from harvest-to-harvest, I had driven to the winery where I spent the whole day shooting at the winery, capturing the ending of the last harvest. The next day was spent at the vineyard where Chris and his family lives. As I pulled up to road leading to his home, I called to make sure I was at the correct location. Chris response was yeah, just open the gate and close it behind you - you’re in the country now! I walked through acres of land capturing things of interest to me and at the same time scouting for a location where I could get a great shot of the overall property. As I walked towards the hill near the end of the property line, I was greeted by a lama and 12 sheep that lived on the vineyard. You know ”bahaha bahaha”, sounds like they’re laughing at you. Anyway, I found the perfect spot for the shot I wanted, waited an hour or so until the light started to slowly fall and back light the vines and home. It was a beautiful glow, and I kept shooting until the light was gone. As I made my way back up to the home, it had turned pitch black, but I found my way back to the house where Chris was sitting on the porch with his little girl just hanging out. I said my thanks for everything, it was a great experience and I would be back next month. As I drove down the hill and opened the gate, I started setting my GPS for the journey home - and all of a sudden the lama and 12 sheep bolted past me out into the darkness. I was like “f*ck”, ya’ gotta be kidding me! I called Chris and he was like, huh? We chased them with our cars and eventually corralled them back into the vineyard. Needless to say it took over an hour of chasing and strategizing to herd them back home. I was relieved when Chris told me the flock would occasionally break out and he would have to herd them back himself. On my drive home, I couldn’t stop laughing at how dumb I was to let those guy’s outsmart me. Yep, I’m a city boy!

#VisualJourney #Travel #WineCountry #ElDoradoCounty #BarnumVineyards #RedBucketWines #CityBoy #LeoGongPhotography

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Morning stroll under the dome.

When: 9:30AM 3/13/14

Where: Palace of Fine Arts

#CA #San Francisco #Marina District #Palace of Fine Arts #Photography #Ride #Leo Gong Photography