Andrea Johnson Photography

 

IPAD tips – importing photos & videos

Photos and videos look fabulous on the ipad, but organizing them into tightly edited albums is the key to making your presentations powerful.  I love presenting photo essays on my ipad, and have received many requests on how to import, organize, and edit visuals for the strongest impact.   The wine industy has embraced this tool for presenations, both for consumer and trade – Jordan Winery recently purchased 97 ipads for their employees to best tell their brand story in an entertaining, engaging, and interactive manner.  I have additional specific tips for how to optimize the ipad for presentations using iTunes:

Below are the main steps you can follow:

1.  Save photos inside different folders on your computer, organized by subject.  The name you choose for the folders on your computer is how the album name will display on your ipad.

2. I suggest saving all these separate subject folders inside a master folder titled “ipad photos” or something easy to remember.  Make sure you keep the master and sub folders in the same location, since this is where you’ll synch photos to your ipad in the next step.  One suggestion for wineries may be to create a master folder with their winery name, then sub-folders with winery name – hospitality, winery name – winemaking, winery name – scenics, etc.  This will save you the embarassing situation of accidentally pulling up your personal photos vs winery photos at a presentation.

3.  Open iTunes, click on your ipad device, navigate to the photo tab, then from the  ‘sync photo’ option drop down menu select the ipad photos folder you’ve created and saved on your computer.   The sub folder titles you’ve created inside your master folder will stay intact during the transfer, so all your photos will be in these separate albums.

4.  If you want to change the photos, you’ll need to do this on your computer following the steps above, then re-synch the ipad, which will delete the old photos and add the new.  There’s other options to import photos via a special cable, but it’s more time consuming.   By detault, if you accidentally download a photo when using your ipad it’s automatically saved to ‘saved photos’ album, so you want to keep this separate.

5.  Uploading your own videos is even easier.  First compress the movie file as a .mov file format and save on your desktop, then simply drag and drop this icon into your movies tab in itunes.

After much research, I’ve found the best option for showing custom presentations is a company called Shows 4 Pros, an app which is customized for the iphone or ipad an allows you to customize order of photos, effects between photos (fade or dissolve time, or manaual advancement vs auto slideshow), and create multiple lists by category. They also have excellent customer support if you run into any technical difficulties.

http://www.Shows4Pros.com

Aerials – Oregon Vineyards

Timing is everything: The transition between summer and fall this season, like harvest, has been quick and dramatic. With rain forecast for the next 10 days, I was able to find one morning with sunlight, fog, and optimum fall colors in the vineyards.  There’s no better way to cover a lot of ground quickly than an aerial helicopter shoot.  Here’s a few highlights:

Aerial view over WillaKenzie Estate, Willamette Valley, Oregon

Brilliant golden vineyard contrast with surrounding hillside in this panoramic photo over WillaKenzie Estate, Willamette Valley, Oregon.

Aerial view over WillaKenzie Estate, Willamette Valley, Oregon

Fog began rolling in over the hill quickly, this view looking north over Willakenzie Estate about 6 minutes after the first panoramic photo.

Warm hues of a foggy fall morning showcase new tasting room at WillaKenzie Estate.

Colene Clemens recently completed construction for their tasting room near WillaKenzie Estate.  Fog skirts around the winery & tasting room, perched above estate vineyards.

Aerial view over Colene Clemens, Willamette Valley, Oregon

A 180 degrees view of Colene Clemens Winery as the fog continues to roll in.

Landmark barn at Colene Clemens peaks through gap in fog.

Placing harvest bins in preparation of pick later that morning at Alexana Vineyards, Dundee Hills, Oregon.

I love aerial photography, it is my favorite way to capture unique landscapes with a sense of place and drama. I’ve been fortunate to fly with the same pilot for the past 7 years, fine-tuning my expertise on shoots throughout Oregon, Washington, and California. I’m often able to piggy-back several properties on the same shoot, and these photographs get more mileage than any other type of photography in books, magazine features and covers, and general marketing material.  It’s a surprisingly reasonable expense – please contact me if you are interested in a custom quote.

Here’s links to a few websites of wineries that have utilized aerial photography uniquely:

Penner-Ash http://www.pennerash.com/

WillaKenzie Estate http://www.willakenzie.com/index.html

Hyland Vineyard Estates http://oregonvineyardproperty.com/hyland-vineyard-estates/

and a link to more aerial photos on my site
http://www.photoshelter.com/mem/gallery/gallery-show/G0000bbu5OzbTx4c

Stoller Vineyards lifestyle photoshoot

Last summer I had the pleasure of working with a talented team at Stoller Vineyards for a lifestyle photoshoot to be used in a series of advertisements, multimedia/video productions, and general marketing material – http://www.stollervineyards.com/

It takes the coordination of many people to create a lifestyle shoot that looks and feels vibrant and relaxed. Dixie Huey (consulting G.M. at Stoller Vineyards) was integral to the planning, strategic focus, and coordination of all details. She was also able to balance her roles as ‘creative director/ water & wine fetcher/ housekeeping/ damage control’ as she explained in the behind the scenes preparation and execution of this shoot on her Trellis Wine Consulting blog:
http://trelliswineconsulting.blogspot.com/2010/08/diary-of-andrea-johnson-photo-shoot.html.

The ‘models’ were perfect: For lifestyle shoots I prefer to work with actors since creating real interactions among the group are essential for capturing candid moments. I’ve worked with Erik Nicolaisen, who is a professional actor based in L.A., for several advertising campaigns in California and was fortunate to coordinate this shoot with his trip to Oregon. His ability to put everyone at ease and joke with the crew set the scene, and the great wine and food also helped create a jovial atmosphere.

Wine industry folks will probably recognize the other ‘actors’ in the campaign:
Kerry Newberry (with printed sundress and straw hat) is a renowned journalist specializing in wine, food, sustainability and lifestyle, http://www.kerrynewberry.com/,

Andrea Slonecker (red sundress, dark brown hair) is the executive director of Portland Culinary Alliance and a culinary instructor, recipe developer, and food writer.

Blake Van Roekel (red top, black skirt, tire swing model with red hair) is a chef instructor at the Art Institute of Portland and Robert Reynolds Chef Studio, and owner of Good Keuken http://goodkeuken.wordpress.com/about/

Hans Koenigseder, an Alaska airlines pilot, loves Oregon wine and appeared in the Oregon Wine Board brochures and campaign in 2007.

Melissa Burr (winemaker), Grace Cargni and Emily Olds (hospitality) graciously acted their real roles at Stoller, and truly add to the warm environment at the winery.

Thanks everyone for making this a successful and fun shoot! To see more photos check out the selects here: http://bit.ly/Stoller_Lifestyle_Campaign

Emily Olds of Stoller Vineyards sets up a private tasting and picnic with a view overlooking the stunning estate vineyards at Stoller, Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon.

Couples enjoying the tire swing at Stoller Vineyards, Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon.

Couples enjoying a private wine tasting and picnic at Stoller Vineyards, Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon.

Couple enjoying a romantic picnic and wine tasting at Stoller Vineyards, Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon.

Couple enjoying wine tasting at Stoller Vineyards, Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon.

Couple enjoying private barrel tasting with winemaker Melissa Burr at Stoller Vineyards, Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon.

Stoller hospitality director Grace Cargni arranges lunch & wine tasting at Stoller tasting room overlooking estate vineyards, Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon.

Couple enjoying wine tasting at Stoller Vineyards, Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon.

Photography & Multimedia/ video checklist for commercial clients

1. Does your photography capture the personality of your brand?

Are your photos authentic, memorable, and instantly identifiable?  Do they capture your unique sense of place, or are they generic?  Do your visuals inspire your customers to create an emotional connection to your brand?

2.    Are you consistently integrating photos and visual media?

Do you have professional quality photos and videos consistently utilized on your website, blog, social media, printed collateral and press releases?

3.    Are you maximizing your media coverage?

When a journalist covers your winery in a magazine or newspaper, do you have high quality photographs available to accompany the story?  In today’s market, fewer publications have time or budget to send a photographer to accompany the writer.   Your coverage space can double or triple with professional images custom created for a publication’s audience.

4.    Are you managing your visual assets?

Are your photographs and videos keyworded and captioned for search engine optimization?  Do you have an image library available for immediate, high-resolution download? Are your photos and videos of consistent high resolution, press-ready quality?  Is your visual media backed up on three separate hard drives in multiple locations, and also available on multiple servers online?

5. Do you have a multi-media or video strategy?

Is your video HD quality with the ability to be utilized in a variety of applications?  Are you also evaluating the above questions for your multi-media and video projects?