Andrea Johnson Photography

 

Summer Adventures at Canadian Mountain Holidays

Looking for an adrenalin rush? Check out our video of CMH’s newest summer adventure, dramatic scenery where the Bobbie Burns guides have developed a new Conrad Glacier Experience for 2012 with bridges, ziplines and waterfalls.

CMH used the our video to launch ‘The Wildest New Adventure in North America”.

Brett Lawrence setting the course for the new Conrad Glacier experience, Bobbie Burns lodge

Brett Lawrence zip lining across glacial river, working with Bruce Howatt to create the newest Conrad Glacier Experience

The CMH blog written by Topher Donahue also interviews Bruce Howatt, the manager of CMH Bobbie Burns – here’s an excerpt from his post: “You’re right. It isn’t a via ferrata nor is it anywhere close to a traditional hike. The trip is hiking, navigating wild canyons using bridges and rungs, ascending colourful rock slabs right next to waterfalls, zipline crossings, traversing rock walls next to a glacier and, coming soon, more climbing, waterfalls and hopefully some crevasse crossings. All this is mixed into some of the most scenic, mind-blowing, wild mountain hiking you can imagine. Blue glaciers, dark orange rock and bright green ponds are everywhere.”

[Read more…]

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

Behind the scenes with Rex Pickett, author of Sideways & Vertical

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.

For the cover of this month’s Oregon Wine Press magazine, http://www.oregonwinepress.com/, I flew down to Santa Monica with Robert Holmes to photograph and interview Rex Pickett about his latest book, Vertical, the sequel to Sideways.  I wasn’t sure what to expect.  Would the author be similar to his now infamous character, Miles – or had success changed him to become more like his charming but philandering character Jack?  While Rex could easily play either role, after spending a relaxed afternoon chatting about Oregon, pinot noir, and the life of an artist I can see how Rex could be a blend of both, weaving autobiographical details into many of his stories.

Rex has not had an easy road to success.  Although the movie Sideways won an Acadamy Award for the best adapted screenplay, Rex only received a pittance of the profits. His struggles to get his first book published were monumental.  He still lives very modestly; the cover photo and interview are in his one bedroom apartment in Santa Monica. I hadn’t read Vertical at the time of our interview, but I was curious how he would depict my hometown and the Oregon wine country I’ve come to know so intimately during the past ten years. Now that I’ve finished the book I won’t give away the details of which wines are featured or how the story unfolds, but I can say fact and fiction are balanced with comedy and tragedy, evoking a surprising range of emotions.  Oregon pinot noir is celebrated throughout the book, and a variery of artisanal wineries are mentioned.  How the book, or possible movie, will affect Oregon wine will be an interesting development. I’d love to hear your thoughts, feel free to comment below . . .

Rex Pickett for Oregon Wine Press cover & feature story Dec 2010

In conversation with Rex Pickett

A behind the scenes photo of interview with Rex Pickett about his latest book, Vertical, which is the Oregon Wine Press exclusive cover and feature story. The December issue will be available Monday at the same time the book will officially start shipping, though some copies of the book are already circulating around Oregon tasting rooms. For more insight into Rex, visit his blog at http://rexpickett.com/, and watch the video interview below . . .

Riesling harvest with Dr. Loosen in Mosel, Germany

I thought I was prepared for the rigors of Riesling harvest with Dr. Ernst Loosen. I’d recently survived a week in Burgundy ‘embedded’ with the harvest crew 24/7 who were able to endlessly eat, drink, and dance while maintaining the energy to pick all day after a few hours of sleep. During the past seven years of capturing pinot noir harvest in the Willamette Valley I’d become accustomed to climbing up steep slopes covered in wet clay slick as an ice skating rink. I’ve experienced what the Canadians have coined as ‘extreme winemaking’ – traditional icewine harvest where the temperatures are in the single digits and the crew fortifies themselves with spirits and wear ski gloves to pick the frozen grapes. However it was the steep slopes of Dr. Loosen’s famous Ürzig vineyard in the Mosel region of Germany that have been the most surprising.

Imagine scrambling up a sixty degree slope covered with loose volcanic rocks, terrain only a mountain goat would be comfortable navigating. I was tempted to grab hold of the vines for footing, but was afraid of accidentally uprooting a rare and valuable resource – these vines are 100 years old and on original rootstock. I struggled to keep my footing while carrying my gear and focusing on the details, yet the harvesters were able to meticulously separate individual berries from each cluster into separate buckets depending on the level of botrytis (aka Noble rot). This was more labor intensive than any other harvest I’ve experienced and can’t be fully experienced without seeing it in action.

Dr. Loosen Harvest from Holmes & Johnson productions on Vimeo.

Dr. Loosen's vineyard in Ürzig, one of his six major vineyards designated as Erste Lage (equivalent to grand cru) in the Mosel region of Germany.

Dr. Loosen picks up broken and weathered shards of pure blue slate from his Wehlener Sonnenuhr vineyard & holds red volcanic rocks from his red-slate estate vineyards in Ürzig

Dr. Loosen's estate vineyards in Ürzig, which is situated in a picturesque amphitheater formed by this dramatic bend in the river, on a steep slope made up of red volcanic & slate soil.

Pickers separate botrytis and non-botrytis grapes into separate buckets during riesling harvest at Ürzig vineyard

Meticulous individual berry selection of Botrytis grapes during harvest. Also known as 'Noble Rot', the process where mold draws water out of the affected grapes, leaving an ultra-concentrated nectar behind.

Pickers scramble on the insanely steep slopes of Dr. Loosen's Ürzig vineyard during riesling harvest

Runners carry backpack full of grapes up and down the steep slopes of Dr. Loosen's ܆rzig vineyard

Dumping freshly picked Riesling grapes into two separate bins for botrytis & non-botyrtis selection

Private tasting room at Dr. Loosen estate house on the Mosel River

Old bottles of Reisling at Dr. Loosen's estate house cellar, Mosel region of Germany

I was fortunate to enjoy the entire spectrum of wines from Dr. Loosen’s private collection, from dry to dessert Riesling, each reflecting the essence of the vineyard’s terroir and a purity of fruit. The Urziger vineyard photographed during harvest is known for spicy aromas and tropical fruit flavors, while the Wehlener Sonnehurh vineyard photographed with the blue slate is renowned for minerality and delicate acidity. Unexpected delights were a 10 year on the lees sparking Riesling from Ernest’s private library and wonderfully complex and mineral pinot gris unlike anything I’ve ever tasted.

Ernst is a tireless advocate for Riesling renaissance, however surprisingly modest about his own accomplishments: Decanter Magazine named him Man of the Year in 2005 and one of the world’s top 10 white winemakers in 2006, He regularly travels to Oregon to make pinot noir with Jay Somers and to Washington as a consultant for Chateau Ste Michelle Riesling label, Eroica.