photo567.com » Michael

Fall in Mendoza – HDR

michael — Sun, 10 May 2009 21:59:54 +0000

Alamos Trees in Mendoza. Argentina (HDR)

Fall colors at The Vines of Mendoza

My first attempts at HDR…kinda cool. I used the Photomatix plug in for Aperture — it’s easy to use and I like the results.

Vineyard Sunset and Sunrise

michael — Sun, 03 May 2009 16:12:12 +0000

I was traveling in the US, so I had not been out to the vineyard for a few weeks…it was worth the wait…

Uco shake

michael — Sun, 03 May 2009 16:04:45 +0000

Uco

This dog is hilarious…sunrise, dog shake and slow shutter speed…

Joshua Tree

michael — Sun, 03 May 2009 15:55:47 +0000

Landed in LA, grabbed some fajitas with Pruter. We drove to Joshua Tree (3 1/2 hours). Arrived to the Harmony Hotel (U2 stayed there!) — still a dump. Crashed about 1am and woke up at 3:30 am to drive to the park and take these…Exhausted but fun. D300 on my new midget Gitzo tripod…which is cool other than the fact you need to lie on the ground to use it…easy to carry though. Quit laughing pruter. After the shots, we found tacos al pastor for breakfast at 8am. Great little trip and absolutely stunning location.

Miami Skyline with the new LX3

michael — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:59:19 +0000

And about an hour later…

B&W conversion – Viveza Silver efx

michael — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:13:40 +0000

So dave has 10+ years in photoshop…me, I use it for stitching panos and nothing else. I use aperture and new tools like viveza. Super simple and great results…I think…Both of these were taken along the beach in Nicaragua with my D300 and my 18-200 lens…

Michael’s version above using Viveza Silver efx

dp’s version using Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop CS4

Vineyard Shots at Sunrise

michael — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:52:18 +0000

Vines of Mendoza Private Vineyard Estates

Woke up at 5:30 on Saturday morning (after too many Fernets the night before)…but the sky was crystal clear so I got out of bed to take these shots…both taken with the D300 and 50mm 1.4 lens (love that lens — super fast and tack sharp)

The Vines of Mendoza featured in Newsweek

michael — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 07:53:02 +0000

This has very little (nothing) to do with photography, but I am very happy about this nice press piece about our development…so I thought I would share…

A Very Private Label

Brian Byrnes

NEWSWEEK

From the magazine issue dated Jan 26, 2009

Any host can pour a great vintage at a dinner party. But how many can say, “Try this 2007 Cabernet-Syrah blend from my private estate in Argentina”? A growing number of dabblers are buying pieces of vineyards and making their own wines. Private Vineyard Estates, a 265-hectare project in Mendoza’s Uco Valley, allows wannabe winemakers to fulfill their dreams by capitalizing on the region’s low-cost, high-quality production infrastructure. “The response has been phenomenal,” says Michael Evans, a former U.S. tech executive who founded the company in 2006. “You can create better-tasting and better-priced wines in Argentina than in any part of the world.”

For $145,000 per hectare—a bargain compared with the $720,000-per-hectare starting price in Napa—an amateur vintner can choose the grapes, formulate irrigation and growing techniques, and even create the artwork for the bottles’ label. Evans’s company, The Vines of Mendoza, handles the harvest, production, bottling and shipping. More than 50 U.S. and European owners have already planted grapes and are eagerly awaiting their first yields, including Wolfgang Puck, who plans to sell his Argentine vinos at his U.S. restaurants.

At least two other Mendoza-based companies are offering similar services: Villa Dolce Vita is constructing a “wine lifestyle” community with Mediterranean-like homes, each with its own vineyard. And Santa Maria de los Andes has plots ranging from one to seven hectares available for private houses and vineyards in the Luján de Cujo region. Nothing beats uncorking a bottle of one’s own.

URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/180060

Lightning at the Vineyard

michael — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:22:17 +0000

My first lightning shots…I got lucky. I put my Nikon D300 with 70-200 2.8 lens on the tripod, focused on infinity and held the shuuter down until a few strikes hit. Then I got tired of pressing the shutter, so I just left it open, drank some wine and went over and pressed it again every couple minutes. This photo was exposed for 112secs… DP — your turn. You got some lightning?