Thursday, February 4, 2010

New client work: Continuum Estate

I'm proud and excited to announce photos I made for Continuum Estate, Napa Valley, CA.

About the Family: Continuum Estate is the luxury cult wine brand by Tim Mondavi and family. It's through Continuum that the Mondavi family legacy in winemaking lives on in Napa and beyond.

Did I mention it's a family affair? In deed it is. Tim and sister Marcia stand at the helm along with Tim's children Carissa, Carlo, Chiara and Dante, and all seem to channel the insight, dedication and passion for winemaking as the legendary Robert Mondavi.

Apparently, there is no shortage of passion or talent in the Mondavi fam. Chiara Mondavi, who works among the vines atop the Continuum vineyards on Pritchard Hill, is the artist responsible for the vine artwork on the label. Her impressive large-format shadow painting (12' x 6') of a cabernet franc vine was made for Continuum, and if you think the label glows on the bottle, you should stand in front of the original. Wow! Check out more of Chiara's artwork.

This week Continuum Estate launched their new website at http://www.continuumestate.com/. It's a slick and beautious site designed and developed by the folks at Fine Design Group in San Francisco. Not all the photos on the site were taken by me. I'm responsible for the bottle shots and many of the outdoor portraits and Chiara's photo.

About the Shoot: Where to start??? Let's see... a lot of wind, shivers and tears went into the on-location portraits made of the family.

We set out to shoot the day after Thanksgiving, high on Pritchard Hill in Napa Valley, but dark, rain-filled clouds jeopardized the mood and forced us to postpone until the following day. That morning, a light breeze swept across the valley... actually that's an understatement! The wind was HOWLING from the moment I woke. The wind would prove to be a nuissance the entire day toppling equipment, messing hair, tearing eyes and giving everyone a wind-blown red hue. Not to mention the hay covering the yet to be planted vineyard whipped around threatening eyes and getting into everything. I'm still finding some in my equipment cases!

We managed to shoot between the 40mph gusts and use the massive boulders on the property as a backgrounds (and shelter!). I'm thankful for Carissa's imense help in scouting our shoot locations a few days prior so we weren't running around day of looking for primo locales. Thanks again, Carissa!

I have to say that throughout the day, the entire Mondavi clan was among the most sincere I've had the pleasure of working with. Truely kind and utterly helpful folks; heck, they even helped carry some equipment! I'm very greatful.

Wanna sip on some Continuum wine? Join their mailing list to hear when the next vintage is released.

Enjoy a few of my faves below and see more from this shoot at http://www.winecountrypictures.com/.

Best,
Jason





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