The workshop will be given on February 20^th 2012 from 10am to 4pm in the Stags Leap district of Napa Valley.

This one day intensive hands on workshop is for photographers of all levels wishing to learn different styles of wine photography, how to develop a photographic story that is on brand and beautifully photographed. Tricks of the trade will be shared and demonstrated. Participants will have a chance to practice what they are learning by photographing a few different set ups.

Who should attend: wine writers and bloggers, emerging photographers and wine marketing professionals.

What to bring: any camera that you have working experience with, a tripod if you have one and three wine photos that are inspiring to you.

Location: held at the one-of-a-kind Quixote Winery in the Stags Leap District, the workshop will be a mix of short lectures and live photo demos of still life and lifestyle shooting.

The Instructor: David Duncan Livingston a professional photographer with over twenty years experience. Livingston’s work has been published in magazines like House Beautiful and Sunset, he has been the sole photographer for seven coffee table books including California Country Style. Below is some of his wine photography…Kenzo, Sloan and Trefethen among others.

The Cost: The workshop will be from 10 am to 4 pm, your $200 fee includes a picnic lunch that we will photograph and eat, beverages and treats will be provided through the day. Cancellations after February 15th will either forfeit the fee or apply it to a future workshop offered by David Duncan Livingston.

Questions: email David at david@davidduncanlivingston.com with any questions you may have, you may also call David, 415-383-0898.

Reviews: recent attendees of Livingston’s sold out Food Photography for Chefs & Bloggers workshop had this to say: “an excellent instructor. Thanks again for being so generous and gracious with sharing your knowledge and talents. I really appreciate it” “..how generous David was with information…”

A few of the best things students say they took away from one of David’s workshops: “developing a storyboard and theme, telling a story, understanding the importance of aspect ratio for shooting, the importance of light and how to control it with white cards and balancing it with gray cards.”

Past students say the subject matter: “was covered as a good selection of the main elements…” “Thoroughly, Great footnotes of relevant anecdotes pertaining to the subject covered at the moment” “Perfect!” “The workshop was paced well with just the right amount of hands on. Just enough demonstration for enticing me to try myself….”

San Francisco Interior Photographer

For this two day photo shoot I brought my gear to the Las Vegas World Market and Brownstone’s showroom. On the last day of a trade show we set up 12 foot wide seamless white paper and created a photography studio on location. Working quickly with a couple of guys, the furniture was placed on the paper, I then worked with the lighting and camera to frame these compositions

Working in today’s compressed product to market cycle, the photography is crucial to marketing efforts. By bringing the studio to the product we shaved of weeks getting these photos to Brownstone’s clients.

For me the elements of scale, color and texture need to come together supporting the balance and harmony of the space.

Samantha, who has had her practice for three years in Ross, wanted me to create photographs that would be paired together on her website samanthalyman.com. She sought to showcase the broad strokes and tasty details that make a room.

Careful consideration was given to the aspect ratio of the compositions so the photographs could work in a one third two third arrangement as tall verticals and horizontal rectangles. With pre-planning and attentive art direction throughout the day we created these perfect takes.

For the camera, the photo print or the monitor, we need to compress the light range of shadows and highlights to a narrower range. Compressing this light range can be done by filling in the shadows or controlling the highlights. Lighting for photographs needs to first address this compression.

The second part of lighting is capturing the fall of light into a space, making the photo inviting. Working with the sun, I watch how the light plays in a room and I seek to be shooting when a natural glow is present. I often still need to bring my own lights to fill in the shadows and maintain a “natural” lighting feeling.

The third part of lighting is defining form and keeping color rendition true.

Here are examples of photographs that have a natural, available light quality yet all needed some of the two hundred pounds of equipment that I bring to my photo shoots.

Here from Sub-Zero are styling guidelines that are right on the money and a great help in prepping for a photo shoot.

Photography should look warm, lived in, fresh, approachable, natural, and inviting. It should not convey a contrived, dramatic, or perfect image. Propping should follow the same approach.

Overall Objectives:

Less is more. The composition can be simple and still luxurious.

The purpose of all our photography is to:
Inspire readers
Make the room feel inviting
Convey informationReveal how the kitchen functions
Explain the layout
Show the relationship of kitchen to adjoining areas

Props should:
Look realistic
Be logical
Reflect a level of accessible good taste
Use only natural flowers, and in moderation
Bigger is better and less is more is our desired look

Props should not:
Be moved from one shot to another
Use lighted candles in day shots
Be too messy, crowded, busy, hectic or overwhelming
Combine incompatible objects (e.g. onions and bananas)
Be cliché, such as the dish towel draped on edge of counter

Details should:
Show something not easily seen or not clear in an overall shot
Use scale effectively
Guide the eye to important features

The principals of Ironies and I took a great monochromatic assemblage of forms and textures and used a lighting and photography style to create a soft mood.