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  • Two geese standing in a fall-colored vineyard
    Close-up of a cluster of Pinot Noir grapes changing from green to purple with a little morning dew.
    Road leading through a vineyard into the sunset.
    Black and white high contrast photo of wild winter grape vines
    Green and yellow vertical curvy parallel rows grape vines in the spring.
    Aerial photo of green, yellow, orange, and red vineyards with a road, winery, and mountains.
    Black and white photo of barren grape vines pruned into the shape of crosses with dramatic white clouds shrouding the top of the Santa Lucia Mountains in the background.
    The Lucia Highlands Vineyard on a spring evening with the lights of Gonzales, the Salinas Valley, and Gabilan Mountains in the background under a blue night sky.
    Backlit yellow and green grape leaves and clusters of pinot noir grapes on vineyard trellises that extend into infinity.
    Dark purple Pinot Noir grapes ripe and just days from harvest in the autumn sun.
    Red Pinot Noir grapes against a red leaf background.
    Purple Ripe clusters of Pinot Noir grapes on green leafy vines.
  • Green Chardonnay grape vines line the foreground with the Salinas Valley and City of Gonzales under a shroud of gray clouds, and golden Gabilan Mountains in the background.
    Road running up hill between vineyard rows to green mountains with clouds in the sky.
    Green vineyard rows.
    Yellow and green vineyard rows.
    Vineyard rows leading down to a tree with more vineyard rows in the background.
    Looking down vineyard rows at a tree with more vineyard rows in the background.
    Green bushy vineyards with some fog in the background.
    Rows of grape vines with black grape clusters and white leaves.
    Vineyard rows leading off into the horizon and mountains.
    Rows of pruned grape vines with mountains and clouds in the background.
    Green vineyards in the foreground lead into the Salinas Valley with red sunlit mountains in the background and a tobacco sky.
    Grape vines with city lights and mountains in the background.
  • Grape vines with colorful lights in the night sky.
    Vineyard rows leading to mountains.
    Vineyard rows leading off into the horizon and mountains.
    Vineyard rows leading off into the horizon and mountains.
    Vineyard rows leading to mountains.
    Vineyard rows leading to mountains.
    Wildflowers and vineyard rows.
    Green vineyard rows with yellow wildflowers.
    Green grape vines.
    Cluster of ripe Pinot Noir grapes surrounded by green leaves.
    Rows of grape vines with oak trees in the background.
    Clusters of green Chardonnay grapes with a single grape illuminated by sunlight.
  • Pinot Noir grapes of different colors ripen on the vine.
    A cluster of green Chardonnay grapes ripen on the vine.
    Over ripe purple Pinot Noir berries with yellow leaves.
    Ripe purple Pinot Noir grapes.
    Cluster of green Chardonnay grapes dripping wet.
    Close up of ripe purple grapes.
    Close up of green and purple grapes sprinkled with morning dew.
    Hundreds of tiny drops of water cover a close-up of a blossoming grape vine.
    Close-up of grape blossom covered with tiny drops of water.
    Blowing white grape buds blossom with a scattering of water droplets on a black background.
    Close up of the first bud break on a grapevine.
    Bunches of green Chardonnay grapes ripen on the vine.
  • Tiny grapes populate a vine against a green leaf.
    Green wine grapes ripen on the vine.
    Cluster of green Chardonnay grapes.
    Pinot Noir grapes of different colors ripen on the vine.
    Cluster of ripe Pinot Noir grapes surrounded by green leaves.
    Shriveled black and blue grapes against yellow leaves.
    Green Chardonnay grapes ripen on the vine with a spiders web in the background.
    Close up of young grapes on the vine.
    Red grapes dangle from a vine.
    Discarded over ripe red berries lie on the ground.
    Green, red and purple Pinot Noir grape leaf backlit by the sun.
    A single brightly colored red, orange, yellow, and green pinot noir leaf sharp with detail cutout on a black background.
  • Close-up of grape leaf changing from green to red surrounded by blue sky.
    Close-up of red Pinot Noir grape leaf.
    Red Pinot Noir grape leaves in a line on a vine in front of a blue sky.
    Close-up of dark gray leaf.
    Dark gray and black Pinot Noir grape leaves.
    Bright red Pinot Noir grape leaves.
    Red, orange and yellow Pinot Noir grape leaves.
    Red, orange and yellow Pinot Noir grape leaves.
    Blackbird on post surrounded by green vineyards.
    Black bird sitting in vineyard.
    Close-up of twisted red grapevine.
    Barren grapevine forms the shape of a cross in black and white.
  • Silhouetted barren grape vines reach up to a cloudy sky with a cluster of dried grapes that never dropped.
    Unpruned leafless red grapevines line up against a pale blue sky.
    Columns of twisted barren grape vines in the fog in black and white.
    Rows of blossoming grape vines in black and white.
    Aerial photo of green, yellow, orange, and red vineyards with a road, winery, and mountains.
    Aerial photo of green, yellow, orange, and red vineyards with a road, winery, and mountains.
    Aerial photo of vineyards with autumn colors.
    Aerial photo of vineyards with autumn colors.
    Aerial photo of vineyards with autumn colors.
    Aerial photo of vineyards and other farm land with autumn colors.
    Aerial photo of green, yellow, orange, and red vineyards with a road, winery, and mountains.
    Aerial photo of vineyards with autumn colors.
  • Aerial photo of green, yellow, orange, and red vineyards with a road, winery, and mountains.
    Aerial photo of vineyards with autumn colors.
    Aerial photo of green, yellow, orange, and red vineyards with a road, winery, and mountains.
    Aerial photo of green, yellow, orange, and red vineyards with a road, winery, and mountains.
    Aerial photo of vineyards and other farm land with autumn colors.
    Aerial photo of vineyards and other farm land with autumn colors.
    Aerial photo of green, yellow, orange, and red vineyards with a road, and winery.
    Looking down a vineyard row that looks like it’s been painted.
    Photo of a vineyard that looks like a Monet painting.
    Blurry photo of a autumn-colored vineyard exploding with paint strokes.
    Soft focused vineyard rows.
    Blurry photo of a autumn-colored vineyard racing by.
  • Abstract image of green and orange grape leaves in a vineyard.
    Looking down a vineyard row that looks like a painting.
    Looking down a vineyard row that looks like an abstract painting.
    Oak tree obscured by fog.
    An oak tree barely visible in morning fog.
    Tire tree swing.
    Tire swing hangs from tree branches.
    Sunflower
    Sunflower
    Sunflower
    Silhouette of power lines and birds swarming around and sitting on them at sunset.
    Silhouette of power lines and birds swarming around and sitting on them at sunset.
  • Water drops in a spider’s web.
    Windmill with “Pessagno Winery” printed on the tail.

A Year in the Vineyard

A Year in the Vineyard takes you on a visual journey through 4 Monterey County vineyards in the Santa Lucia Highlands appellation. From January to December, photographer Steve Zmak explores life on the vines, from microscopic dewdrops to aerial views of the vineyard landscape, from dawn to twilight.

When I conceived the idea to photograph a vineyard once a month for an entire year, I thought I would achieve a 50-50 balance between black & white and color. Thanks to my lifelong love of black & white photos, I believed my challenge would be shooting enough color. By summer, however, I was wondering if I would take any black & white shots at all.

For the last 10 years as a fine artist, I have focused my work on black & white photography, emulating my photographic heroes: Ansel Adams, John Sexton, Huntington Witherill, Dick Garrod, Will Giles, Martha Casanave, and Jane Olin. But in 2009, I found myself emulating two of my favorite color photographers, Galen Rowell and David Gubernick, as the full spectrum of color became more and more intense with the passing from winter to spring in the Santa Lucia Highlands of California.

The Santa Lucia Highlands

The Santa Lucia Highlands (SLH) is one of nine American Viticulture Areas (AVA) that make up the 40,000 acres of Monterey County wine country. Although the first vines were planted in the 1790s, it was not until 1991 that SLH was recognized as distinctively different from the rest of Monterey County and approved as a unique AVA.

SLH vineyards are planted on the east facing terraces of the Santa Lucia Mountains, overlooking the Salinas River and Valley. The striking landscapes of Big Sur lie to the west of the mountain range.

SLH vines enjoy morning fog and sunshine, followed by cool afternoon ocean breezes. With a climate comparable to Burgundy, SLH has an especially long growing season. Most of the area’s 5,000-plus wine grape acres are dominated by Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes. Rhone varietals, such as Syrah, also flourish in the slightly warmer, more wind-protected canyons and slopes.

My personal favorite of the SLH wineries is Pessagno Winery, located 16 miles south of the Monterey-Salinas Highway along River Road. Grower and winemaker Steve Pessagno farms plots of the Lucia Highlands Vineyard, Sleepy Hollow Vineyard, and his own Four Boys Vineyard—the focus of this collection of photography.

Time in the Vines

During my yearlong shoot, I decided I did not want to document a before-and-after point of view. Instead, I approached each trip to the vineyard as if I’d never been there before. Each month, it was love at first sight.

I photographed by dawn’s early light, and chased the golden light of late afternoon through sunset and into the night. I used reflectors, diffusers, shades, strobes, and headlights. I delved into the microscopic and soared to 1,000 feet above the countryside. Still mornings enveloped in fog gave way to patchy low clouds and windy afternoons—really windy! The coastal air was nearly always present and visible in one form or another as the valley exhaled the radiant heat and inhaled the cool Monterey Bay ocean air.

In January, February and March of 2009, I shot primarily in black & white. As spring turned to summer and then autumn, the pendulum swung in the other direction. To my surprise, color—brilliant, radiant color—began to dominate
my work.

In October, I changed direction again. I explored the wind sweeping through the vines using a triple-motion-blur technique that yielded painterly pastel impressionist results.

In November, it was time to capture the autumn colors from the sky. I knew from past visits that the setting afternoon sun backlights the leaves to psychedelic levels. In the autumn, this effect is intensified as the leaves transform into a wider spectrum of color and at different rates, depending on the grape varietal and elevation. The resulting aerial photos show blocks of contrasting greens, yellows, oranges, magentas, and reds, wrapped in deep blue shadows.

In December, I stayed near the winery in the southernmost and lowest Four Boys plot, where the leaves were still turning but becoming sparse, and the remaining berries had shrunk to little red fractions of their peak ripeness.

All these images have been compiled into a book available in 3 formats.

For the collector and wine enthusiast!

Year in the Vineyard

First Edition - 7 inch Hard Cover ~ Limited To 100 Signed Copies

(plus $8 shipping & handling)

Makes a great gift!
Year in the Vineyard Second Edition – 7 inch Soft Cover $30.00

For the collector who wants big bold images, this is the version I bring to job interviews.
Portfolio Edition Book ~ 12″ Hard Cover $120.00