My friend Carol

Assisting.

There are two ways, at least back in the day there was, two ways of getting into what I do.  One is pretend you know what you're doing and say you're a photographer.  The other way is to assist for one who is.

I went to school for photography and then assisted for five years Alan Krosnick.  Alan, I owe more than I can write.  He was my finishing school, my real life photography teacher, my mentor.  Best of the best. Finest of the finest.

This, though is not about Alan, but obliquely about Carol.  Carol was assisting a food stylist when I was assisting Alan.  We've known each other since then...probably 1983-ish.

Alan was cool in that he gave me unlimited amount of film and paid for processing for me to work on my own stuff.  At $10-12 bucks a pop for 8x10 Polaroid and probably the same for film and processing that was quite the gift.  Carol and I still laugh about our first "test" shot together as assistants.  It was some cake with a slice out it.  8x10 of course because that's what real photographers shot and presented in their portfolios.  Embarrassing really on both of our accounts.  Won't bad mouth her cake here but my lighting was atrocious as well as the whole "idea" of the shot.  At least when we saw the film we both knew it.  That's a plus.

But we persevered.  I flew the nest at some point and Carol did as well.  We've been working together ever since.

OK,  gotten off track here.  Gesture.  Gesture is wine club only label for J Lohr.  Something they bottle only for guests of the winery or for the wine clubbers.  Good wine, really good wine.  New releases they send me and tell me shoot something pretty.  I love jobs like this.  Almost play really in that everything is left to me....props, styling, feel, light, composition. But it's funny because even though no direction is given in the back of my mind I'm always filtering things through the "commercial" side of thought.  Can't be too wild, too out there. Gotta keep in mind what these photos are for, they're for general publications, general uses.  Simple really, the bottle is hero.

Carol.  Carol has an outdoor photo set all ready to go. She lives up in Sebastopol on a farm-ette... gardens, weathered out buildings, weathered tables and chairs, blackberries and redwoods, lavender and roses.  Bees.

And imperfect pears like these.

Spent a half day up at her place shooting a half dozen beauty shots for Gesture.