V. Sattui Winery In St. Helena, CA by The Master's Light Photography

 

The V. Sattui Winery in St. Helena, CA.  What an awesome and beautiful place to spend the day.  It is clear that much planning and continued work has made this a must stop place in the Napa Valley area.  I was fortunate enough to be allowed to spend the morning at the winery.  I love the way it is set up.  I was mesmerized at every turn with the combination of historical material, beautiful flowers, an incredible building, and then the combination of everything put together.  The photos let you know just how special this winery is.  Please enjoy and God bless.  

 

"Castello Di Amorosa" or The Castle of Love

I had the distinct pleasure of capturing the incredible beauty and grandeur of the Castello Di Amorosa in Calistoga, California.   You can read the history of this castle and the incredible journey that one man embarked upon at http://www.castellodiamorosa.com/History.

After seeing a post from Steven and Rachel Jones, Robin asked if I thought I would like to photograph the castle.  I told her that I absolutely would love to.  So, Robin called the winery on New Years Eve at about 4:45pm.  It was clearly too late, in my mind,  to be able to get anyone since their hours end at 4:00pm and because it was New Year's Eve.  However, always optomistic Robin called and reached the receptionist. The receptionist indicated that Jim Sullivan, the Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations, would not be in his office, but Robin could leave a voice message.  After all, it was New Year's Eve and they were getting ready for a huge party.  However, when the phone rang Mr. Sullivan was there and he was very cordial to Robin.  He took the time to look up when sunrise was on Thursday and even offered to meet us at the parking lot at 7:00am so that we could capture the castle at sunrise.  So, I got up at 4:00am on Thursday last and headed over to Calistoga.  Robin did not accompany me because she felt I needed to have some alone time.  (She is always thoughtful in this way and allows me "God time" when she sees that I have been having a stressful time of it.)  It was very dark when I arrived in the area and pulled into the parking lot.  Sure enough, Jim arrived as promised.  He was very cordial and kind all day, taking the time out of his very busy day to show me around.  It is an awesome place.  It was built not to resemble a castle.  It is in fact a castle.  The attention to detail is very evident and would be worth anyone's time to visit.  One of the facts you might like to know is that an artist who lives in San Francisco, but hails from Italy, took two years of his life creating the murals in the area where they have large meals and events.  Thanks goes out to Jim for his wonderful hospitality and to my loving wife for working diligently to get us opportunities such as this.  But especially,  thanks be to God for opening the doors for us.  We fully know and acknowledge what God is doing in our lives and with our photography. I hope you enjoy these photos.  God bless.

The San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge

 

The Golden Gate Bridge is an iconic structure.  The effort that it took to build it represents how strong man can be when he puts his mind to it.  God has given him the ability to dream dreams that are beyond what we think we can accomplish.  Our Lord is forever faithful.  He surprises me everyday.  The anointing that He places on His people is in a word, "Incredible".   I look at Robin and my photography work when we first came to the Rock Church and then look at it today and the change is very noticeable to me.  He has taken His hand and placed it on us.  People ask me why we would get up before sunrise and stay until after sunset and my answer is this, "when God has given you a gift and you don't use it I believe that it is a sin."  We must honor His gifts and use them as often as we possibly can.  We must use His gifts for the betterment of His kingdom.  Our wish is to always glorify God and to show His works through our photographs.  We want them to inspire others and show them that God is all around us and we should be forever grateful. There are often times when we would prefer to stay in the warm and cozy comfort of our bed, but then would we be honoring our Lord?  My answer is simply no.  I will continue to work on my craft and attempt to make it better each and every chance that I have an opportunity.  I love my Jesus and He has shown His Grace, Peace, Love, Joy, Faithfulness, Anointing, and so many other things in our lives.  We are so very grateful.

So here are some photos that were captured last weekend.  We got there in the morning and stayed until well after sunset.  I will be posting others, but here is a sample from during the day, then the evening, then after dark. 

Nevada Bureau of Land Management Wild Mustangs

 

 

The Bureau of Land Management were awesome two weeks ago.  They met my buddy John Lavin and myself at their office in Carson City at 6am (We left Elk Grove at 2am) and then took us out on a full day of 4 wheel driving, looking for the ever allusive (that day anyway) Wild Mustangs.  We traveled all over the area, saw two horses in the distance early that morning and then, after I was about to say just take us back to our car and thank you very much, around 3:30pm we finally saw part of the herd.  John, BLM John that is, (not too confusing with 3 John's in the car) that we had looked for the 250 member herd in the morning, but this was a small herd of about 35.  Well, despite the amount of time it took, the bouncing and jostling in the 4 wheel drive, we finally got to see some Wild horses.  Awesome!!!  Out in the middle of nowhere, walking slowly closer to them, I am very grateful that I had rented a 200-400mm lens.  Otherwise, can you say specs in the distance.  Thank you Jesus for this awesome experience.  It was very different than the other wild horses in that there were no fences to hold these guys in.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue; Lancaster, California

Robin and I drove down to Lancaster, California last Thursday afternoon, spent the night, and then drove out to Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue.  

We were met out at the ranch by Angel, Beth, Cheyenne, and Mark.  They were wonderful to us and made us feel very at home. 

Angel took us all around the smaller fenced in areas where we fed some of the horses the carrots that we had in our pockets.  The horses have a great sense of smell and came quite close to us because they knew we had some of their favorite food.  Robin ended up giving me her carrots, as the horses were getting a little to friendly for her comfort.  Angel had to keep shooing them away because they were getting a little to aggressive.  It was great fun.  I ended up having one of the horses nibbling on my coat pocket to the point where it got pretty wet.  After we were outside the fence I went ahead and gave the rest of the carrots I had stashed in my pockets to them.  I was very popular for a few minutes.

Then Beth and Cheyenne joined us and took us out to the 26 acres area where the horses had more room to run.  Mark was able to herd them over to where we were so that we could capture them galloping.  It is a beautiful sight, something neither one of us had ever seen.  God's creatures, great and small, are a wondrous sight to behold.  Here are some samples of what we saw.  A big thanks goes out to the folks at the Rescue for their hospitality and for saving so many of these awesome animals!