I love the low intensity light over Puget Sound outside the office window of Dean Bennion, an executive at the Wells Fargo Bank with the Olympic Mountains off hidden in the clouds. Rain was falling over most of the distant mountain skyline except for off in the southern end of the Olympics, the sun was trying to get through under the clouds. A grand vista from 40 floors over Elliot Bay.

Although the plant is illuminated partly by florescent lighting which gives everything a green cast, I corrected for that. The green cast on the body of the 777 is a protective coat and is removed before it completed and painted. Boeing doubled the size of the Everett factory which is one of the largest buildings in the world, to accommodate production of the 777.

Every time I fly on a Boeing 777, I remember how they look as I saw them on my tour to watch them come together here in Washington State.

Photography by Seattle photographer Daniel Sheehan creates photography for editorial publications and corporations and available for commercial photography assignments.

In December I was called in by the Seattle Aquarium to photograph their board of directors for the annual report. After my initial scouting trip I re-discovered how much I like the overhead approach to making a large group photograph. Sometimes the backgrounds do not seem to look good or maybe it is hard to arrange such a big group in the time and space required and this approach is a real good solution. Photograph by Seattle Photographers Daniel Sheehan specializing in photojournalism, portraits and photography for publications and corporations.

Recently I was working on my archive and I stumbled upon this executive portrait of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer which I shot on assignment for Yahoo Business Magazine. Although he did not give me a ton of time Ballmer was very gracious with me despite what I had heard from others. Coincidently Mocrosoft today announced that driven by Windows 7 sales, their profits grew 35 percent in the 3rd quarter beating all industry analysts estimates. Microsoft had $4.01 billion in profit, or 45 cents a share, on $14.5 billion in sales in the third quarter, which ended March 31. This was an increase of 6 percent compared with the same quarter a year ago, when the company made a profit of $2.98 billion, or 33 cents a share on $13.65 billion in sales.
Ballmer has a long history with the company and joined Microsoft in 1980 and became Microsoft’s 24th employee, the first business manager hired by Bill Gates and was named CEO in January of 2000. Photograph by Seattle Photographer Daniel Sheehan specializing in photojournalism, portraits and photography for publications and corporations, and a wedding photographer, with a candid photojournalist style.

The outside front entrance to the restaurant has a signboard advertising specials on days they are open for lunch. (It should probably be mentioned that famed New York City Chef Mario Batali is the son of Armando and maybe that was why the New York Times became interested in Salumi. Just a guess.)

A couple of plates of salumi some prosciutto and salami on the right.

Another portrait of Armando in his curing room. Here is the beginning of Armando’s description of his Lamb Prosciutto ”
In keeping with the Salumi Artisan Cured Meats family plan, (that of advancing the art of meat curing to some new directions whilst maintaining the traditions of the past), we some time ago decided to develop a cured lamb product — albeit we loved the flavor of lamb – barbequed, grilled, roasted, burgers, shanks, leg, shoulder, tongue, sweetbreads. Perhaps our love goes back to our childhood – when we were only able to get lamb infrequently and thus it was saved for very special occasions or perhaps our love was nourished while living in Europe where lamb is so much more a highly respected food, or perhaps even while picnicking in Spain with the locals in some field on a grand and glorious day grilling lamb chuletas over an open fire of olive branches. Whatever it is/was we loved lamb and the whole family shared that love.

Anyway when we started dry curing products, I often asked why there were so few dry cured lamb products. Even in history there are few and those there are so limited. When one reads SALT (a great book studying the history and culture of Salt), the Scandinavians continue today with maybe two or three, or in Greek History you may read about one or two, same with the Icelanders. Even in the Middle East where salt was so prevalent for so many years for preserving foods and even bodies, very few lamb products were created that came down the time of history to become traditional or available as dry cured products. Even more so here in the United States. Certainly we are aware of the history of lamb and its back burner status in American Ranching, from western movies if not anywhere else.

I was fortunate after retirement to work with a couple of butchers in Tuscany along with Faith Willinger to slaughter, butcher, and make various forms of Salumi, both Salami type ground and stuffed products as well as muscle products like Coppa, Lonza, Lardo. Marilyn and I were as well fortunate while living in Spain to attend the Matanza, the butchering and preparing of the family pigs in Southern Spain. What an experience! This was a great opportunity for me to see again and participate first hand in the whole process. When we were children in the Yakima Valley, our whole family gathered together for many years to slaughter the pigs we had grown and to all participate in the pigs destiny of feeding us during the winter months. We made or cured all wonderful pieces, from snout to tail and including everything in between and in. This effort and joy from this annual affair and which we so fondly remember as children, truly enhanced our feelings and memories of the values of the family together, around the fire, cleaning scraping, grinding and salting. We learned in real time the appreciation of togetherness focused, both on our stomachs and for each other. And we loved it. ” Continue reading Salumi Artisan Cured Meats
on the Salumi website.

Photograph by Seattle Photographer Daniel Sheehan specializing in photojournalism, portraits and photography for publications and corporations, and Seattle wedding photographers, with a candid photojournalist style.

Robert Shiller, American economist, academic, and best-selling author was in town a little while ago and I was assigned to make a portrait of him. Shiller is the Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics at Yale University and is a Fellow at the Yale International Center for Finance, Yale School of Management. But perhaps he is best know for writing on economic topics that range from behavioral finance to real estate to risk management. His insight led him to correctly predict the coming bursting of the last couple of bubbles our economy has suffered. His book Irrational Exuberance (2000) – a New York Times bestseller – warned that the stock market had become a bubble in March 2000 (the very height of the market top) which could lead to a sharp decline.
In CNBC’s “How to Profit from the Real Estate Boom” in 2005, he noted that housing price rises could not outstrip inflation in the long term because, except for land restricted sites, house prices would tend toward building costs plus normal economic profit. Meanwhile, co-panelist, David Lereah, continued to cheerlead. In February, Lereah had put out his book “Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom?” signaling the market top for housing prices. While Shiller repeated his precise timing again for another market bubble, because the general level of nationwide residential real estate prices do not reveal themselves until after a lag of about one year, people did not believe Shiller had called another top until late 2006 and early 2007. Photograph by Seattle photographer Daniel Sheehan creates portrait photography for publications and corporations, a Seattle Wedding Photographer, a wedding photographer with an artistic photojournalist style.

I had an editorial assignment over in the Yakima Valley last summer so while I was close by, I decided to stop off to make some panoramas of one of my favorite sources of red wine, the Red Mountain Appellation. It is early in the growing season but the vines look very promising this first half of June. Today we have tied the record for the longest stretch without rainfall in Seattle: 29 days. It was also pretty dry over in central Washington. I saw the fire danger signs indicating high.

It’s funny that looking at the mountain in this photograph, you can not see anything red about Red Mountain. Here is some more information on Red Mountain:
The Red Mountain AVA is Washington’s smallest. The region is approximately 4,040 acres with approximately 800 acres currently planted. The name Red Mountain can be misleading for two reasons. First, it does not refer to the color of the mountain’s soil, but rather, some say, to a native grass with a red hue. Secondly, Red Mountain, for those with other mountains in mind, might be a disappointment, since its elevation ranges from only 500 to 1,500 feet. Even so, among the rolling hills of eastern Washington’s desert, Red Mountain’s sloping hillside is a prominent landmark, storing radiant heat for the growing vines of the valley floor. The Yakima River flows nearby, helping moderate climate extremes, as do so many major rivers in wine country regions throughout the world.

In the 1970s, John Williams of Kiona Vineyards and Jim Holmes, originally of Kiona then Ciel du Cheval vineyards, with advice from Walter Clore, (officially recognized by the Washington State Legislature in 2003 as the father of the Washington State wine industry) pioneered grape growing in the area. In the 1980s, wines made from grapes in the Red Mountain area began receiving recognition for their distinct flavor profiles though federal laws permitted only to carry the designation as being from the Columbia Valley AVA or Yakima Valley AVA. In the late 1990s, Lorne Jacobson from Hedges Family Estates started a drive to achieve federal recognition of the area as its own AVA, which was granted in April, 2001. The Hedges Family Estates’ appellation petition was joined by Kiona Vineyards, Blackwood Canyon Vintners, Sandhill Winery, Seth Ryan Winery and Terra Blanca Winery.

In 2007, Chateau Ste Michelle and Marchesi Antinori invested 6.5 million dollars in the appellation to purchase vineyards and establish a winery to produce their joint venture wine, Col Solare.

Some say Red Mountain Appellation has it all: slope, exposure, weather conditions, good air drainage, large swings between day and night temperatures, six wineries within a few miles, plenty of undeveloped land, gravelly soil with high calcium carbonate content and high pH (high alkalinity), both contributing flavor to grapes grown here. Sloping lands beneath the broad Red Mountain lie at the southeast end of the Yakima Valley, overlooking Benton City, where annual rainfall is only about six inches, and supplemental irrigation is usually provided a few months into the growing season. Wines made from Red Mountain fruit express the terroir with great strength and richness, while demonstrating exceptional balance of fruit, acidity, and tannin.

The Vineyards:Red Mountain is home to many of the state’s most prestigious grape growers such as Klipsun Vineyards, Ciel de Cheval Vineyards, Hedges Vineyards, Red Mountain Vineyards (RMV), Kiona Vineyards, Artz Vineyards, and Tapteil Vineyards. These vineyards sell their fruit to some of the state’s most celebrated wineries such as Bookwalter, Barnard Griffin, Soos Creek Cellars, Quilceda Creek, Andrew Will, Woodward Canyon, L’Ecole ^No41, DeLille Cellars, Nota Bene, Matthews Cellars, McCrea Cellars, Washington Hills (Apex, Bridgman), Waterbrook, Seven Hills Winery, and Canoe Ridge.

The area is known for producing powerful, tannic red wines. The wines are known for their balance in flavors, with an intense concentration of berry flavors.Compared to the Cabernet Sauvignon produced in other areas of the states, the Cabernets here are more structured than fruit-driven. Grapes from this area are in high demand and vineyards with notable reputations can receive as much as 30% above market price for their crops. The primary Cabernet Sauvignon clone planted is clone #8, which in Red Mountain produces a Cabernet wine similar in profile to a California wine, while the same clone planted in nearby Horse Heaven Hills AVA produces a wine similar in profile to Bordeaux.

100 point wines

Many of Washington “Cult wines” are produced from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes grown in this AVA including the 2002, 2003 and 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, which scored the rare 100 point rating from Robert Parker “The Wine Advocate” Only 15 other wines in the US have received this designation, all made from California grapes. Only five other previous vintages have received consecutive perfect scores in The Wine Advocate’ publishing history. The Quilceda Creek wines were a blends with grapes from three Red Mountain vineyards-Ciel du Cheval, Klipsun, and Taptiel-and one vineyard from the nearby Horse Heaven Hills AVA.

source: Wines Northwest, Wikipedia

I photographed the Seattle Pro Musica Choir for a promotion photograph using my Fuji GX 617 panoramic camera and finished processing the first picture from the shoot. We had a beautiful Seattle fall day on the shore of Lake Washington. Photograph by Seattle Photographer and photojournalist Daniel Sheehan an editorial photographer who specializes in portrait photography and photojournalism for publications and corporations and a Seattle wedding photographer who creates Seattle wedding photography in an artistic, editorial fashion with classic photojournalistic style.

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