George Rose is fascinated by lonely oak trees. So much so that he is willing to go to great lengths to capture the perfect picture of one.
The shutterbug was in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, an up-and-coming region for winemaking, when he jumped in a helicopter to try and get some aerial shots. The oak tree came upon him suddenly and he seized the opportunity to catch the perfect image.
“I just love getting up in the air,” Rose said. “The time of day is very critical when you’re out and about taking pictures. You need that early morning or late afternoon light to get the shadows just right. … Literally, as the pilot was whisking off, I saw this image and said, ‘We have to go over there.’”
Rose, along with photographer Felice Willat, is part of new exhibit called The Art of Travel at Gallery Los Olivos. The show runs through Dec. 31 and features images captured during each photographer’s extensive travels throughout the globe and in California.
A former photojournalist who worked with Getty Images, Rolling Stone, and the NFL, Rose has a keen eye for unique visual elements in images that typify scenic tourist spots. He is the author of the coffee table book Vineyard: Sonoma County and is set to release Wine Country: Santa Barbara County in 2019. His attraction to the sunny rolling hills of Northern California’s wine country eventually led him on a career detour to public relations in the wine business, where he spent 25 years.
Rose and his wife, a retired schoolteacher, moved to Solvang in 2014 where he has been a steady fixture in the arts community ever since. He is a board member at the Wildling Museum of Art and Nature and periodically shows work at various galleries and museums.
“I’ve been quietly photographing Santa Barbara for several years,” Rose said. “The book will definitely be focused on beautiful iconic wine country landscapes, taken on various properties throughout the county. There’s a bit of a travelogue-esque element to it.”
For the seasoned photographer, the region is one of his favorites to photograph, especially Santa Maria Valley. Rose said the area is ideal for landscapes and contains a lot of diversity outside of the wineries, strawberry fields, and vineyards.
One of the wineries that granted Rose unfettered access to its vineyards was Bien Nacido, where he photographed images of daily life in wine country and the stunning landscape surrounding it.
“It’s been a learning experience for me, just getting out and about and acquainted with every single corner of the county,” Rose said. “I’ve got rocket launches, I’ve got strawberry field workers, I’ve got grape harvests. It’s all really beautiful.”
The work featured in the show also touches on Rose’s travels beyond Santa Barbara County. One of his most captivating photos features the skyline of Hong Kong, crammed with vehicles and equipment for an ambitions construction project on the waterfront. Rose said the image captured everything about China at that moment, from the densely packed spaces to the immense growth of the city.
The image is saturated with human construction, with barely a glimpse of the water’s edge peeking out from behind a building.
“The light was hitting [the scene],” Rose said. “The color of all the trucks and everything that was in it was almost cartoonish. It has a very surreal look to it.”
While Rose has spent much of his life as a working photographer, Willat came to the medium later in life, after she retired from a successful career. The acclaimed photographer, who has shot all over the world including in Burma, Morocco, Vietnam, and China, was one of the co-creators of a product that many people still find indispensable in their daily lives.
Looking to offer a better portable organizer, Willat helped invent the Day Runner, a product which went on to generate more than $10 million after its first five years. Needing a vacation after managing the rapidly growing company, Willat went to India, armed with a point-and-shoot camera.
“It was a sensory overload,” she explained. “I just seemed to connect with the camera.”
She connected with it until it literally stopped working. While she was on a boat shooting the Kumbh Mela, a massive gathering of Hindus bathing themselves in a sacred river, the camera stopped working entirely.
Undaunted, she returned home and hung a few of her photographs in her office. The art director of her former company was impressed and told her she should take up photography.
“It was quite late in my life,” she said. “I was in my 40s, after a long career in the corporate world. But I knew I was always an artist at heart.”
Willat started taking classes at the home of a local photographer in Brentwood. When the industry progressed into digital photography, she evolved as well, working one-on-one with another private instructor.
“Then I began to go on photo exhibitions,” Willat said. “You’re always shooting, sometimes early in the morning to catch the good light.”
Despite the label her work has been given, Willat doesn’t call herself a travel photographer. She prefers to think of herself as an artist first, one who prioritizes the humanity and emotions in the work she produces.
“I think I’ve always wanted to be one, and I guess I am,” she said. “My medium is photography. Now I’m thriving in what I was always was meant to do.”
This article appears in Nov 29 – Dec 6, 2018.