Tarantula Trek

As a suburbs kid raised in Lafayette, I grew up beneath the long shadow of Mount Diablo.  But it was only last year that I learned about the large and hairy arachnids that call the slopes of Devil's Peak home. To my embarrassment - because for no good reason I like to think of myself as a bit of an authority on local flora and fauna - it took a front page article in the Oakland Tribune to open my eyes to the giants around the corner and re-awaken the spider-loving nerd in me.  Luckily I have two young daughters on whom to foist my enthusiasm for all things crawly. So last October our family (and hundreds of other curious folks with newspaper subscriptions) converged on the Mitchell Canyon entrance of the esteemed state park to meet these tarantulas for ourselves.  On that outing, we encountered at least six new gentle spider friends - plus far too many less-gentle humans  - and vowed to return again under less crowded circumstances.

And so it was that on a recent Friday afternoon we found ourselves battling eastbound traffic and unseasonal heat en route to the dusty, horse-poop sprinkled trails to search for the eight-legged legends.

New Web Commercial for American AgCredit

I headed out to the beautiful heat of Escalon, CA  a couple of weeks ago to shoot video of the Longstreth family and their amazing acres of cherries, walnuts and almonds.  For some reason, the folks our there pronounce the word almond  'ammons' and I quickly learned to follow suit, lest I be labeled a city slicker.

Suzanne and Robert Longstreth, along with their three sons, were the most gracious of hosts.  They were both fun and patient with the photo and video crews that directed them for hours until the sun set gold in the orchards.

American AgCredit bank of Santa Rosa hired Oceanhive Productions to profile the family farm for the company's ongoing GENERATIONS ad campaign.

Here's a link to the finished product.

An Oldie But Goodie

While reviewing the videos hosted on the oceanhive.com projects page I realized that we left out one of my favorites, a video that I worked on last year with the award-winning design team at Jimmyjane, Inc in San Francisco. It's a fun parody of the once ubiquitous Mac vs PC commercials. Who knew adult luxury items could be so clever?

Enjoy.