The Apple-Eichler Connection: Eichler Homes Were a Primary Inspiration for Steve Jobs

I was just listening to an interview with Charlie Rose and Walter Isaacson, the author of the recently released biography of Steve Jobs, in which Isaacson mentions that Jobs lived in an Eichler home in Silicon Valley when he was young and was strongly influenced by the experience. In fact, Jobs reportedly cited Eichler Homes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Eichler) as a direct inspiration and described their design as a "first vision for Apple." Furthermore,  Apple's co-founder, Steve Wozniak, also lived in an Eichler Home when he was young. What a connection: Eichler Homes as an inspiration for one of the most important companies of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

For anyone who is not familiar with Eichler Homes, here are some books about the company and the homes: http://www.amazon.com/Eichler-Homes-Design-Jerry-Ditto/dp/0811808467 and http://www.amazon.com/Eichler-Homes-Design-Jerry-Ditto/dp/0811808467. Also, this may be of interest:  http://www.amazon.com/Quincy-Jones-Cory-Buckner/dp/0714848433/ref=pd_sim_b_8.  Quincy Jones was one of the architects who did designs for Eichler Homes.

Rancho del Eliseo-a Very Unique Residence in Bonny Doon

I recently had the opportunity to shoot a very unusual real estate listing: a lovely house located in the mountains near Santa Cruz, CA. The house is situated in the middle of approximately 150 acres, about half forest and half ranch land. In addition to the house, there were llamas and barns, 2 guest houses, and a small lumber mill, as well as hiking trails through the forest. I shot the property over 4.5 days. One of the challenges of this shoot was fog, which is common on the California coast from around Santa Barbara on up. While the fog tends to recede out to sea during the middle of the day, it can remain within view out over the ocean, and even over the shoreline, throughout the day. For this property, views of the shoreline and the ocean were essential, and the fog can be unpredictable, which necessitated more trips to the property than might otherwise have been necessary. I was never able to get a completely fog-free view when the light was right for a westward looking shot, but fortunately the property owner had a nice shot which met this criteria (taken from the ranch portion of the property above the house, showing open fields and grazing llamas, with the ocean in the background). Also, the fog provided some nice atmospheric views as it rolled in or receded. Here is the website for the listing: www.ranchodeleliseo.com. Wouldn't it be nice if all shoots could be like this? I wish I had more time to enjoy just being there, but I was shooting pretty constantly. My clients wanted a large number of shots to cover the breadth of the property's features, as well as to convey the ambiance of the location, which included showing the nearby beach.

The listing is a group effort of the Zane MacGregor brokerage in Palo Alto, CA.

Menlo Park Twilight

250 Gloria Circle, Menlo Park, CA. Listed by Ken DeLeon, Keller Williams-Palo Alto.

This image was used as the lead photo in the ads.

More and more real estate agents are discovering what architects and lighting designers have known for a long time: twilight images can really make a building stand out, even with low budget printing.  And agents are requesting these kinds of shots more frequently, and not only for their higher-end listings, but for solidly mainstream ones as well.

Technical note: the lighting inside the garage was primarily fluorescent, which looks green to the camera when using a daylight color balance setting; therefore, I selectively balance the color in the garage windows to match the tungsten lighting inside the rest of the house.

Ranch at Sunset

From a recent shoot of a home located on a ranch in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It was clouding up and I had packed up, thinking I was done for the day. Then I saw this out the window, so I had to shoot it. The client loved it.

Twilights-Continued

Another in my ongoing series of twilight shots on this blog.

I shot this on a very dreary, rainy day. The sky was especially bad, and didn't take on much of that blue twilight look that you can generally get even on overcast days, so I replaced the sky with a better one. As with a number of the previous twilight examples, some of the windows were dimmer that others, so some selective retouching was needed to balance these out better. For really extreme differences, or when there is no light at all in some windows, it is best to add some light to the inside.

I shot this Palo Alto, CA, home for a real estate listing for Steve Pierce and Adam Touni of Zane MacGregor Real Estate.