Craft & Cluster’s Heather Daenitz Wins Global Photography Award

Santa Barbara Wine Country Photographer Named Errazuriz Wine Photographer of the Year

[Click to zoom] ‘Pinot Noir at Midnight’ – Heather Daenitz | Credit: Courtesy

Just six years after going pro as a wine country photographer, Heather Daenitz is being honored as the best on the planet. Last month, the Central Coast–based founder of the photography and social media company Craft & Cluster was awarded the Errazuriz Wine Photographer of the Year, which is part of World Food Photography Awards sponsored by Bimi. The award was presented in London on May 20 by famous chef-author Yotam Ottolenghi.

The winning photo, called “Pinot Noir at Midnight,” features vineyard workers in the heart of the Sta. Rita Hills picking grapes under the cover of darkness. The photograph was made for Story of Soil Winery during the harvest of 2020, taken a little before midnight at La Rinconada Vineyard.

Daenitz believes the judges found the image “arresting” because it was taken at night. “Night harvest is something that feels a bit commonplace to me now having worked in the industry for 15 years, but I know that it’s not something that’s really seen all that often, particularly for the consumers,” she said. “That’s why what I do — photographing the behind-the-scenes winemaking — is so important, because I think a lot of consumers feel so disconnected from the food they eat and the beverages they drink.”

Daenitz believes the judges recognized that disconnect. “I hope they saw that this photograph is meant to bridge that gap a bit,” she explained, “to show just how hard vineyard workers work to put wine on their tables.”

She tells us a bit more about her career below.

Where did you grow up?

I spent my childhood in the foothills of Pasadena. My dad was an amateur photographer, having won a couple of photography awards himself, so there were always cameras around that I could play with. I ended up writing my high school senior paper on how photography influences society and media. My original ambition was to be a photojournalist like Annie Leibovitz, so I took a couple of photography classes at Pasadena City College, but found that the photography scene in the L.A. area wasn’t my vibe. I wanted to find a career founded in collaboration.

How did you come to the Central Coast?

My sister was attending Cal Poly S.L.O. and I loved visiting her. One day she handed me a Cal Poly catalog and basically told me to get my shit together. I flipped through it and saw Wine & Viticulture at the very back and was like, “You can do that for a living?”

I always thought that you had to be born into wine or work in the restaurant industry to get there. But I’ve always loved science and botany and so decided to move to Los Osos in 2009 to pursue an education in Wine & Viticulture.

My first wine job was in 2010 with Foxen Vineyard & Winery in Santa Maria. I started in the tasting room, then moved to production for my first harvest in 2012. In 2013, my (now) husband and I moved to the Willamette Valley so I could finish my degree in Viticulture & Enology at Oregon State University.

How did you break into the industry here?

We moved back to the Central Coast in 2015 after I graduated. I worked for Foxen again for a couple of years in the tasting room, shipping, and production, then Billy Wathen suggested I look into working with Coastal Vineyard Care Associates (CVCA). A friend got me connected with Shannon Gledhill, who was their Pest Control Advisor at the time and she said they needed someone to work with a few departments. When they hired me, they also asked me to start a social media account for them because, and I quote, “No one knows what a vineyard management company actually does.”

If I was going to do the social media thing, I was going to do it right, so I dusted off my old camera, which I hadn’t touched in 10 years, and started taking it out into the field with me when I was doing my other duties. I photographed all the things I saw and got better and better, and eventually some of CVCA’s clients started noticing and asking if I could do that for them.

In 2019, I had the opportunity to leave my full-time job and start my business, Craft & Cluster. Six-odd years later, here we are!

Why is the wine world engaging as a photographer?

The short answer is: the people. The people who make wine and farm grapes are insanely passionate. You don’t get into (let alone stay in) the wine industry without caring a great deal about what you do. It’s not an industry that makes most people rich, and the work is grueling and sometimes unforgiving, but there’s also this romanticism to it that is so unique and special.

And more than anything, it’s a collaborative and community-driven industry. You can’t do any of it alone. By its very nature, wine is meant to be shared — in the growing of it, the making of it, the drinking of it — and being able to photograph that community is what keeps me coming back to it.

Heather Daenitz on the job | Credit: Courtesy

How many shoots do you do a year in wine country?

So many! Right now, I help around seven wineries each month with their social media, which includes regular photography to capture what’s going on at their vineyards and wineries. I also have a handful of recurring photography only clients on the Central Coast and a couple up in Sonoma/Napa. I also work closely with the Women Winemakers & Culinarians Celebration and the Santa Barbara Vintners Association to photograph events throughout the year.

What’s next for you?

I think the un-sexy answer is that I’m going to keep doing what I do: photographing awesome people who are making awesome wine. I’ve been getting back into film photography lately, which I think complements wine so well. It has this sort of romantic grittiness to it that wine has, so I’ve been bringing my film cameras along with me to some of my shoots which has been so much fun.

I’ve also been thinking about creating a photography zine or maybe a coffee table book. I have this idea of sharing photographs of all of the amazing women in wine in Santa Barbara County — not just the winemakers (of whom we have more per capita than any other wine making region in the world) but of all the women who make wine happen … the viticulturalists, the tasting room managers, the operations directors and leaders.

I’d like to make a zine that tells their stories and shows them doing all of the cool things. I think it’s hard to be the first at something. When you can see other people who look like you doing what you want to do (or doing something you’d never considered before) it makes the path a little less intimidating.

See craftandcluster.com and worldfoodphotographyawards.com.