On the cover: Sunset, sunrise

Early morning harvesting of wine grapes near Cold Creek, Washington. (Phil Hull, Yakima, Washington)

When it’s harvest time, as many of you well know, there just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to get all the work done that needs doing. Which is why many growers find that when the sun sets, the harvest doesn’t stop. And of course when the sun rises, that work still goes on.

This ongoing cycle is featured in a pair of powerful photographs on two of our recent covers for the magazine. My Good Fruit Grower colleague TJ Mullinax captured the image on our January 15 issue, taken in the dim evening light as a nighttime harvest of apples got underway in an orchard near Quincy, Washington.

TJ, who manages Good Fruit Grower’s website and much of our online presence, is also a great photographer. You’ve do doubt seen his work many, many times in our publications and on our Twitter and Facebook feeds. For this shot of workers picking the crop from a platform, TJ strapped himself to a nearby forklift and then was lifted upward to get the angle he wanted. How’s that for an uplifting experience?

Our February 1 issue, which features the early morning harvesting of wine grapes near Cold Creek, Washington, was taken by Phil Hull, who works for Zirkle Fruit and has had his images featured on our covers a number of times over the years. For this shot, he tells me that “the crew had been harvesting Merlot wine grapes most of the night, and I arrived at daybreak to get the morning sun as it lit the harvester and the hills in the background.” He added, “I scout a location and plan a shoot — sometimes it pops and sometimes it’s just blah. This time it popped.” It certainly did.

I’m very happy to say you’ll see more work from TJ and Phil in the months to come.