ON THE COVER

A SNEAK PEEK

BEHIND the scenes

with Chris Bersbach

ill Ostrander invited me out to his Los Osos Valley ranch to do the photos for this issue. We built our studio to make the cover image in his huge wooden barn, which provided shelter from the afternoon B winds that rip through the valley. Thanks to his experience working in Holllywood, he was a natural in front of the camera, so we nailed the cover shot with a couple rolls of my twelveexposure film stock. After we had the cover in the bag, he took me out on a tour of his ranch, including his hayfields and grazing land, where we made a few more wide-angle images to showcase the expansive views of the valley from the hillside ranch. While we were shooting, Ostrander talked to me about the history of his ranch, the cattle he raises, and the reasons he’s committed to the Citizen’s Congress that he’s organizing. I think that his thoughtfulness and focus come through in the photographs that we made, and I hope SLO LIFE’s readers get that same sense when they read his story.