Winning a Telly for Cinematography: WineShop At Home
I recently found out that a commercial I shot won a Bronze Telly Award in the 2026 Food & Beverage category!
Awards are always nice. They’re also a good excuse to take a look back at the work itself and the people who made it happen.
Welcome to the Neighborhood is a short-form digital ad for WineShop At Home, shot in Napa, California. The spot was directed by the company’s Director of Marketing, Lauren Howes, Trybe Creative handled casting and production, and I ran a lighting and camera crew as the director of photography (DP)
A Peak Behind the Scenes of our Napa Video Production
We had to roam around a handful of locations in the North Bay Area. To keep our footprint light and nimble, we settled on a natural-light system that leveraged mirror boards, silks, and negative fill.
For Lauren to direct, we ran a Teradek transmitter to allow allow her to quickly review shots from a roving battery-powered video village just off-set.
With a lot of setups to cover in a day, we ran two camera rigs, one stabilized on a gimbal and rigged to an Easyrig, and another that roamed between handheld and tripod setups.
Michael Dare from TRYBE Creative shot stills over my shoulder, expanding the deliverables of this production considerably (including giving me this great portrait of myself - thanks!)
Production Takeaways
This shoot was my first time working with the small mirror board systems (like Lightbridge). My two-cents is that they’re really great for splashing a little sunbeam down in a concise space, but lighting a larger group proved difficult, especially once we had them flying high enough to get the light angle we wanted (the wind kept moving that narrow beam around). We ended up shooting some through an 8’ ¼ silk to equalize them, and kept one mirror free to land our sunbeam wherever we needed it on set.
The video village was great, but my AC was stretched a little thin between the cameras, video relay, supporting the gaffer, and occasionally running a second camera. Plus our director liked getting all-up-in the action - so we ended up bailing on the village when we made a company move to the final location. Since this shoot I’ve been opting for more hand-held directors monitors when appropriate for the ease of deployment and troubleshooting.
The role of a DP in commercial production
As a Director of Photography, my job isn't simply to make things look good in camera, it's translating the creative idea into a visual system that can actually work on set.
That means figuring out how we want the audience to experience the piece, then making decisions about:
Camera and lens selection
Lighting and exposure
Composition and movement
Location and environmental light
Blocking and staging
Color and contrast
Crew and equipment needs
How the footage will ultimately be edited and delivered
On smaller productions, that can mean wearing a lot of hats. On larger productions, it means collaborating closely with the director, producer, gaffer, ACs, stylists and other crew to make sure everyone is working toward the same visual goal.
That's one of the things I enjoy most about commercial production: coming in well prepared and collaborating with great creatives to solve problems in real time.
Awards are nice, but the work matters more
A Telly is a pretty cool piece of recognition, especially because there are a lot of talented filmmakers and production companies making excellent commercial work.
Working on Welcome to the Neighborhood was memorable to me because I got to work with a lot of talented people, all of whom are driven to give 110% on set. From the producer, to the talent, to H&M, to our camera and lighting crew, to the client who even directed this thing herself - everyone was working at the top of their game and in full support of each other.
Even without an award, I’m incredible proud to have the opportunity to work as a cinematographer in this big beautiful Bay Area.
Incidentally, Welcome to the Neighborhood actually won another award from Wine Marketing Awards as well ;)
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As a San Francisco Bay Area cinematographer and commercial photographer, I work with brands and creative teams to build and execute compelling visuals across both photo and video.
And every once in a while, somebody hands you a Telly for it.
I'll take that.
See the WineShop At Home work →
Looking for a San Francisco Bay Area cinematographer or commercial DP? Get in touch.
