Chugrad McAndrews Photography – San Francisco Food, Advertising and Catalog Photography

I am a believer in the Mentor system. We can all learn a great deal from certain individuals who we find particularly influential – ideally in mostly good ways. Often this happens when we are at key stages of transition such as high school, and with adults who are already working as teachers… this was the case for me with Bill.  Bill was my first photo teacher. I was 17 years old and I doubt either of us knew at the time that those critical classes would lead to a professional career in photography. He treated his students with what I perceived as a high amount of respect by being very demanding and having high expectations of performance – he didn’t accept mediocrity and I quickly adopted this value as my own. I learned every last detail about fine art Black and White shooting and printing, studying Ansel Adams’ zone system concepts, and traveling around the Southwestern U.S. to shoot landscapes and people. Coincidentally, when I moved to California to go to college, Bill moved here as well and taught at the San Francisco Art Institute where I attended a few of his classes over the years.

A couple times after I graduated from college, I went back to my high school as a teacher’s assistant to go on these trips around the Southwest with the current photo teacher at the time to help keep the Mentor tradition alive.

Recently, Bill and his wife Christine bought property near Half Moon Bay and are running it as an Organic Farm. My wife and I went down for a visit and were pretty amazed at the operation. I used to fantasize about being a farmer but after our trip to Peru last year, and various other trips I’ve made, I’ve realized that being a Farmer or Rancher is just like any other career path and takes many years of trial and error, successes and disappointments to become successful… and it’s often very unpredictable. Bill and Christine have gone through their own learning curves in the past couple years, but many elements of their transition are the same as before, with a primary focus being their philanthropic work with local communities. They are doing various educational activities for kids at the Farm as well as providing Organic vegetables to a local school district, and much more. They have also been able to hire knowledgeable people who have helped ease the transition.

The “Bike Hut” has been very welcomed by the local bicycling community. Bill and Christine knew the road by the farm was a popular biking area, so they turned a little hut on the property into a self-serve snack and drink stop for bicyclists. They quickly became local heros – not just for the mere existence of the “hut” but for the simple fact that all business in the hut is done on the Honor System – there’s a cash drawer where people make their own change and each item is labeled with it’s respective price. They have had hardly any trouble with dishonesty and in these modern times of disconnected communities and distrust among fellow humans, people feel refreshed that Bill and Christine would actually have that much faith in humanity. Sometimes it’s the littlest gestures that make the biggest impact. For more information on Nuevo Potrero Farm have a look at their website: www.potreronuevofarm.org.