Farm shoot

I had a great opportunity last May to do a shoot on a farmer's farm, taking shots of him planting during planting season. Farmer "TM", I'll call him, takes great pride in his farm and in his tractors.

I really enjoyed that morning getting to do this. I got to ride out with his "hired help" on a truck in the middle of his field and take a roll of pictures from the back of the truck, and while it was windy and dirty and not a very girly thing for me to do . . . I truly loved it. The smell of dirt brought back so many memories of living on the farm I grew up on. The John Deeres made me smile because that was what my dad, uncle and grandpa used very loyally . . . never anything else. It made me really miss that life *tears* but I felt completely honored to have the opportunity. How many other photographers would have appreciated that like I did?

So TM, he had this vision of a panoramic photo with the entire picture desaturated with the John Deere still in color. He wanted the "arm" on the planter to be coming out at a certain direction and he wanted the tractor at just a certain spot. He knew what he want and I loved that! It made me see how much pride he took in his job and his machinery. I think all farmers do!

So here is the final piece. I hadn't seen it since it was framed, so TM's wife sent me a picture of it just today. The picture is 3-1/2 feet wide and was placed above their couch. This was a bit harder for me than what it normally would have been because I was still using film when I shot this. The process of having film scanned at a very high resolution made it take a lot longer than what it normally does now with the ease of digital photography.

I take pride in this picture now and have a feeling TM and his wife do also.