Early in my career as a photographer I worked for a local newspaper. One of my weekly challenges was capturing at least one photo that told a story about the community, school, or specials events.
As a farmer’s daughter my favorite story to tell was at harvest time. In mid September I would start visiting farmers in our area. I had a variety of experts on my list ranging from farmers who had been farming for many years to those that were just joining the ranks.
Camera in hand, I would visit their fields. Capturing the perfect corn image was a bit harder as we shot all black and white photos. If taken on deadline day the race would be on to get in the darkroom, develop the print, and get the pages finished before they were sent to the printer. If it was a rainy week I’d have to find another subject like sorting cows!
Last week in Nebraska, corn harvest was starting to build momentum. Pulling up the field I jumped out of my Jeep, camera in hand, ready to capture images that would tell this year’s harvest story.
After shooting many frames of families working together, grain flowing from augers, combines, tractors, grain carts, and trucks it occurred to me I was shooting the end of the harvest story.
This image is about the beginning of the harvest and told the same way I would have back in my newspaper days.
