First off, welcome to the new look and feel of my website. This day has been a long day coming, filled with plenty of soul searching, thought, and prayer. Now that the time has come to unveil my new website and direction for my business, I’m confident this is the right direction for me. I wanted a website that was simple, minimal, and didn’t’ distract from my images. Although it may seem boring compared to others, it’s perfect for me.
I’ve always been passionate about agriculture. I grew up in it, studied it, and poured seven years of my life into teaching it. Now I am back in school, but this time I am learning how to communicate the facts, stories, and culture of agriculture to anyone and everyone. I will always photograph weddings, although I will be keeping my wedding shoots limited to three to five local weddings a year (or Hawaii, Cancun, or anywhere else tropical).
Some friends have discouraged me when I talked about transitioning away from the wedding industry and focusing more on portraits and documentary of the agricultural community. I would often hear “Don’t you want to photograph something that has meaning, something that matters?” This was in reference to the honor it has been to photograph so many of my clients on their special day as they married. And yes, I do want to photograph things that have meaning. But what is meaningful? Does it have to be a wedding to be meaningful?
Is giving a voice and an image to the thousands of hard-working agriculturists as they toil with the land, unpredictable weather patterns and market conditions meaningful and important? To them it is…so to me it is.
Is showing the compassion a farmer or rancher has for his/her livestock and how he/she humanely treats and cares for them regardless of what some restaurants may lead you to believe important to them? Sure is. Is it important to me? Incredibly.
It’s important to me to educate the families who are desperately trying to make the right decisions about what type of food to purchase for their families but are overwhelmed by all the misinformation out there on the Internet. As a father, that’s meaningful to me.
I’ve never been one for brevity, so I can sum it up as follows. I’m passionate about agriculture, and I dearly love this community. Regardless of whether I can get hired to photograph this community and make a decent wage in the process, I am passionate about helping the farmer and rancher tell their story. I am passionate about showing the public that agriculture is a collection of small families desperately trying to live out their dreams like the rest of America. I’m passionate about educating the consumer in a meaningful, impactful, and ethical / unbiased way.
To be honest, I’m not sure how this will play out. It’s tough to photograph agriculture when you’re not a farmer or rancher. You’re at the mercy of families who allow you to come into their lives. You’re at the mercy of agricultural marketing agencies that must take a chance on you and your portfolio. All I know is there is a story out there that means something, and I am passionate about telling it.
I'd love to hear from you. What are you truly passionate about? What is stopping you from pursuing it?
This little bugger is all the inspiration I need, but I appreciate your support and encouragement along the way.
