Konza Prairie Trail Photography

Can I be completely honest and blunt with you? I've lived in Kansas for about a year now, and I've been really unmotivated and uninspired to go out and photograph nature. Let's back up. 

I'm from California...the beach. It's tough to take a photograph in my home town that didn't look amazing. The beautiful and radiant colors glimmering off the sand and sky during West Coast sunsets fill the memories of my childhood. My next move? The Colorado Rockies. Just being in the shadow of the mountains is awe inspiring enough. Photographing them can be quite difficult because the photographer is constantly doing God a disservice by not capturing the magnificence of the landscape. My vacation destination? Yosemite National Park and the Redwoods. 

Needless to say, my backyard for most of my life was what you would call a vacation destination for the entire world to see, and when I moved to Kansas, I allowed myself to be pretty negative about not "having anything" to photograph. 

I LOVE photographing agriculture and being an agricultural photographer in the Mid-West. I love photographing harvest, fields, and cattle. But I wanted awe inspiring and majestic landscapes that varied like what I was used to. 

Finally, I decided to end the pity party, grab my camera, and explore the great state of Kansas. It took a while (more for my recognition of beauty than finding it), but I'm starting to appreciate this state for its beauty beyond the humbling sunsets of the plains. 

Kansas has a subtle beauty. It's humble but majestic at the same time. It's like the quiet, comfortable, and reassuring friend you only appreciate the company of until they are gone. I found this beauty this weekend at the Konza Prairie nature trail. I went slightly off the beaten path and found the sun just peaking through the trees and just had to photograph this scene. 

I'm excited to pick up my camera again and not only give Kansas a second look, but my heart another chance to fall in love with photographing the beauty of my current state.

Let's Talk Grass-Fed Beef

Grass-fed beef. What does that mean to you?

Personally, I love the taste of grass-fed beef, but I think there’s a misconception out there about how beef cattle are raised in the process. There’s the idea that products that are not labeled “grass fed” have been on a steady diet of corn their entire lives, which is not exactly true. While traditional cattle are usually finished with a high grain diet to put on extra pounds, meat, and fat (which results in taste), they spend the vast majority of their time grazing out in the open range or pastures. Cattle that are only fed grass have a much more difficult time putting on the fat needed to grade Choice or Prime which is one of the reasons grass-fed beef is significantly more expensive.

Cattle spend about 80% of their time grazing ranges that cannot support crops. Let me explain. They’re great grazers that can roam steep hills that no tractor could dream of scaling. This means the land used to raise cattle for the vast majority of their lives is land that cannot be used for grain crops or vegetables to feed people. True, many cattle states have flat sections like my current state of Kansas. However, during the winter months, cattle are often grazed on harvested fields thereby converting forage material that was destined to be plowed under into lean and highly nutritious beef.  Cattle grazing, if done correctly as most ranchers do, simulates a natural and sustainable process that not only uses the land for commercial gain but improves it as well.

Nothing is wrong with grass-fed beef. I love it when I can afford it. However, it’s important to note that the vast majority of the beef you buy was primarily raised on open pastures converting grass and weeds into a nutritious product. In the process of creating a beef product, cattle also fertilize fields, improve the density of perennial grasses, and help nature with what was once the bison’s job.

Dialogue is always great for agriculture. If you buy grass-fed beef, why do you do it? Is it for the taste, the practice, or something else? Is 80% grass fed enough for you?

Disclaimer: I know a few very successful agricultural communicators  have made a great living and presence with including quotes, facts, and text with pictures. I don’t mean to copy or say that my idea of doing so is original. It just made sense for this post, and I enjoyed doing it...that's all. 

Scott Stebner is a husband, father, and Kansas agricultural photographer and videographer that creates cinematically-styled environmental portraits to empower the agricultural community. Click HERE to get in contact with Scott.

Pursuing Passion - Telling a Story

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. 

Photography Video Tutorial - Creating a Focal Point

Have you ever wondered why some photographs just grab your attention while others seem to leave you uninterested? In this tutorial, I will cover the basics of establishing a focal point to tell a story and interest the reader. 

Salina Four Square Church - Salina, Kansas Editorial Headshots

I had the amazing opportunity to provide some crisp and simple head shots for my church as part of a rebranding campaign they are doing. I love that spouses were involved, and I wanted to do something outside of the typical "smile and pose" shots you see on most church websites. After all, Church is community, passion, and love. When it came to images with spouses, I wanted this love and passion to shine through in something that wasn't static or overly posed. 

I gave zero direction. Instead, I just wanted people to be honest and real with me as we engaged in conversation. At the right moment, when the subject and I shared something truly special, I took the picture. 

The Clean Dirt Farm - Sterling, Colorado Agriculture Photography

Well here comes the Clean Dirt Farm ,  a beautiful company with sustainable roots in Millet Production, specifically Organic Millet. Now many people may not know what Millet is or see it only limited to Bird Seed. However, Millet is naturally Glutten Free, so it’s a super healthy choice.The Clean Dirt Farm cleans and processes the Millet that farmers grow and ships it out to places like Whole Foods Market and countries all over the world.All of this in little ol Sterling, CO

So when the kind folks at the Clean Dirt Farm called me up to help them with a rebranding campaign and doing a few corporate type shots, I couldn’t wait!

It was a true blessing to be on this assignment, and I always feel at home when I can use photography and my passion for agriculture in one shoot

Photography Video Tutorial: How does Focal Length Affect a Photograph?

This is one of my favorite subjects to geek out about. How does the focal length of your photograph affect how your photograph looks? It's a pretty simple yet vital component to consider in your photography, so let's check it out...

Questions? Feel free to email me

Professional Head Shots - Agriculture Communicators of Tomorrow

The National Agriculture Communicators of Tomorrow's Professional Development Conference (that was a long introduction) was in Kansas this year, and I had the opportunity of photographing some very talented undergraduate students who will be the future leaders within the agricultural communications industry. 

I wanted to do something different this time around that didn't resemble a kindergarten portrait. You may ask, why are these not in your typical "portrait" form? Well with the advent of the internet, tablets, laptops, and even internet TV, the standard viewing orientation is slowly switching to horizontal. So, for the sake of progress, we did some stylized head shots in this manner. 

Do you need new head shots done for your Facebook, LinkedIn profile, or other professional needs? Give me an email and set up an appointment. Discounts are given for groups.