Monday, October 5, 2009

Corn Harvest

"In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy." ~ William Blake

Ring. Ring.

"Hello."

"We need a photo of a corn harvest. Now."

Newspaper photographers have to be ready to deliver on a moments notice. When I got this little assignment I had to find someone harvesting corn. Half of our talent is being part Sherlock Holmes.

I found this guy working his fields about 15 minutes up the road from where I live. I lucked up. I could have been driving the roads for hours with a deadline looming. Here I had a nice blue sky to work with. Sometimes we have to deal with terrible lighting conditions.

Moving my camera to a different location I lost my light.

Naturally, I had to flag the operator down and interrupt his work to get his name. To get a better photo I begged a ride. You can see the corn at the bottom. This was taken inside the cab - smoked glass was not perfect for the shot, but just one of those things out of my control (news photographers always have to work with things out of their control).

And we have to be brave. I opened the door, and hanging by one hand, shot with the other as we were moving along.





I do have to say that people around here are very nice about being interrupted to let me intrude on their lives. Some mighty fine people live in Crisfield! They make my work much easier.

9 comments:

Martha said...

What great shots! Just scrolling down your front page I have to say you are one awesome photographer! Just beautiful!

Joanne said...

Wow, that is quite an intense machine going on here! I give you lots of props, getting right into the thick of things like you do. It seems like in shoots like this, a certain amount of adrenaline must kick in? Very, very effective photos.

gigi said...

Wow!! Patty!! What awesome shots! I should ever be so lucky to catch something so pretty to photograph. I just love that the pictures are so large and so detailed :)

Lew said...

Great shots! That's a dirty, dusty job. I'll bet your lens needed a dustying afterwards. I took some corn shelling shots this weekend that will get posted nect week.

Dan Felstead said...

Patty...this is going on full bore now in the Midwest as well...great perspectives. I like looking down on the pointy things in the corn row!

Dan

Tess Kincaid said...

Hopping a ride made all the difference. Fabulous shots. I especially loved this, since I've been all about harvest after "Days of Heaven" last week.

Unknown said...

Spectacular harvesting photos Patty. Kinda corny, but very well done. It's amazing how good the machines are at separating the kernels from the husks.

Suburban Girl said...

I love the perspective of that 3rd shot. Something I don't see...ever! Also that last shot capturing the motion of the corn.

Sounds like a fun assignment...hanging on one handed!

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

You want to share your boy friend with me?

Last week, we drove through fields and fields of where your boy friend had been and they say it is for silage.

Your photos are great. I feel as though I was in the machine.