I just returned from a four day road trip through Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. I was taking photographs for an agricultural marketing firm. I would go into details about why I just didn't photograph farms closer to home, but it has to do with specific crops, weeds, and top-secret stuff like that.
If nothing else happened this week at least I learned a thousand new things about soybeans. Go ahead, ask me anything.
While one of the farmers was being interviewed I saw the beautiful shapes of this crop sprayer arm against the sky. It was a very hot week, but the blue skies looked great with the green of the fields.
My traveling companion Stacy works for the client for this project. She learned that I simply HAVE to stop on the road when I see an image like this one before me.
Unfortunately, as each day passed Stacy slowly grew sicker and sicker. On the last day, as we stood in yet another field of soybeans with the sun beating down on our heads, Stacy's empty stomach and woozy head decided that they were both done for the day. She got pretty close to passing out. After sitting down in the beans for a bit, and getting some trail mix in her belly, she rested in the shade of an apple tree and took it easy.
This photograph of a farmer is one of the last ones I took before we headed to the Des Moines airport to finally fly home. Overall, it was a great trip. We had XM satellite radio in the car, and I enjoyed digging up all the obscure music. We found a couple of antique stores (I bought an old camera), stopped at a winery in southern Illinois (Stacy bought some wine), and we had some good food. I have two more trips before the end of the month. I'm sure I'll post more soon!
Labels: Crops, farmer, Farms, Iowa, Jeffrey Ross, Naperville, photography, Soybean