Part of America kept working throughout the pandemic—the people who raise our food. Farmers and ranchers are always essential, as is the work they do—cows have to be fed and calves have to be doctored.
I shot two days for the American Akaushi Cattle Association, the national breeding registry of these prized cattle. Ranchers need livestock photography to stay in business. I’m not essential to their success, but good photos are.
Since Texas was loosening stay-at-home rules, we felt safe maintaining social distance throughout the day, and wearing masks when needed. There’s some truth to that Lonesome Cowboy thing. They routinely maintain social distance anyway, or work alongside other family members. The only thing missing is nobody shakes hands right now.
I shot alone, with no assistant, using early morning light. When additional lighting was needed, I used a Profoto head on a sandbagged stand—easy to set up and move, controlled from camera. The client yelled instructions from the truck, “Get ear tag 3190! Make sure his rear leg is back so we can see his bull business! Don’t let him scare you—he’s a big baby.” I shot nearly everything with a 70-200mm telephoto. When shooting wide-angle, I kept my distance. Especially from the bulls.
Retouching involved removing lots of momma cows as they hovered over the calves. I deleted hundreds of flies hovering around each cow and bull. Good thing Photoshop has a fly-swatter filter. The client was very happy. They agreed it was worth the effort of my getting out of bed at 4:00 AM two mornings in a row, and driving 90 miles to catch the sunrise.
Credits:
©2020, Scott Van Osdol