Photo Shoot Plan

What?- My main focus for this shoot is details, specifically in the barn where most of the tractors an equipment is stored. On the previous shoot I covered a summary and Raoul at work but I didn’t look at the peacefulness or at least the quieter parts of the lifestyle. This also includes Raoul’s passion of fixing older tractors, a hobby essential to his farming technique, using older tractors in a more traditional manor. There is a particular brand of tractor Raoul uses, Massey Ferguson, using the red of these tractors will become a statement point in the book, pinning down a small unchanging fact in an ever-changing industry.

How?- Using a canon mark 5iv with a 70-200mm lens will give me range to capture smaller details like the parts of each tractor while still having enough wider angle to capture the overall picture. I won’t have any artificial lighting with me as I will be climbing ladders and ‘exploring’ the farm. Meaning it is important to get my settings right, I will also shoot on RAW to allow me more editing depth.

Why?- Having captured the tractors and Raoul at work I want to show the quieter part of farming, the essential but currently unused equipment. I also want to show Raoul’s hobby, fixing tractors, to add a further human element to the book. The way Raoul stores equipment reflects how he works, neatly, organised and I think it is important to capture this attention to detail as it shows a further connection between how Raoul works in union with the land, listening to its every need.

This shoot focused on the tractors themselves and some of the equipment. As there are nearly 50 good photos, while I will edit them all I won’t put all of them on this post. Instead I’ll pick significant shots, detailed editing or other photos I want to explain.

Edit One

This is an interesting photo, I struggled to take it with the barn being dark but having to take the photo from the outside left it open to being over exposed. I adjusted my settings till I got an image I knew I could edit. I liked this photo as it frames the tractor well, hinting at what is in the barn. To edit I reduced the exposure, increasing the depth by reducing the highlights. I also cropped and reangled the image as it was off centre. I like the intensity in the shot and the depth in the background while having the empty foreground.

Edit Two

This is the first one from inside the barn, there was a little natural lighting from the sky lights so I needed to compensate with my aperture. The lens I was using only reduced to f4 however it worked well. I chose to get wider angled shots to try and show how many tractors and parts there are. I used simple editing to enhance the image picking the reds to be the main part of the photo.

Edit Three

This detail shot adds to the story, most farmer will have a preferred tractor brand, this one being Massey Ferguson. While red in the Massey colour the rest of the photos in the barn clearly show the abundance of red so this one I wanted to focus on the writing by changing the photo to black and white. In the foreground there is another tractors steering wheel this then cuts off the rest of ‘Ferguson’ it adds to the photo as people have to guess the rest of the brand which is easy enough. Or if its not it shows how little people know about the industry that sustains them.

Edit Five

I then went outside to where more tractors are stored. This photo was composed to show the other tractors around it having the wheels in the foreground out of focus. I like the snippet of hedgerow in the background as it adds texture. I chose to keep this image in colour to show the rust. I made basic adjustments to the images to deepen colours adding more depth to the photo.

Edit Six

I like this photo, it reminded me of previous research I have done looking at KEITH DOTSON’s abandoned cars in a forest. While this tractor isn’t abandoned so much as run out of time to fix it, it has an interesting appearance, especially in black and white. I increased the contrast as it adds to the photo, enhancing the disappearing into nature of the tractor.

Edit Seven

This photo is a detail shot, I liked all the oil cans lined up next to each other all red, like the tractors as well. Once I’d increased the exposure to show more of the image I tried it in black and white, but I found I preferred the shot in colour. The background is busy, full of oils, tins and other bits all in brightly coloured packaging.

Edit Eight

I then went into one of the workshops, an essential part of keeping the old ways going is being able to fix using the old techniques. A skill many people do not have now. This is part of one of the metal lathes, machines used to carve metal into shafts for equipment. I increased the exposure and contrast to create a high contrast tonal image, fitting to the other black and white images I have.

Edit Nine

Following the metal workshop I went into the wood workshop, which used to be the dairy. This shot has many elements within it, I like that it has the old cow headcollar, hooked on the old milking partitions, while having the tools for other parts of farming. I chose to make the image black and white to show the detail, for example it highlights the calendar, with the date 1988 on it. This is another way to show the age of the farm and how things haven’t changed as much as some of the more modern farms have. It also reflects how busy farmers lives are, to have multiple full work shops with scraps of history remaining.

Final Images

This photoshoot went well, I have plenty good photos some hinting metaphors, some simply showing the age, and some to try and get the viewer to understand how farming isn’t just a job so much as a never ending lifestyle, essential for everyone. I like how there are a mixture of shots showing how things are fixed, unfinished projects, and how much time runs away with you. I do think I need to add additional images, like a product of the lathe and a wider shot of the dairy, these will enhance the narrative I’m telling. Similarly to my first photoshoot, I have a range of black and white photos, some worked better in colour, some in black and white, a couple of images it’s important for them to be in colour. Making fundamental points in the story.