Ottawa Valley Seed Growers
Guest Column
What’s in a photo?
A good photo will give you a feeling – make you happy, angry, frustrated or simply inform. It may need a caption, or more often it will stand alone.
It’s easy these days to take a photo – we all have a camera on our phone, and we all seem to have phones in hand. There was a time only those with the good cameras took pictures, and we patiently waited with our smiles while they fiddled with the settings. Gone are the days when we all posed and said “cheese” for the snap. And then weeks later, after the film was finally finished and taken to the store to be developed, we were able to see the pictures, good or bad.
In our closets at home many of us have an abundance of photo albums full of photos of vacations, holidays, parties and other memorable moments. Sadly, fewer photo albums are from our more recent years.
Remember the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”? Some might say that thanks to social media and easy access to cameras on phones, photos have lost their value.
Perhaps the value has just changed. Photos today seem to say an awful lot judging by the impact they have when posted on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any of the other current social media platforms and the number of likes or tweets received.
A simple Google search asking how many photos were taken globally in 2020 provides a rather astounding answer of much more than a trillion. You only have to ask yourself how many photos are on your phone to see how you contribute to that total.
Photos are abundant in the business of agriculture. Agriculture is a beautiful thing.
Whether it is the fall sunset over the soybean field, or the unsteady legs of a newborn calf, we all love a good ag photo. With the changing of seasons, and the planting, growing and harvesting of fields, a simple crop can be a thing of absolute beauty. These photos can tell a story, and say so much about the ag people and the business we live and breathe daily.
The Ottawa Valley Farm Show Photo Contest 2021 is now accepting your photos in our second annual contest. Again this year, we are looking for photos in the categories of Faces of Farming, Farm Buildings, Lay of the Land and Looking at Livestock. Prizes will be awarded for each category, and the top photos will be presented on social media for public judging for a “People’s Choice Award”.
A beautiful photo can make you feel good, and everyone needs a little feel good sometimes. Go ahead … capture and share the beauty of agriculture in a photo. No words required!
For more information visit www.ottawafarmshow.com
