Places we used to farm

     I am happy to announce that for part of the summer some of my artwork will be shown at The Hive Taproom in East Troy, Wisconsin.  The series is called “Places we used to farm.” The project consists of farms and farming equipment that until recently were still in use. It was one of those things you didn’t notice it until they were gone.

Resting Peacefully

Resting Peacefully

    I first move to the area full time in 2002 to attend college and never really left. When I moved down from central Wisconsin, there were a few more operational farms than there are today. While in college I had several photography classes and with them came projects. Because of these projects I quickly became acquainted with the backroads of Walworth and surrounding counties.  

     This spring I was out driving around the county doing a few bids for the aerial part of Vagabond Photography and started to notice some of the buildings I photographed in college were gone and with the looming reality of what is coming in the future on the family’s(uncle & cousins) farm in Central Wisconsin I decided I wanted to capture some of these farms before they are lost to the ages or swallowed up by bigger farms or turned into a dreaded subdivision.

Forgotten Barn

Forgotten Barn

     In Wisconsin alone we lost some 300 farms from January of 2019 through May and 700 farms in the 2018 according to the Journal Sentinel in a recent story “Struggling to tread water: ...” published on May 18th. Much of this is because of the lower demand for milk and dairy related products and some of the trade war related matters. Its sad, but my hope is that even though those stanchions are no longer filled with dairy cattle, the farmers can transition to crop farming or beef. With the way the weather has been out west in the plane states this spring and early summer they may be needed.

   This is a project that I intend to keep after because it has meaning and I think it bears remembering where we came from. What is currently on display at The Hive Taproom is just farms from Walworth Co. Wisconsin as I have more time to travel an explore, I intend to capture more and more of these farms before they are lost.

     I want to thank Tim and Ayla owners of The Hive Taproom and M-Jai (manager) for giving me a place to showcase the more artistic side of my business which I feel I don’t get to show enough. The Hive Taproom is a great place to hang out at, meet new people and enjoy a cool alcoholic beverage made with honey(mead). They are open Thursday through Sundays and the art on the wall changes regularly with other local artists showcasing their work.

Flying for Farmers

     At Vagabond Photography we get asked to participate in all sorts of different projects some are big and grandiose while others seem small and simple but they all are a big deal to our clients.

     Earlier this spring we were asked to fly a burning silo for a client, they wanted to see the condition of the roof because they could not climb the ladder due to the danger from the heat from the fire being produced by fire inside and not knowing what it had done to the structure of the silo itself. In the video itself you can see a few puffs of smoke coming out of the cracks in the silo roof and its vents. Apparently from what the farmer explained a few days prior there was heavy smoke coming out of the top.

Tip:

     It was an interesting flight to say the least even though it only lasted for a few minutes but we learned something about our drone while we were in the air flying close to the metal roof on the barn and the steel silo. If you get too close it messes with the internal compass of the drone and asks you to recalibrate but the moment you move further away from the steel/metal objects everything goes back to normal.