I had been thinking for years that I needed to get a photo of a farmer out in his/her field plowing until sunset, but I never got a chance to get that photo until this opportunity serendipitously arose. I had been driving around in Berrien County, MI, where I live, for four hours looking for a photo op with no luck at all. On my way back home I happened on this scene. I stopped the car in the middle of the road (no traffic in either direction on this rural road with not even a line painted in the middle), jumped out of the car, and with no time to even adjust the camera settings, snapped this photo. I had to get all the elements in the photo exactly right—the tractor in the field moving toward the sun, not too close, not too far, the sun partially down below the trees in the distance, the sky in the orange sunset colors with dust from the tractor’s plowing highlighted in the air, and the grass in the foreground to provide perspective. I clicked the shutter and got the photo I had dreamed of for years. The title of the photo is “Workin’ till the Sun Don’t Shine,,” which expresses the work ethic of the people who work the land in the U.S. What makes this photo even more memorable is the substory about its sale. The day after I retired from my teaching career I registered my photography business and printed some of my favorite photos for display at my “Photo Gallery” (the local hardware store owned by a good friend and former student of mine). The day after it was displayed on the wall behind the cash register a farmer came in to buy some supplies, looked at the photo and said to the owner “That’s me up on my tractor!” He left and 30 minutes later his son came in and paid cash for the photo—my first sale in my career as a photographer. Isn’t this a great story!
