Julie Johnston Photography

Dedicated blogger-not! and turkey hunt

I thought I would post at least once a week, but so far that hasn't happened. Maybe one of these days I will think I have something interesting enough to say that I will post something every week. Not that it matters much, as no one reads it anyway.
Since the last post I went turkey hunting-twice. In the rain. In the cold. Must be nuts!
And, I didn't even go to shoot them with a gun, but with a camera. I have come to believe that the photographer is as fanatical about getting that perfect shot as is the hunter.
I rose at 3 a.m., yes, that is correct, three o'clock in the morning. Drove 40 miles to meet the guide.
I had met him through my job at the newspaper. Maybe one of my posts will be about those interesting people, but, I digress.
He lives roughly 50 miles ne of me, is a hunter, and was at Lake Darling State Park for an antler measurement. I was there to take pictures of folks and their antler racks. Before the day was done I discovered he is also a turkey hunter and told him my tale of going last year with no luck. He later invited me to participate in the National Wild Turkey Federation Wheelin' Sportsmen turkey hunt at the end of april. This was sometime in february, or maybe even January. So, I said I would like to go.
I could write a lot about this event and the people involved, but I just might want to submit that story somewhere else, so you will just have to wait!
Wonderful weekend, wonderful people, no turkeys! Well, there were 3 hens on Saturday and 1 on Sunday. No toms. Sunday, it was actually pretty funny, a herd of cattle showed up.
Not one to miss an opportunity, I was thinking, "hey, self, we have a beef tab coming up in a couple of weeks, and maybe we can use some pictures for that."
I was on my own time with my own mileage, so these were not newspaper photos, although I shared them for the tab.
What is a tab? We publish MANY tabs each year, which is an insert in the regular paper that is tabloid size, not regular paper size. We do 2 a year honoring senior citizens, one for volunteers, 2 health ones, one each for beef, pork, soybeans and corn, 2 for the county fair, one home improvement, one softball/baseball and many others. As the only staff photographer, I do at least 95 percent of regular photos and probably 30-40 percent of the advertising ones. They contain stories, photos and lots of advertising.
Enjoy the cattle photos!

posted by Julie Johnston @ 12:58 PM