Welcome to this blog

Hello, and welcome to this blog. I made it per requirements to my online documentary class that i am taking at Indiana University South Bend. My study for this project? My job. By that I mean the farms I work on. I work on 2 different horse farms. The work is fairly simple; mucking stalls, cleaning buckets, sweeping, etc. It’s grimy work but someone has to do it, and it’s a job I love doing. Whenever someone asks me where I work, I proudly state that I work on a horse farm. I get dirty, I work hard, I get sweaty and smelly and I’m in contact with animals I absolutely love. Not just horses live at these barns, though it’s their stalls I’m cleaning, but a handful of cats live at both barns, dogs, etc. My passion for animals and for being active is always assuaged in my place of work. I’m paid minimum wage but I really don’t mind, because when I think of where I could be working, such as at a fast-food establishment doing a job I’m not passionate in any way for, I know how blessed I am. And though many might think that getting smelly and dirty mucking stalls is hardly a job someone would want, I do, and I love ever y opportunity it allows me to be near horses. I pull my camera out all the time at the barn, taking shots of the scenery, the animals, and whatever catches my eye, so I know I’d have no trouble turning it into a documentary project as I focus in on what I take photos of. I feel that I can share my passion for my job, the beauties and wonders of working on a pair of horse farms, so different from each other and yet for the same basic purpose, could be something to share. I hardly hear people wanting to make a project out of working at a Burger King, but there’s so much to see working on a pair of farms. What comes to mind is a quote from an article in Outdoor Photographer by (deceased) photographer Galen Rowell: “My most enduring photographs almost always come from repeat visits to scenes I feel passionate about. Though top landscape photographs often involve unrepeatable moments, when later viewed as art rather than news, they transcend events before the lens to open a window on the world view of the creator behind the lens.”