The great thing about photography is that there’s always a new experience with every different type of event. From senior pictures to roller derby, there’s always something fun to do!

One of the things that I absolute LOVE doing is livestock photographer at FFA and 4H livestock shows. There’s so much motion and energy and excitement from the students and their families. The energy is just contagious!

If you’ve never been to a livestock show, you should go. Students often spend months preparing their projects for the show ring. They feed, water, love, and exercise their show animals and work on their ag mech projects daily for long periods of time investing money and effort and emotion into what they are doing. It is an exciting thing to see what students who put their mind to something can do! And those students are supported by some amazing families, ag teachers, sponsors, and county agents to help them and teach them a little about being successful with a show animal and a lot about being successful in life. Its an amazing experience and its a lot of fun! If you have an opportunity, you need to make a time to go check out one of these shows!

As a photographer, I have found that there is no more of a friendly or obliging environment as a livestock show. The students are respectful and helpful. The parents and ag teachers are too. Its a culture of mutual support. Everyone is working together for a common goal, to help students learn and grow and achieve! And the students do achieve. It’s amazing to watch them work. It’s amazing to be able to photograph them as the move their animals, present them to the judges, love on them and calm them in an event that is stressful for both the student and animal. The competition is fierce, you can see it in the faces of each student in every photograph. But when the judge makes his decision, that fierce look melts into one of contentment and success, regardless of if they won the buckle or not.

This week, we will be working at the Youth Fair of Rockwall Livestock Show and we couldn’t be more happy. The Show Board there has been so easy to work with and I’m excited to get to work with some of these students and their families. We will get to meet some new people and make some new friends for sure!

If you’re gonna be heading to the show, we will see you there! If not, you can check out all of the great pictures here on our site as well as on our Facebook page!