Stan Grosz Fresno County Farm Bureau
As Stan Grosz prepared to retire to his 20-acre raisin and cherry operation outside of Fresno, he dreamed of quiet mornings like this one: “feel-good time,” as he calls it. Grosz’s raisins are seen during harvest with his neighbor’s almond trees beyond, as the harvest moon sets in the background. “In this area, raisins and almonds are it, man,” Grosz says. “I wanted to show them both and represent what our area is like.” While a peaceful scene, Grosz captured it only one day before the photo contest deadline.
Larry Speed Stanislaus County Farm Bureau
Larry Speed carefully set up his tripod to capture this shot of a nighttime harvest of almonds, using a long exposure and careful timing to capture the shaking of the trees. But he didn’t have to set any alarm to get this photo—he was already awake. “When they’re shaking the trees, well, it shakes our house,” says Speed, who lives on part of a 400- acre almond farm called Superior Fruit Ranch. Speed makes the best of the shaking season, using photography to share the “round-the-clock, necessary things that farmers do to get done what needs to get done.”
Mary Ann Renner Humboldt County Farm Bureau
It’s not every day that snow blankets the notoriously green landscapes in Ferndale, where Mary Ann Renner and her husband have operated a 350-head organic dairy farm for 42 years. A blanket of fresh snow last January inspired Renner to pick up her Canon camera and telephoto lens. While the image of the rustic wood barn and posing cow looks like a postcard, Renner hopes her photos provide a real view into country life. “It’s not just a photo shoot. Every day our cows are out on pasture. This is how we raise our animals. It’s a great way of life.”
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