I was working in Nashville, Tennessee when I got a call from a new client about a proposal I had submitted to photograph some of their agricultural products in Georgia. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect since the company produced products for the poultry industry, everything was to be photographed on site, and I had never been to a poultry farm in my life.
Since Nashville was not too far from the site, and I had only a few days left to finish up there, we made arrangements to meet up in the town of Moultrie, Georgia the following week. I booked a room at the hotel close to the site.
On the designated day, I met up with the representative from the company at 5 AM in the hotel lobby and headed off to breakfast with the chicken people. The little restaurant was packed with poultry farmers, representatives from Tyson Chicken, (all dressed the same with blue shirts with the Tyson Logo and khakis), two representatives from my client, Brock Chore Time, and myself.
The waitress knew everybody there except for me, but with typical southern hospitality, came over to our table and said, how y’all doin’ and to me, what’ll you be havin’ Hon? I ordered the same thing everyone ordered which was something like the “Farmer’s Special.” Because I travel quite a bit and deal with all sorts of people in my work, I normally feel that I can carry a conversation with anyone but this was different.
The conversation throughout the whole place was about a serious chicken disease that had been found in the county and how one chicken farmer’s whole flock had to be destroyed. Even though I have a degree in biology, I didn’t understand 90 percent of what they were saying and had absolutely nothing to contribute to the conversation.
Thankfully the waitress soon arrived with our food and I realized that the plate she set in front of me could feed several farmers! Three eggs, a huge country fried steak, grits, biscuits, and fried apples. Everything was delicious but I wasn’t even able to eat half. The company rep had me load all of my equipment into his truck so we wouldn’t have two vehicles on site. I would find out why later.
We then headed out to the poultry farm. I unloaded my equipment and then the company rep handed me a package of coveralls, booties, and a hat to put on. It was warm outside, but much warmer inside the poultry house. We worked through photographing several different products and then we had to go another farm. All of the protective clothing was removed and placed into an incinerator where it would be burned. We drove to a car wash where the rep thoroughly washed his truck and headed off to farm number two. We visited four different poultry farms that day with the same procedure after each one.
The rep told me that he thought I had done a good job and wasn’t afraid to get “up close and personal with the chickens” unlike the last photographer they used.
Through the years, I’ve done several more assignments for the company including turkey and hog farms, but that’s another story!