Tuesday, I spent a bumpy hour bumping my head against the roof and windows as I rode in the cab of a bumpy farm tractor with a local farmer.
This is the photo that ran on A1:
© 2011 by The York Dispatch. Farmer Andrew Flinchbaugh drives the tractor attached to the 12-row corn planter -- whose gears churn up rows of earth, disperse the corn seeds into those rows and cover them back up -- on Tuesday, May 3, 2011. Flinchbaugh said Tuesday was his first real day of corn planting, as April's rains meant poor planting conditions. Flinchbaugh, whose family runs Flinchbaugh's Orchard & Farm Market in Hellam Township, is working "around the clock" to plant 800 acres of corn. He said he has planted about 2 percent of the crop so far.
This is another photo I turned in:
© 2011 by The York Dispatch. (Same caption as above.)
I’m torn over which one I’d choose, if I had to make that decision. These two would/should never run together in a two-picture package, so it’d have to be one or the other. So which is it: A slightly more artistic shot that emphasizes the corn planter? Or a shot that shows the farmer’s slightly preoccupied face and not much else?
What do you think?
Words and Light 
I think the first one with the corn-planting machine is more interesting.
I like the first photo the best. 🙂
What’s the story about? I think the second photo is stronger (and I personally like it more), but depends strongly on what story the photo is trying to tell to decide which photo I’d pick. Great framing in both photos, though. I like the lighting and tones better in the second.
Hey Kate, here’s the story link: http://www.yorkdispatch.com/ci_17990085
It’s about how the rainy month of April has delayed corn planting, which is why I think my editor chose the first one. Andrew does look concerned in the second photo where you can see his face, but I think at the moment he was more preoccupied with the mechanics of the tractor than with the delay in planting.
I like the concern on his face, but agree on needing it to be correctly placed. The first gives you a better sense of the environment, and is a better match with the headline, but I think I still might have picked the second photo. Either way, it’s a judgment call. Nice work! Hope your head didn’t hurt too much afterward!
[…] last of the tools-themed diptych posts. You’ve seen one of these already. © 2011 by The York Dispatch. These furrowing gears on farmer Andrew Flinchbaugh's 12-row […]