Jesus Saves (Ford)

In and around The Liberties farming and church go hand-in-hand.  It's a traditional way of life, I guess, where the community is close-knit and friends & neighbours can be relied upon to help each other out.  This stand caught my eye in the Ballymoney Show and I reckoned it warranted wasting a frame on:

It took a couple of attempts to get this half-decent,
with a fair bit of burning in of the balloon at the front.

The old Ford tractor with the double wheels was done up a treat and I guess it was a good hook to convince passers-by to stop a while. It worked for me!

Getting ready for the showing

Our local agricultural shows are just that - places to show your livestock, equipment, or produce.  It's a huge day out for the farming community and they take it very seriously.  I saw cows getting blow-dried and back combed and sheep getting their faces whitened with talc, or blackened with something else.  Hooves were being scrubbed.  Sometimes sheep were manhandled into a holding contraption which kept them still long enough to be brushed and cleaned.  They did complain about it - loudly.  But I think sheep complain about a lot of things, from what I could see.  They just want to be out eating grass, I guess - it's not their idea of fun being carted to an unfamiliar place and have strangers poke, prod and take photographs of you without so much as being asked. 

Hasselblad/60mm; FP4+ on Foma 313 paper

If your only experience of sheep is seeing them as fluffy cute wee things which run around a field then it's a shock to see how difficult it is to work with them.  For their size, they are incredibly strong animals and they take a lot of encouragement to do anything - a firm grasp of the horns (for those that have them) is required, or a tight grip around their neck.  Of course often they wriggle free and make a bolt for freedom in which case everyone and anyone around lends a hand to get them under control again.  Working with livestock ain't for the faint hearted, that's for sure.  I had to be careful picking my way through the pens and watching out for - well, everything.  

Big sheep, small boy

After a far too long hiatus I finally got back in the darkroom this morning and made a start printing some of the shots taken over the summer.  This one was from the Event of the Year in The Liberties (in my opinion) - the Ballymoney Agricultural Show:

FP4+, via the 'Blad, 60mm CB lens; Foma 313 paper.

This was one of those unscripted moments.  I'd asked the adults if I could take some shots and they indicated that would be fine.  As I walked between the pens this young boy reached up to pat his sheep.  Now the educated among you will of course recognise a Valais Blacknose sheep when you see one, but let me tell you, these things are big.  She towered over the boy! - especially hoicked up on the fence like that. I had to wing the shot, which isn't easy with the Hasselblad. I knew I didn't have long so I trusted the old "f/8 and be there".  The look on the boy’s face says it all.  I asked if it was his sheep and he was very proud to answer 'Yes'.  To be honest, this moment made my day - it's what these local shows are all about: family and livestock.  With luck you come home tired, with muck on your boots and a couple of exposed films. I love it.