TNJN/Ball, Brandon
published: May 05 2008 02:07 AM
updated:: September 03 2008 06:59 PM
Introduction:
This project came out of a desire to share my experiences on a dairy farm as part of a weekend trip to Lafollette, Tenn., taken by Robert Heller's Advanced Photography class. The purpose of the trip was to document what we saw for publication in a special insert in the local paper called "Eyes On Lafollette," which we designed and produced for a class project. I spent the weekend with Matt Mitchell, a 19-year-old with a very unique passion which you will learn about below. Hope you enjoy!
Transcript:
On the outside, Matt Mitchell looks like an ordinary 19-year-old. He goes to school part-time, struggles with homework, hangs out with friends and helps around the house. There is something huge, however, that separates Mitchell from his peers. That something is a 2000-pound award-winning dairy cow. As a toddler, Mitchell took an interest in farming and first started showing cows when he was two, which quickly developed into a passion for the dairy farm he now owns and operates. Mitchell built the farm with the support and approval of his parents, and started selling his cows as a way to keep the lights on. "This isn't your typical dairy farm," Mitchell said. "You don't make much money off of milk with eighteen cows, so I breed them to show them, and then I sell them. I take a lot of pride in my cows and I take good care of them, which you don't always see at bigger farms. I love it though, and I feel like God called me to do this, so I do the best job that I can. It's been good for me."
**Side Note:
If you would like to see the individual pictures, please move your mouse over to the slideshow window, and select the four boxes icon as shown in the image below.
Once you have clicked on this icon, it will give you the option of viewing the individual pictures, which you can then browse at your leisure.
bball@utk.edu
This project came out of a desire to share my experiences on a dairy farm as part of a weekend trip to Lafollette, Tenn., taken by Robert Heller's Advanced Photography class. The purpose of the trip was to document what we saw for publication in a special insert in the local paper called "Eyes On Lafollette," which we designed and produced for a class project. I spent the weekend with Matt Mitchell, a 19-year-old with a very unique passion which you will learn about below. Hope you enjoy!
Transcript:
On the outside, Matt Mitchell looks like an ordinary 19-year-old. He goes to school part-time, struggles with homework, hangs out with friends and helps around the house. There is something huge, however, that separates Mitchell from his peers. That something is a 2000-pound award-winning dairy cow. As a toddler, Mitchell took an interest in farming and first started showing cows when he was two, which quickly developed into a passion for the dairy farm he now owns and operates. Mitchell built the farm with the support and approval of his parents, and started selling his cows as a way to keep the lights on. "This isn't your typical dairy farm," Mitchell said. "You don't make much money off of milk with eighteen cows, so I breed them to show them, and then I sell them. I take a lot of pride in my cows and I take good care of them, which you don't always see at bigger farms. I love it though, and I feel like God called me to do this, so I do the best job that I can. It's been good for me."
**Side Note:
If you would like to see the individual pictures, please move your mouse over to the slideshow window, and select the four boxes icon as shown in the image below.
Once you have clicked on this icon, it will give you the option of viewing the individual pictures, which you can then browse at your leisure.
bball@utk.edu
Comments
Lisa Gary commented, on May 5, 2008 at 9:46 p.m.:
Incredibly cool audio, photography, reporting and story. Incredibly cool young man to be so together and accomplished at 19. I really enjoyed this.
court commented, on May 6, 2008 at 12:02 p.m.:
I am from the same town as Matt and went to high school with him. You picked a great subject! You don't usually see stories about people like Matt and it proved to be really interesting!