This photo by Lorne McClinton won the 2023 Star Prize for Photography by telling the story of cranberry farmers Wendy Hogarth and Murray Johnston in a glance.
Sometimes a great photograph just falls into your lap; all you need to do is point your camera in the right direction and click the shutter release. Other times, you must plan what you are going to do in advance. Wendy and Murray, my 2023 Star Photo winner is an example of the latter.
Whenever I’m going to photograph a story, I always ask myself three questions. First, what story am I trying to tell? Second, what image will best tell that story? Third, what do I need to do to get that photo? The first two questions clarify in my mind what images I’m looking for, the third involves all the technical considerations I need to keep in mind.
The subjects of my award winner, Wendy Hogarth and Murray Johnston, own and operate Muskoka Lakes Farm and Winery in Bala, Ontario, Canada. So, the answer to my first question was I was to illustrate a story about a couple whose entire business revolves around the cranberries. They sell wine and other products made from the cranberries and offer all manner of cranberry-based experiences.
Often, I’ll wait until I’m on location before I try to determine what photograph will best illustrate a particular story. My reasoning is that I don’t want the image I previsualized to become so strong that it doesn’t allow me to see what’s in front of me. This photograph turned out to be one of the exceptions to that rule. Since everything in their business revolves around different ways to market cranberries, the answer to my second guiding question was to look for an opportunity to photograph them surrounded and perhaps dwarfed by a sea of cranberries.
I had a concept and my research provided a location. I learned the couple sets aside one cranberry field (called a bog) so tourists could experience what it was like to wade through a sea of cranberries. It was relatively easy to convince them to wade into the cranberries to pose for the photo I had envisioned.
I started out taking a series of ground level images of them, but this point of view didn’t quite let me get the image I saw in my head. I asked for their patience, realizing they were under time constraints, quickly set up my drone and captured the image that won. Sometimes an idea works out exactly like you planned it.