Field Of Dreams

Every fall at this time of the year I find myself looking for harvest underway in the fields of Southern Alberta.This interest of mine in the golden fields of fall, is not only because of the fall colors that I find very appealing, but I suspect it has something to do with the fact that I originally grew up in a farming community and have fond memories of that time of my life.

I realized that if I was going to get captures of combines working in the fields, I would have to look for them in the later part of the day when the grain has dried enough for combining to get underway. Previously I had scouted out a area south of the community of Langdon (don't you love does store-fronts) that lies to the southeast of Calgary, that had the type of large operation that I had in mind for the captures I wished for.

Just south of Langdon another stop was in order, as I had forgotten about this field of sunflowers that I had driven by before while going fishing down at Mckinnon Flats on the lower bow. The afternoon sun really brings out the colors.

I was very pleased to have found this farm as it is not easy to find this many combines working in one field. My lead capture shows these five combines bearing down on me at the end of the field with one combine being dumped as they harvest Canola . It definitely is a impressive farming operation with large four-wheel-drive tractors pulling grain trailers that dump the combines, then when full, empty their loads into super-bees (trucks with trailers) that are then emptied into storage bins located nearby or at one of the elevators located in the area.

If you look closely at this photo above, you will notice that the Canola coming from the un-load auger on the combine is black in color. I'll bet most people only see canola in the form of cooking oil and have never seen it in its raw form. This is probably a farmers favorite time of the year when all the years work is brought to fruit. Definitely a good time of the year, both for the farmer and for the photographer.