ROUGHNECKS VS PHOTOGRAPHER

I photographed some roughnecks, as they call themselves, working on an oil rig near my house for the Detroit News. Ya, who knew there was oil drilling in southeast Michigan, I didn’t. Good guys! I always like photographing people with tough, dirty, manual labor jobs. They have tough jobs out in the cold, about 25 degrees, mud, ice with physical backbreaking work. They love it too! Maybe I like them because my dad was a tradesman working as an electrician, until he retired a year or so ago so I grew up knowing “the working man” and respect what they do. I can relate somewhat working on horse farms when I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and started learning about photography. I remember working in the winter with temps in the teens, wind chill below zero caring for the horses and working the farm. It sucked many times but in a weird way was also cool. So being a photographer does take skill but is a cushy job compared to guys like these. I don’t miss the manual labor but I do miss it. I think it also helps me in my photography with not minding to get dirty, get wet and do physically challenging thins to get a shot. Read story here.