During the 2023 Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois, five University of Illinois Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow students got to shadow Farm Progress communicators. We got the option to choose a journalist, photographer, or broadcaster to shadow for the day. Having not very much experience behind a camera, I chose to shadow a photographer.

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I got assigned Betty Haynes, editor of Prairie Farmer. Throughout the day I got to ride around on a golf cart with her and see what a 'day in the life' could look like for an agricultural photographer. We spent our morning doing interviews, catching events and taking general crowd photos around the grounds. I got to take part of a really interesting interview with one of the founders of Monarch, an up and coming all electric tractor company on the west coast. 

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Our afternoon was filled with press conferences, venturing around the show, and

wrapping up at the equipment demonstrations. I got to take lots of neat pictures

at the farm demonstrations of some tractors in action. It was cool to hear so 

many inspiring stories, see farmers in action, and even connect with some

familiar faces throughout the day. To the right is a photo Betty took of me at the

demonstration and below is a few ACT students and faculty with the College

of ACES dean at the University of Illinois tent.