Josh Myers was a college student when he decided to hike the Appalachian Trail—a 2,160-mile footpath between Georgia and Maine. He brought along a point-and-shoot camera to capture scenes from his adventure, which he then posted on his blog. Myers says, “People started going crazy over my pictures. They were relating to my story through photography.”
Sheep herding is not a job, it’s a lifestyle. It takes either an extreme amount of dedication or frustration. Usually both.
There are many things we choose to do with our time, but fortunate is the man who finds the one thing that causes him to forget all others.
Burt Taylor, lifelong farrier, once said, "If you want to learn to shoe horses, you have to like to shoe horses more than you like to eat when you’re hungry."
If you don’t want to get dirty then stay away from the ranch. You will find dirt and hay in places you didn’t know existed on your body. Embrace every moment of it.
While I enjoy the fast pace of a working ranch, I find many things can convey that pace or power within themselves.
You will never forget your first branding—the sounds, the smells, the constant energy; it’s done before you know it, but stays with you for a lifetime.
Self-portrait after a long day of branding and struggling to keep my head upright. I was proud (or crazy) to do it all over again the next day. Let’s ride!
Most people take themselves to a secluded beach in their mind to find their calm; I take myself to an open field with the soft lowing of distant cattle and the smell of dew on the grass in the early morning light.
As I’ve moved forward in life, it has become more evident to me that Ian Tyson sang the truth: "A man’s true joy is in the work that he loves to do."
When he got home, Myers bought a nicer camera, read all the books he could on the subject, and taught himself how to become a photographer.
The siren song of the mountains called the Michigan native out West, where a friend introduced him to the world of working ranches. He wasted no time getting his hands and boots dirty, accompanying crews on cattle drives, at brandings, and during daily chores—all the while with a camera in his hand. Myers explains, “I like to get in the thick of it. I’ll be holding down a calf or giving medication or branding while taking pictures. When I’m part of the process, I’m more likely to capture a feeling than just an image.”
Today, Myers calls southeast Idaho home, a rugged territory where the ranchers and cowboys are made of tough stuff.
“It’s a hard way of life,” says Myers of the men and women who work and run cattle in the unforgiving northern mountains. “The days are long and there’s little pay, but you have to be all in. There’s no half-assing it. Making a go at a life out here represents the values I admire: hard work, integrity, and character.”
These Western values shine through Myers’s images, which transport viewers to the middle of a drive, the back of a horse, or the action of a branding pen.
“I want people to feel like they’re there, in the moment I’m pushing the button,” he says.
“I want them to be present in the moment of all that hard work so they too can feel the sense of pride and strength of these cowboys.”
See more of Josh Myers’s photography at ranchhandphotography.com.
