North Fork Tractor

There's one assignment every year that I outwardly dread, yet quietly enjoy. A high school on the North Fork of the Island, a few towns past Riverhead, the county seat, does a picture of the senior class standing on the rocks of the inlet. Two busloads and a few cars, two hundred or so kids, for the last four years I've been meeting them at the beach.

For some reason, this year I was told the job would be at 10AM instead of the usual 11:30. Of course, this was wrong, as I found out on the way. But this being the early fall, I knew an early morning on the North Fork would be worth savoring, and now I had an extra hour and a half.

I'd planned on shooting only the IR camera this day, both as a self-assignment and to keep my own work separate from any school pictures. This tractor, with its background of clouds in the photo above, was a perfect subject. The first picture is equally arresting, with the road and poles rising behind the spindly-wheeled machine, and the distant building with its solitary tree off to the left.