Farmer/model?

The model strides confidently over to the greenhouse. She is sporting dirty beige shorts, from Target, with a ribbed chocolate tank top, 3 for $20 at Costco, and worn-out Saucony's, 300+ miles of running later. Cameras snap multiple pictures as she fills the trays with freshly mixed potting soil. She doesn't glance at photographers, she is concentrating on counting out two lettuce seeds per cell. More pictures are snapped, she tilts her head and gives a coy smile, playing with the camera.

Ahh, life as a model. If only it were that easy.

Last Thursday and Friday we had two photographers following the garden crew around trying to capture some of our sustainable practices. While the outfit I described above is completely accurate, my response to the photographers was somewhat different. I vacillated between goofy, awkward smiles, reminiscent of my early teenage years, to outright ignoring the camera. The photographers took over 1000 pictures. They shot us seeding, harvesting, fertigating, using the refractometer,and driving the electric tractor. It was both a fun and nerve racking experience, I kept wondering how I should react. Should I try and act natural? Ham it up? Smile? but not too big of a smile, right? The anxiety it caused me has squashed my budding daydream of becoming a model. Too bad, I really liked the idea of putting farmer/model on my business card.