The “Story Behind the Story” of ACN’s 2022 Photo of the Year
By ACN Member Lorne McClinton
Everything that Murray Johnston and Wendy Hogarth do at Muskoka Lakes Farm and Winery in Bala, Ontario revolves around cranberries. They sell wine and other products made from the cranberries they grow on their farm and offer all manner of cranberry-based tourism experiences. Since everything in their business revolves around different ways to market cranberries, I decided I wanted to look for an opportunity to photograph them from a high angle, completely surrounded and almost dwarfed by a sea of cranberries before I left home.
Normally I try not to have a very strong pre-visualized way to photograph someone before I arrive on location. I find that if I do it can blind me from seeing what’s in front of me. However, this photograph turned out to be the exception that proves the rule.
Wendy Hogarth and Murray Johnston stand in a bog of cranberries at Muskoka Lakes Farm and Winery
in Bala, Ontario. This image, titled “Wendy & Murray,” was named ACN’s 2022 Photo of the Year
and was taken by ACN Member Lorne McClinton.
(Courtesy: Lorne McClinton)
The couple had set aside one cranberry field (called a bog) so tourists could wade through a sea of cranberries. So, it was easy to convince them to wade into the cranberries for a series of photos.
While I took a series of ground level images of them, this point of view didn’t quite let me get the image I saw in my head. I asked for their patience, realizing they were under time constraints, quickly set up my drone and captured the image that won. Sometimes an idea works out exactly like you planned it.
Lorne has worked as a freelance writer and photographer since 1982 and has specialized in agriculture since 1995. His work has appeared in a wide variety of agricultural, news, and business magazines in Canada and abroad. He covers Canadian agriculture for The Furrow from his home on Wolfe Island, Ontario.
McClinton’s work has been recognized with multiple awards from both the ACN and the Canadian Farm Writers Federation. He is one of a handful of writers and photographers to receive both Master Writer and Master Photographer honors.