My 10 year old son is raising goats this year and is a member of the local 4-H club. I knew practically nothing about 4-H other than the fact that it catered to kids who want to keep animals but, now that he’s come to be involved, I’m left enormously impressed. As a service organisation and as a way for kids to develop leadership skills, it’s great and there’s a whole lot more to it than looking after goats.
Take this shot, for example. While it probably plays into the 4-H ”farm animal” stereotype, it was taken on a field trip I took with the 4-H photography group last weekend (I’m tutoring this year). We took a trip to Jack Mountain Ranch near Wimberley to shoot landscapes and animals for an upcoming competition (yes, you can be very active in 4-H without having to own any animals whatsoever).
Having got the animals out of the way, our group will be running a 6 month project to document our local community with a view to holding an exhibition next summer. This should be fun!