FARM DREAMS: A boy with an eye picks up a camera

Pulling the farmer and his son on a seed drill, the big draft horses turn directly into my 400 millimeter lens, filling the frame top to bottom with hooves and horsehair.

The Canon EOS Mark III catches Tristan Klesick's face in the narrow gap between the horses as they kick up dust and small clods in the deep, tilled soil.

A smaller, younger face peers out from one side of the horses. It is Andrew, 10. He sees the telephoto lens and his face lights up with excitement and perhaps the pang of divided interests.

The boy loves working with his dad behind the horses, but he wouldn't mind being behind that big camera.

From the beginning of the Farm Dreams series, Andrew has been interested in the photography. He uses my backup camera, an older EOS 1D, to practice during days I'm at the farm. He follows me around and asks a gazillion questions, including some I can't answer in a short version.

An experienced home-school mom, Joelle Klesick recognizes that her son could take an interest in any number of attractions. If not photography, it could be chain saws, she says. Still, she adds, it is great for a kid to learn whenever he gets the chance.

"The truth is, he's something of an opportunist," Joelle says.

What she may not realize is that that's almost a perfect description of a photojournalist.

BEST OF SHOW

In late May, Andrew focuses on a dandelion puffball through a 35 mm lens set at F11. In the background, a farm field stretches across the horizon. As his dad, Tristan, makes a pass on a tractor, Andrew trips the shutter.

Near the chicken coop in June, Andrew makes a nice photo of his sister, Emily, holding his baby brother, Stephen, while she visits Miss Moo. It's one of those moody Northwest photos marked by a charcoal sky and rich, earthy tones beneath. It's good in color, but it would be great in black and white.

In July, Andrew goes through his photographs on the family computer, deciding what to enter in the Silvana and Stanwood fairs. His mom takes a CD of his favorite ones to town and has them printed.

When the Silvana Fair judging is finished, Andrew takes home four blue ribbons and one for "Best of Show." A week later, when the Stanwood Fair judging is complete, he collects two more blue ribbons and one "Special Award."

The two top awards are for the dandelion photo.

Andrew told me last spring that his favorite thing to do was drive a tractor.

So I ask him, again, following his successful summer of photography and all his awards, what his favorite thing is now.

Without hesitation, he answers, "Drive a tractor."

Life is as it should be for one 10-year-old farm boy.