Phrases like, “right rear ahead half,” and “head up, weight back,” are only heard in one setting: dairy cattle photography. And when these instructions are given from behind the lens, Cybil Fisher’s team knows exactly what to do with the animal for a perfect photo.
Fisher says her work today is a result of 25 years of photography experience, and it’s not the career path she initially set out for. She grew up showing horses and says, “I was going to be a vet, but I had been helping Agri-Graphics for several years, took a semester off, worked there, and never went back.”
Fisher’s start was in the days of film, printing black and white prints in the lab, and eventually learning how to develop film. While she learned a lot of those aspects on the job, she made the transition to digital when she began her own business in 2002.
The Road to Quality
Even after a lot of hands-on experience with dairy photography, Fisher says it took several years of being on her own before she felt her work was consistent.
“We always say it takes five to seven years of actively photo-ing full time to get to every scenario you have with owners and cattle and how to set them up and different levels of their functionality, and how to recognize all those traits and put it together.”
Artists are often their own biggest critic, and Fisher affirms, “It took five years before I felt I had made my first good photo, and another three after that until I felt consistent in my quality.”
Today, Fisher and her team travel all over the U.S. to farms and dairy cattle shows. For large shows, she keeps the same team in place as much as possible.
“That way, we’ve all worked with each other, we have a sense of everybody’s moods and how they work together and just keep the dynamics consistent,” she says. “I try to make sure it’s a well-oiled machine, especially for this show!”
Technical Knowledge
Fisher has also owned an elite herd of Holsteins and Jerseys. The well-known cattle photographer says her technical knowledge of dairy cattle is essential to her high-quality work, and she sticks to that strength.
“I have always been exclusively dairy,” Fisher explains. “I’ve done a couple of beef, but I don’t have the technical background in beef to really understand the nuances associated with that style of photography.”
Another testament to the quality of her work, Fisher says the shows get busier every year. Along with the team that helps work with the cattle at each farm and show, she also employs a second, full-time photographer, Lea McCullough. Fisher’s expertise in both dairy cattle and photography, as well as attention to detail have built a great demand for her services worldwide and at WDE.
