Dalby photographer captures hard yakka of life on the family farm

Bush photographer Susan Jacobs has a knack for capturing the beauty of a golden dry landscape and the hard yakka of life on the land at her fourth generation Dalby property.

LIFE ON THE LAND: Photographer Susan Jacobs is passionate about capturing the hard yakka of life on the family farm. Merino wethers brought in for shearing season.

Photographer of the bush, Susan Jacobs is as true-blue local as it gets. A fourth-generation farmer born and raised in Dalby, Susan spent her childhood driving tractors and trucks on the family property with her dad and sisters.

Still based on the family farm just outside Dalby with her husband Ben and children Heidi and Leyton, Susan’s love of agriculture and life on the land has stayed with her. She is still keen to get out and lend a hand or capture the action from behind her lens.

Susan Jacobs Photography profile

Always a “happy hobbyist” with a camera, it wasn’t until 2016 Susan took a leap of faith to start her own business, Susan Jacobs Photography. Now, you’ll find Susan in a paddock at sunset, capturing family portraits in beautiful golden tones, or snapping promotional shots for a local business, documenting community events or capturing the love and laughter of a wedding.

ALL ABOUT EMOTION

Susan believes the key to the perfect photograph is in the emotion and the memories they spark.

“Whenever you think back to your favourite childhood moments you always remember how you felt first,” she said.

“We don’t often remember the facts of a situation, but we do remember how we felt. A photograph will join that together. “That’s why when I go through my sessions, I always try to make sure there’s a lot of emotion in them because that cements a memory quicker than an action.”

Susan Jacobs Photography - Heidi, 8, lends a hand in the shearing shed.

CAPTURING LIFE ON THE LAND

Between editing photos and raising her two “strong-willed” children, Susan loves to get out on the farm to capture the action. From the buzz of the wool shed in shearing season to the first seedlings of a crop peeping through the soil, Susan is passionate about documenting life on the land.

“A day in the life of a farmer has many aspects that should be documented – the hard yakka, the humorous, to the serious side,” she said.

“I have several albums of old photographs from past family generations of our farming practices, right back to 1923. I am continuing that for the future generations.

“It is so easy to forget what has happened in the past, until you can dive into a photograph and see all the action and feel the emotions of that day.”

Susan Jacobs Photography - Ben looks out over a crop on the family farm.

Like countless other farmers across the state, the drought has been harsh and unrelenting, but through her camera lens, Susan has always focused on the positive.

“I tend to capture the happy side of the drought, as much as I do capture the realities of it all … but to find a little bit of joy in the big scheme of the drought is probably what makes my heart sing a little bit more. It gives you that hope that one day you’re going to have a good season again,” she said. “Whether that’s a nice beautiful healthy wheat head that grew, I’ll see the positives of that outweighing the seed that didn’t.” Susan has a deep connection to the land her family has farmed for four generations, and is dedicated to documenting history as it happens, and preserving it for generations to come.

“It’s important to continue documenting things for agriculture to show future generations what it was like today.

“To honour those who walked before us, to honour how much hard work they put in, because I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the hard work of last generations,” she said.

“There is a huge amount of emotional attachment that comes with the land you live on, knowing it has been cared for by your family for four generations.”