What began as a love for her beef cattle operation has evolved into an internship and now, a job after college for ISU student Lauren Robinson.

Robinson, senior in Agricultural Communications, grew up on a beef cattle operation in Coggon and has been showing her livestock for 11 years.

At the 2006 Iowa State Fair, Robinson won the award for Grand Champion Simmental Heifer and met Linde Sutherly, owner of Linde’s Livestock Photos of New Carlisle, Ohio.

The next year, Robinson talked to Sutherly and asked if she could intern for Linde’s Livestock Photos as a livestock photographer.

Sutherly said yes.

“I knew that I had to have an internship in order to graduate, and I wanted something that dealt with livestock,” Robinson said. “I really liked it that I wasn’t going to be sitting at a desk — that I would be able to travel and be around livestock.”

As a livestock photographer, Robinson takes photos at various livestock shows across the nation and “shoots” award winners and their animals. The photos are then sold to the winners and their families.

If someone asks Linde’s to take photos on their farm as part of a livestock auction, those services are available too.

Being on the opposite side of the camera is a different experience, Robinson said.

“My favorite part of this whole career is being able to capture the smile of that kid when he just gets picked for grand champion steer, and being able to capture that smile on his face and how proud he is,” she said. “It’s really neat because I know the emotions he’s feeling because I’ve been there and I’ve done that. To be able to provide that for someone else is something that I really take pride in.”

Robinson has had to miss some days of classes due to traveling for livestock shows in different states, but she said it’s a fair trade-off.

“I’m gaining knowledge that a classroom can’t offer,” she said. “I balance it out. If this is something that I’m really going to do, then I can kind of justify missing a class.

There’s just so much more knowledge and experience out there than a classroom can provide.

Robinson has been hired to be a part of the livestock photography team with Linde’s Livestock Photos team when she graduates in May.

“It’s all about working with good people,” Sutherly said of the hiring. “That’s what’s made the decision really, really easy for me to have her come work with us.”

Within the next year, Robinson will travel to Michigan, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Arkansas, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

Sutherly said she has sent Robinson out to shoot livestock shows on her own.

“I have confidence in her and I wouldn’t send her anywhere that I didn’t think she could handle,” she said.

Robinson encourages students to pursue their interests.

“Don’t be afraid to ask, because if I wouldn’t have asked I never would have found this,” she said. “I took a chance and I asked her, and it all worked out. Just take a chance, and if you want to do something, do it because the only thing you’ll ever regret is if you didn’t do it.”

For more information, go to www.lindeslivestockphotos.com.