The Last Word

The Last Word

A Sheep Producer With A Photographer’s Eye

KYLE PARTAIN
Sheep Industry News Editor

The October Sheep Industry News is my favorite issue of the year thanks to the long-running ASI Photo Contest. It provides me with an opportunity to showcase our talented producers in a unique way – through their photos.

I’m always quick to point out to producers when I visit their farms or ranches that I’m a writer who takes pictures. I am not a photographer; there is a difference.

Don’t believe me? Then just look at the photos that appear from pages 12 to 31. One name you’ll notice multiple times in this issue is Ashley Carreiro-Loyd.

The daughter of California sheep producers Robert and Macrina Carreiro, Ashley works a full-time job with an ag-related insurance agency, helps with her family’s large-scale sheep operation and shoots photos on the side. Ashley’s husband, KC, runs his own business doing diesel repair and fabrication work. The couple is expecting a child in January.

A self-taught photographer, Ashley’s won something in the ASI Photo Contest in five of the last six years, including two firsts and a third this year. She’s passionate about the sheep operation, and hopes to one day take over for her father. That passion shows in her photography.

“My mom says all the time, I don’t know what you’re looking for when you take pictures,” Ashley said. “It’s difficult to explain, it’s just something you have to have an eye for. I remember the picture that was on the (Sheep Industry News) cover in 2014. The dog was out there with the sheep, and I was just waiting and waiting. I was about the leave when they finally came together, and it turned out to be a great photo.”

Ashley’s first “real” camera was a Christmas gift from her parents during her senior year in high school. She’d always loved to take photos, and new equipment motivated her even more. Everything was fair game: the sheep, her family, friends. Now, she’s getting paid to shoot portraits and weddings, and anything else she can find.

But the sheep will always have a special place in her portfolio.