Dustin Mielke
Some stuff about me. But not everything. That would be boring.
I don’t really care for long, introspective biographies with musings on the intellectual and artistic meanings of my photos. Or what it means to photograph. I don’t even like writing about myself in the third person. But maybe you want to know who I am anyway. So here it goes.
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Originally from Montana, Dustin still thinks he’s half-crazy that he gave up living 1.5 hours from Glacier National Park and traded it for living in a place where “hiking” is like walking through someone’s pasture. However, Oklahoma has better Mexican food and nicer winters, so hey, it’s not that bad.
Dustin has been taking photos since he was a grade-schooler in 4-H, if you want to get technical. But let’s face it, that 110-format camera was pretty bad. And Kodak Gold 100 wasn’t very good in 135 format, much less 110. So after a few … or many … really bad photos, he put down the congratulations-for-selling-lots-of-candy-here’s-your-prize camera, and didn’t seriously pick it back up until 2004. And by “pick it back up,” we mean photography in general. Not the 110 camera. It’s long-gone.
As a graduate of Oklahoma State University’s Agricultural Communications program, Dustin learned his true passion for photography in a photo class. It was here, driving around northern Oklahoma in winter, stopping by random farms in his little car with out-of-state-plates and asking farmers and ranchers if he could take photos of them, Dustin thought this could be fun. In retrospect, that’s a weird idea of “fun.”
Nowadays, Dustin’s day job is that of content creator for a farm organization in Oklahoma. And he still drives around Oklahoma in a car, taking photos of farmers and ranchers. It’s just slightly less random these days.
Favorite numbers:
f/2.8, ISO 100, 24mm, 72, 3-7-77
Favorite photographers:
Favorite Places to shoot photos:
Chongqing, China; Glacier National Park, Montana; The Montana Highline; Western Kansas; The Oregon Coast; Any place he can make people say, “Wow, I didn’t think that would make for a good photo at all.”