Nice to Meat Ya: Josh Comninellis

As part of the video team that shoots and edits the American Angus Association’s weekly news program, Josh says one of the most rewarding parts of this part-time gig that turned into a career opportunity is getting to know the rancher members he serves.

“I’m honored to have the opportunity to get an idea, a taste, of what they do,” he says. “I’m inspired by their attitude, work ethics and ideals, and I’m constantly taking away things that I want to apply in my own life.”

The first time Josh walked through the doors of the Association headquarters in St. Joseph, Mo., he was unemployed, soon-to-be married and knew nothing about agriculture.

“Everything I know now is new,” Josh says. Working part-time while earning his degree at Missouri Western State University, he joined the staff full-time earlier this year.

Josh says he’s learned the details, “like when someone asks for B-roll of a bull, a steer or a heifer, that they’re all different things.”

But he’s also had the chance to shape some broader philosophies on food.

“Where I grew up, it was just a given that large-scale food production is bad, and we took for granted how our food was raised and who did it,” Josh says. “Now I see people who work very hard.”

Whether he’s on-location, shooting producer interviews or listening to their stories while editing, Josh said he’s using his time and talents right where he was meant to.

“Now I’m so much more fascinated by capturing real people’s stories,” he says. Those that show up on “I Am Angus” and in other breed productions are “so beyond anything we ever made up in school.”

Fridays usually find Josh setting up cameras and lighting and later shooting the in-studio portions of the weekly TV show (which takes an average of 3 hours each week). Another day he might be doing some graphic design and digital animation, working on the show’s advertisements. Still another and he might be shooting video at an event or on a farm.

“Everybody does whatever is necessary,” he says of the team that has grown since he first started. Then the majority of the small staff shared one computer and produced video out of an old darkroom-turned office space.

“It was basically a closet,” he says. Now, they have a basement studio, office space and many more people to keep the show going. Of course, someone washing dishes upstairs can halt production downstairs where the water pipes run right by, just as a Harley zooming past or an ill-timed lawn mowing near the basement windows can do the same.

“We have some unique challenges,” he says. But the allure of CNN or FOX isn’t calling Josh away from the breed and job he’s grown to love.

Cattle videography and producer interviews isn’t exactly what Josh had in mind when he got his first camcorder and desktop publishing software in 9^th grade, but sometimes things work out in ways we could never imagine.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

PS–Catch up on this whole series with these links:

• Day 1: Ashley Pado
• Day 2: Scott Redden
• Day 3: Jesse Stucky
• Day 4: Bridget Wasser
• Day 5: Amanda Barstow
• Day 6: Josh Moore
• Day 7: Ruth Ammon
• Day 8: Bill Tackett
• Day 9: Dan Chase
• Day 10: Danielle Foster
• Day 11: Eric Mihaly
• Day 12: Jennifer Kiko
• Day 13: Mark Morgan
• Day 14: Meg and Matt Groves
• Day 15: Rod Kamph
• Day 16: Jonnie Schreffler
• Day 17: Brent Eichar
• Day 18: Alberto Diaz
• Day 19: Larry Kuehn
• Day 20: Bob Boliantz
• Day 21: David Livingston
• Day 22: Danny Harris
• Day 23: Tony Biggs
• Day 24: George Falb
• Day 25: Liz Wunderlich

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