…so, after finally taking a break from literally five months of endless scrolling through Facebook, and finally producing my first post here on VKHPhotos since January, at the same time promising myself I would quit what had become an obvious addiction to the Facebook algorithm cold turkey, my TV remote broke. So… without a distraction, back to Facebook it was.

Seriously, I’m not even reading anything on Facebook anymore, I’m scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and Liking every other post, and leaving Laugh emojis whenever I see some AI generated slop or crypto-scams until my eyes are glassy and my nose is about three inches away from my screen. Holy crap… I’m a mess. Anyway, enough about me…

…yeah, so these are photos of the ‘Show & Shine’ part of the ‘2025 Vankleek Hill Truck Pull and Show ‘n Shine’ Event [link] held this past June at the Vankleek Hill Fair Grounds. As well as the shined up big rigs, there were Monster Trucks jumping crushed cars [link], as well as heavily modified tractors, street-ready eighteen-wheelers, and standard as well modified diesel and gas-powered pickup trucks all pulling large weights down a track in front of the grandstands filled with onlookers, with another thousand people watching from the bleachers surrounding the track.

I’ve been taking photos of this Event since it’s 2019 Edition [link], I brought my oldest son, Victor — who was nine at the time, to the Event as well in an attempt to get him out of the house for a few minutes. He ended up hanging out with the Vankleek Hill volunteer firefighters, who were there in case someone blew up their truck while pulling the heavy weight down the track. While I was shooting the Event, I was approached by the Publisher of The Review, our local newspaper, who offered to pay me for my photos. I happily obliged, and one of my photos ended up on the Front Page of the Paper… and I made $50.

This time around, the new Publisher / co-owner of The Review saw me taking photos of the Event, and asked for some of my shots. He published one on the Front Page, and another nine photos on their website [link]. Again, I got my $50 as well. But, even cooler than that, while I was shooting I was approached by someone from the Vankleek Hill Agricultural Society, and was asked to be their Official Photographer for the upcoming Vankleek Hill Fair. Which turned out great… and, if I can get a few moments away from Facebook, I should be posting them soon. No promises.

…so, if you’re into large shiny trucks, and photos of people gazing lovingly at them, go ahead and click on the first photo to get the carousel going. Enjoy… it’s good to be productive again.